At the start of the year, the first part of Lupine on Netflix was a hit, becoming the most watched French production abroad for the platform. Wanting to beat the iron while it is hot, the latter was quick to release the second part of the adventures of the gentleman-burglar played by Omar Sy. Verdict.
Lupine is back with five new episodes and a goal: to renew the success of his debut and his 76 million views for Netflix, happy that a French series is exported as well abroad. For our part, we were not left out of impatience since despite major weaknesses, the first part had convinced us with its modern rereading and its love for the works of Maurice Leblanc, while ensuring the entertainment side. In short, we threw ourselves on this part 2.
Attention, it is better to have seen the first part before continuing to read this article.
The beginning of this sixth episode follows directly on from the previous events and Assane (Omar Sy) goes in pursuit of the kidnapper (Adama Niane) of his son Raoul with the help of Inspector Youssef (Soufiane Guerrab). A sub-plot that quickly turns out to be absolutely uninteresting as it lacks tension, staging, writing and acting. Not to mention the many false connections.
An appetizer that is all the more difficult to watch as we imagined seeing this part 2 pushing the sliders to correct the faults of the first, while bringing more surprise and energy. Failed, she rushes into the wall at full speed by offering us two episodes worthy of an old TF1 detective series.
Broken down lupine
A bitter observation that will never leave us, even once the series is back on track with an Assane who has become Lupine again. Despite a very present desire to continue to play on the writings of Maurice Leblanc, the show seems to have lost all its charm, almost as if there was no longer any conviction, neither on the part of the writers, nor on the part of the actors. The departure of Louis Leterrier (replaced by Hugo Gélin who does his best) from the main production seems to have put a stop to the slightest ambition.
So certainly, the five episodes are linked without difficulty, but where there was something to entertain a few months earlier, we laughed more than anything else today. A bit like La Casa de Papel before it, the series almost falls into the auto-parody where it does the same thing, but much less well. Assane’s disguises would only deceive blind people (i.e. the entire cast), the dialogues are ridiculous and there is no longer any question as to whether our hero is intelligent or if it is the others who are incredibly stupid, we have the answer. Part 1 allowed itself more than a scriptwriting facility to meet its needs; this part 2 would almost assume them.
Omar Sy and the others
Obviously, Omar Sy continues to carry Lupine on his shoulders and believes in it. One of the rare good ideas of the scenario is also to scratch the image of the gentleman-burglar, more so gentleman when it comes to manipulating his entourage. Moral liberties which benefit the actor, thus exploiting a greater range of play. It’s quite simple, we only see him!
However, if he so easily overlooks his comrades, it is because the latter simply have no chance of existing. We hoped for a better role for Claire (Ludivine Sagnier) and Juliette (Clotilde Hesme) in this sequel, they will only have a utilitarian place in the plot. Soufiane Guerrab is relegated to the side-kick position in spite of himself and the others… do not have enough time to appear to be talked about. Just if Benjamin (Antoine Gouy) takes more presence on the screen, without having more importance.
Unable to convert our hopes, Lupine Part 2 is at best a disappointment, at worst a huge failure. In any case, part 3 already announced will have to review everything in depth to hope to convince us again.
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