Engrenages - Im Fadenkreuz der Justiz

Powerful performances, utterly believable characters and gripping plotlines have made cult viewing of this gritty, brutal, crime drama set on the mean streets of Paris. No-nonsense and doggedly determined Police Captain Laure Berthaud leads her lieutenants, Gilou and Tintin, in their investigations into serious crime. But they must also battle the investigating magistrates in their department; the cool and clinical Judge François Roban, the handsome young Deputy Prosecutor, Pierre Clément and the ambitious police-hating lawyer, Joséphine Karlsson. A thriller, this is French justice in all its cynical, corrupt, backstabbing glory, where the good guys - cops, lawyers and judges - are deeply flawed and the criminals are vicious and irredeemable. As they take on corruption, murder, sex trafficking, arms dealing, serial killers and terrorists, each episode draws you into a dark and sordid world of corruption, crime and an internecine legal system. (BBC)