How about a six-part TV series that has a kidnapping, multiple murders, secret service agents, plenty of twists and turns, great action sequences, and some terrific dramatic scenes. Adapted from the Harlan Coben novel, French TV has made the book No Second Chance into a rather well done series. They re-titled it to Une Chance de Trop for the French Market. And the best news is that you can see it on your Netflix Streaming service right now.
The star is Alexandra Lamy who plays Dr. Alice Lambert. For the record, she has 48 acting credits, but unless you live in France, she’s likely to be new to you. Also for the record, she was formerly married to French actor Jean Dujardin who is most famous for his role in The Artist – a film that walked off with an armful of Oscars including Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Director. But I digress.
Here’s the lead into the film. We begin at a birthday party for a baby less than a year old. This is Tara, Dr. Alice’s daughter. All seems idyllic. But then…..days later….
Alice, the doctor, is shot in the back in her home, her husband is murdered and her infant daughter kidnapped. Faced with inept police, who at times suspect her, she begins her own hunt for her baby and the culprits.
That’s the thumbnail description of the film on IMDB. But that is the kind of sped up version. We actually see her get shot, but we don’t see by who.
We find her in the ICU of a Paris hospital. The police hover around her ready to pounce and ask some questions.
What can you tell us?
I was preparing a bottle for Tara, and now I wake up here. Where is my husband? Where is my baby?
We’ll get to that in a minute…do you remember anything else?
What day is it?
It is Sunday–
So this happened to me yesterday…?
No, it is 8 days later, you’ve been in a coma.
She’s been shot in the back, and the bullet passed through her chest. Her reality is simple – she’s lost her family, been shot, and she learns all this 8 days after it happened.
From there, as you can easily imagine, things barely progress at all when it comes to solving her case. Which probably means we need more characters. We’ll meet the sister of Dr. Alice. The girls used to be close, but now the younger sister has a serious drug addiction and has fallen in with the wrong crowd,
We’ll meet Alice’s in-laws, or said another way, her dead husband’s parents, the Delaunays. They are filthy rich and live in castle or chateau if you prefer. Their moral compass is a bit off.
Then there’s the cops. Hippolyte Giradot plays Detective Cyril Tessier. He’s kind of a pompous ass. His partner, who is way more effective than you might think is called Detective Florence Romano. She’s played by Charlotte Des George, and she’s rather pleasant to watch.
There’s the old boy friend who comes out of the shadows after 15 years. His name is Richard Millot and he’s played by French Actor Pascal Elbé. He’s a part-time cop, a liar, and a thief. He will have you wondering if he’s the good guy who has ridden into town to save the good Doctor and help find the killer and the missing baby. Or if he’s something else.
Another guy we have to watch is Dr Alice’s neighbor and lawyer. He’s called Louis Barthel (played by Lionel Abelanski). He;s a successful criminal defense lawyer, and the police detest him. We might call him the ‘good’ lawyer in this series, if for no other reason than to separate him from the ‘bad’ lawyer.
Who goes by the name of Stephané Bacard.
There’s the kidnappers, who we first see in a great sequence when the ransom money is delivered. This provides an excellent cat and mouse game between Dr. Alice who carries a bag of money, provided by the Delauneys, the cops who are surreptitiously following, ready to grab the perps, and the perps themselves. This was filmed in and around the Trocadero, a famous Parisian landmark that faces the Eiffel Tower.
Which leads me to say that this film is all about location shooting. Paris has never looked better. Even the French detectives have an office that is in the neighborhood of and faces the Eiffel Tower. Most of the time, in French cinema, the cops are working out of dingy offices, but not this time.
We will even get to travel to San Diego where we will find American actress Dana Delany with a role in the series. Her on-screen husband is played by none other than the novel’s author – Harlan Coben.
Speaking of the novel, as Coban wrote it, the lead, meaning the doctor was a man, called Dr. Marc Seidman. In this TV series, Dr. Lambert is a woman. I’ve not read the book, so that’s about all I can tell those of you who have read the book.
The TV series works rather well, at least for me. There’s enough action and suspense to keep you involved throughout. Six episodes of nearly an hour each. I’m calling this a series well worth your time. From a best-selling novel to a tv series set in Paris and environs; this is a trip you will enjoy.
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