The Bureau: Complete Season 2 [DVD]

Fear that a sequel might not live up to the success of the original must run through the minds of those involved with a production, especially through the mind of the writer of the drama. In this case it’s Éric Rochant, the man who created and wrote the series. I don’t know what he’s feeling now after Season Two of The Bureau has been written, produced and filmed, but I think he ought to feel proud. In my view both seasons are masterpieces.The Bureau is not an entertainment per se. It’s intriguing, challenging, fascinating, and draws us in as viewers. But it’s far, far away from the comic-book stuff of James Bond and other action spy heroes. It’s not fantasy. Recent terrorist atrocities in Manchester and London remind us of the tenor of the times we’re living through. France and Belgium just the same: Paris (Charlie Hebdo, Bataclan), Nice (a lorry ploughing through an innocent crowd of Bastille Day holiday revellers), Brussels (scores murdered at its airport). The threats are not imagined. They are real and continue.What protects the public from such acts of terror? Law enforcement. But the enforcers themselves depend for the most part on detailed and painstaking intelligence that is hard to come by. This is true because we can’t read the minds of others. We can only watch patterns of behaviour and try to anticipate where these might lead. It’s the job of intelligence agents to be clairvoyants and soothsayers. They read the runes and foretell the future. Or try to. They save lives before they’ll be lost. They try to protect the state, society, community, institutions. They’re the first line of defence against assaults on our democracies and freedoms.Their heroic work is hardly seen in the light of day. Most of it unfolds in cramped and dark rooms. Information comes via interrogations, computer networks, satellite feeds, listening devices, CCTV or hidden cameras. Enemies of the state and people are clever, sophisticated, well organised. They’re hard to track and read. The agents who tail them, or try to, are thus in potential continuous danger, their high-stakes game one for high rollers, great risk takers only.Guillaume Debailly is one of these. He’s an accidental double agent who serves more than one master. Accidental because his professional and emotional lives are complicated. He is no traitor. In fact, quite the opposite — a patriot who serves his country faithfully. He’s a defender of its famously hard-won freedoms. He knows what the Revolution of 1789 did and how it changed the world. He’s proud of France and of being French. But he’s also loyal to a woman he loves. He first loved her in Damascus when he went undercover there for six years as a teacher and poet of French literature. There he was Paul Lefebvre, not Guillaume Debailly. His Syrian love is now in Paris and endangered. He cannot protect and save her as Debailly, only as Lefebvre. But Lefebvre is dead, his identity discarded as far as his employer the DGSE is concerned. Debailly would have it that way too if he could, but he can’t. He can only protect her by going outside the DGSE (Directorate-General of External Security, the French version of MI6), by resurrecting the identity of Lefebvre. This leads him to involvement with the CIA, something he’s loathe to do but must. He needs the American spooks to help him protect Nadia, his Syrian lover, because if he loses her he loses everything, her life on the line because of him. Thus he’ll do everything to save her, walking a dangerous knife-edge between his dual identities.Mathieu Kassovitz, who plays Debailly/Lefebvre, is magnificent. He’s acting to be sure, but so intensely it feels as though we’re watching a documentary of an actual spy at work. Uncanny, life-like. Or how one imagines the world of espionage to be. James Bond had his tuxedos, martinis, yachts and bikinied beach girls. Debailly has none of this. His days are fraught, his nights lonely. He thinks and worries a lot. He also writes a lot — privately, surreptitiously. He keeps a journal, a long confessional love letter to the 19-year-old daughter he loves but who isn’t allowed to know anything about him as a man. Instead, enigma, mystery, ghost to her, a loving father but a stranger. It’s always been this way for him, heartbreaking and lonely. The journal thus becomes his emotional will and testament to her, his soul finally bared, his spirit freed.But he cannot write such a confession to the other woman he loves — to Nadia for whom he risks everything. His only way is to carry on in isolation to protect her from political evil.The main thrust of the drama shows the ever-deepening complications of his loves. These mirror the ever-deepening complications of his espionage, the two of them irredeemably entwined. He’s a clever, cunning, meticulous man, a strategist and gambler who plays chess in his spare time, but he — just like all of us — is powerless to control unfolding events. He can only do his best to sway them toward directions he would like them to take.I could write reams about the detailed actions that go on in the series, or about the many complex and interesting persons with whom Debailly interacts, especially his colleagues. But these details would take up too much space in a review, and anyway the production is meant to be seen and appreciated, not read about. I can only speak for myself. If I could give the series 10 stars, I would. Mathieu Kassovitz as Debailly is in a rarified orbit of acting. The world needs to see more of his talent. Thus it’s wonderful to know a third season is now being filmed and will air later this year in France. I’m not sure when the DVD will be made available but I’ll preorder it when Amazon announces it.The series may not be your cup of tea, but it’s my fine wine. I sipped it slowly, attentively, and loved the heady sensation it gave me.

