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Storyline
Villefranche is a small town without phone reception on the edge of a mysterious forest. The number of inhabitants is dwindling but there's a sharp rise in crime. Police inspector Laurène, once the victim of a crime herself, keeps on discovering fresh corpses.
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Crime by Nature
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Did You Know?
Trivia
The Portuguese version is named 'Sem Sinal' - it means 'No Signal'.
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Goofs
The Police Chief's rank is Major, but the prosecutor continually calls her Captain in the English dubbed version.
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While I'm new to French crime tv, I'm quickly becoming schooled. I'm just afraid that if this is standard stuff, I can't imagine much else being this good, let alone better. Nevertheless, I'm afraid that the inexplicable translation from Zone Blanche to "Black Spot" (in the US) could result in missed viewers who came up with wrong programs in their searches. This was my favorite discovery of 2017.
The assortment of characters are blended into a very believable ensemble as not one single one of them plays a disposable role. Some, who seem passive throughout, turn out to be critical antagonists eventually--it's a neat trick. The combination of the fantastic fog and woods environment coupled with an overt, but not overplayed, paranormal presence gives the viewer no shortage of suspense and chills. Watch it in a dark room without distractions.
This is what early Twin Peaks was. Undoubtedly, Lynch takes no credit as inspiration for and presumably has no connection with this production but, being a number one Lynch fan for 35 years now, I think this show's creators have outdone themselves and out-Lynched David, himself. This time. 9 stars.
EDIT: Having added S2 I note the following changes. Interpersonal relationships between main characters intensify playing out mostly good. The oddball Siriani tends to gradually grow into his inevitable acceptance of life in Villefranche while Sheriff Weiss and Nonours experience turmoil and threats to their curious buddy-cop relationship. More notable is the much heavier handed treatment of the supernatural component in this season compared to S1. In S1 the ghosts were delicately treated here and there in the landscape, never overdone, but, in S2, producers have ramped the monster arc and Weiss' accompanying obsession onto center stage, which has taken time away from the single episode plots involving the very strange and entertaining curious Villefranche local folk. There is also a short mythical historic arc about first century Roman occupation of the locale intended to tie the paranormal business into current day Villefranche. This doesn't provide much. In all, I feel producers aimed to compose all the various threads to support the main arc of Weiss chasing her monster. This changed the show from an anthology with underlying connecting threads to a single long movie split into episodes. I liked season 1 better. Still, I love the characters, and hope for more from these writers.