Imagine that you are a police inspector in complicated and intense Marseille, the same one that Depardieu was trying to control. Naturally, such criminal intensity is tiring, so Inspector Alex Hugo decides to request a transfer to a small, fictitious town in the Southern Alps, calm and charming…, but what would be of a police series in which everything was calm and charming? “Pas possible”, its creators would say. Therefore, as soon as Inspector Alex, now a rural police officer, arrives, the first body appears. Hello, regular job! Goodbye, pleasant retirement! Life, it sucks.
Of course, if a police series without murders is not conceivable, it is also inconceivable that the protagonist does not solve the case. is no exception, helped, of course, by the head of the local police, the veteran commissioner Angelo Batalla, played by a very seasoned Lionnel Astier, with nearly half a century of work behind him.
Add to the indispensable crimes some spectacular landscapes that our protagonist will travel endlessly, encouraged by his second most important vocation, that of a tireless hiker, and the result is an entertaining series without reaching the quality of The Wire, Los Soprano, closest, . Nobody and nothing is perfect.
And if we are talking about an impressive nature, it is unavoidable to mention the German series that Cosmo also shows and that was filmed in Berchtesgaden, a town near Austria under the shadow of Mount Watzmann, the third highest in Germany, and, it must be said, in a region chosen by the National Socialists for the rest and solace of their leaders, Hitler included, to plot their cruel atrocities.
Leaving aside the darkest pages of German history of the last century, the series fits into what we could call “white collar police”, that is, without reveling in violent scenes, with only bloody shots and almost opposite but complementary methods: Benedikt Beissl, the most veteran and delighted to assume and respect the Bavarian clothing and habits, and Jerry Paulsen, more modern and lover of the bicycle and Johanna, the eldest daughter of Beissl. Different, yes, but effective. There is no unsolved murder left in such an idyllic alpine setting, for the peace of mind of the locals and, we assume, of the viewers themselves.