Season two of this excellent intelligence procedural set in the French DGSE. The French State is hunting Islamic terrorists in the borders of Syria, but who is fooling who? Malotru (our "hero") is still struggling to free his lover from the Syrians who are, in return, trying to gain advantage and Phénomène is in action in Iran. The violence and cynicism of the world of the modern spy is well explored together with an excellent level of tricks, dirty tricks and counter-tricks that fit in the best tradition of John Le Carré. Unlike many French productions the acting is naturalistic and the cast not full of the usual cast of good looking young women and lots of older men. To me the most interesting character is Henri Duflot who appears at times to be a plodding fonctionnaire but can be just as effective as his other staff in this dirty world.

I previously wrote a daming review of Season 1 based on viewing the first and part of the second episodes. I was sorely disapointed and irritated by the realism of the intelligence tradecraft and the whole operational feel: unrealistic in the extreme and most un le Carre-like, if that is an adjective.However, I returned to the series in a moment of weakness and persevered. I have to admit now that, whilst my overidding comment on realism remains unshakeable, the enjoyment of seeing the characters unfold and the pace and grip of the story have won me over. I will continue and might even take a look at series 3 and 4. Vive la France.....

I only found out about this amazing French series through Amazon recommendations, having bought Spiral DVDs. It is not well known, having not been widely available, so is somewhat of a cult in the UK. It should be much more widely viewed though because it's just so good! BBC4 really missed a trick by not picking it up and giving it wider viewing.Mathieu Kassovitz is a superb actor anyway (have loved him since the 90s) but he excels himself in this. Although all the acting is brilliant!I really want to get my hands on s3 and s4 but the prices are prohibitive, to date...Will keep looking for them though, because I'm dying to find out how the story pans out for Malotru, Phenomène and the rest.

NO SPOILERS!First this is a copy with English subtitles - they just have to be enabled in the menu.Secondly this series (having proved itself in France and won a bigger budget) takes our band of agents and support personnel into a wider physical world as well as exploring the claustrophobic one they all inhabit.It does this while still continuing and developing many of the threads established in the first series and yet adds more action.Hopefully it will continue its intelligent and seemingly ‘authentic’ path without going the same way as ‘24’ or ‘Homeland.

Stunning performances, beautifully realised. A real pleasure to watch, I can't praise this series highly enough, this is drama, the world it creates is highly believable but with the overarching strengths of dramatic licence. It's not a documentary but it does have that edge which suggests that someone in the development stages knows a lot about the real thing. My one caveate is the casting of the CIA agent and his American co-agents, I feel that they are the weakest caste members and by this I mean least convincing of the characters, still can't wait for series three.Mathieu Kassovitz is quite remarkable, a contained yet vivid performance. Top Marks and a lesson for all those actors who chew up the set.

En tout premier lieu, un coup de chapeau à Mathieu Kassovitz. Il emporte le morceau et justifie à lui seul que l'on regarde cette série. Il est exceptionnel d'intensité, de simplicité et de retenue. Il fait partie de ces comédiens que la caméra affectionne. Allez savoir pourquoi il a une belle "matière" cinématographique. Il est plus net, plus "piqué" que les autres. C'est une injustice ! Il fait penser au Pacino des bons jours et c'est probablement l'un de nos meilleurs acteurs. Les seconds rôles sont bien venus, surprenants et attachants, choisis à rebours des conventions. Deux points noirs cependant : Sara Giraudeau, un peu agaçante, très maniérée et toujours dans le registre du lamento et Léa Drucker, insupportable et ridicule en psychanalyste agent double. Elle vaut son pesant de neuroleptiques. Mais ce sont vraiment des détails qui ne retirent rien à la qualité de l'ensemble. Le scénario est remarquablement tricoté malgré la masse de situations complexes à gérer. Il avance en proposant toujours des solutions inattendues et parfois glaçantes. En plus la production ne recule pas à la dépense et ça se voit. Les paysages et les lieux font vrai, ça n'est jamais bricolé. Le récit y gagne en épaisseur et en force. De la grande télévision qui ne crétinise pas le spectateur.

On m'a offert récemment la saison 1 de cette série que je ne connaissais pas du tout (pas abonné à Canal plus).J'ai été absolument scotché par cette série. Les histoires racontées sont passionnantes. Les personnages, tout-à-fait fascinants, évoluent dans un monde où tous les coups sont permis et où la confiance ne règne décidément pas, même entre pays dits "amis". Les sujets et problématiques, très actuelles, évoquées (Djihad, Daesh, Syrie, etc ...) rendent le scénario extrêmement crédible. On reste impressionné par l'utilisation importante de toutes les technologies disponibles pour mener à bien ou non les différentes actions.On se plait à admirer les comportements et/ou le courage des divers personnages devant l'adversité et les risques que leur métier leur fait courir.Les personnages joués par Mathieu Kassowitz, JP Darroussin , Sara Giraudeau sont excellents.Une mention particulière pour une actrice que je découvre, Zineb Triki, et qui me semble avoir de l'avenir et du potentiel devant elle;Vivement la saison 3 !

etonnant pour une serie francaise mais c est une serie de tres bonne qualite ,et tres bien construite ,un casting intelligent et original, qui nous permet de s'impregner tres vite de l ambiance et de la vivre ,bref ,enfin une serie qui nous fait decouvrir un monde fait d hommes et de femmes (humour aussi) de chair et de sang et non de super heros extraordinaires ,une fenetre un peu plus ouverte sur les modalites de ces vies que l on devinait ...interessant !

Les premiers épisodes un peu calmes, mais ensuite ça démarre très fort.Je ne sais pas qui a fait le casting, mais là chapeau. Tous les acteurs sont bons. Pas mal de têtes qu'on ne voit pas d'habitude.Kassovitz au dessus du lot, mais Jean-Pierre Daroussin est quand même excellentissime. Plusieurs filles très bien, là aussi différentes de ce qu'on voit partout.La série est sobre et efficace. ca tient aux dialogues et aux acteurs.Bon, j'arrête vous avez compris que j'ai vraiment aimé.Eventuellement, ça peut ne pas plaire à ceux qui recherche de l'action car il y en a très peu.

Ceci est une brillante série d'espionnage, très à jour, avec une analyse détaillée du fonctionnement des services secrets français. Enfin une version française du travail de nos service de défense dans un monde incroyablement complexe, avec une situation géopolitique bouleversée par les intérêts dans le Moyen-Orient. Cette niche des séries d'espionnage a été trop longtemps occupées par le Américains, avec très grand talent d'ailleurs.Heureusement que la deuxième saison est sous-titrée en anglais, ce qui manquait à la première saison en DVD et permet à mes amis anglais d'en profiter. Ceci est dommage alors que cette première saison vient d'être démarrée sur une chaîne cryptée en Angleterre.Le Bureau des légendes - Saison 2