Not a bad story, great locations, well paced, but my oh my those cops are stupid. They make Clouseau look like Sherlock Holmes. Every step of the way they were intent on blaming the mother, despite her being almost killed and having no contact with her child for two years. And how did they seem to think they'd get the child back? By glaring at the mother and continually screwing up.
16 Reviews
Catchy start and progress, but conclusions leave to be desired
BeneCumb7 February 2018
This decade, several good French-language series have been produced, with intense plots and twists, suspense and mystery moments, good character actors, etc. Having seen more than ten of them, it is natural that one becomes picky, starts to compare and find flaws or cliches not providing additional value. True, I really like the benchmark, how the events broke loose, pondering on and over the motives, but then, when a doctor took matters into her own hands, the number of unrealistic moments enhanced (e.g. regarding the police activities and attitudes), and later, particularly in the last episode, the amount of twists was too much, some scenes were not reasoned, and the solution how all was resolved reminded me more of the US series than European ones.
As for the cast/characters, Alexandra Lamy as Alice Lambert and Hippolyte Girardot as Commandant Cyril Tessier outperform the others; besides, some characters were apparently included for political correctness (well, the source novel is written by an American anyway).
All is all, not bad, but not in line with similar French series, e.g. Disparue, Engrenages, and others. And having seen the series, I find the title not too felicitous.
Good bits and bad bits.........
Franklie22 March 2017
Bad bits:
-Poorly done, misspelled, and overly foul subtitles. The F's and S's should be replaced with damn's and hell's. They would class the whole thing up, make the film accessible to a wider audience, and be more in line with who these professional characters are.
-Police who weren't as smart as they should have been.
-Many characters (the three young brunettes and the cop, the lawyer, and some other guy I don't remember) looked so much alike that I got them mixed up for a while. (Partially my fault for not having my eyes on the screen the whole time.)
-Red herrings that I would have liked to have seen resolved.
Good bits:
-Great locations.
-A maze of red herrings and twists and an ending I didn't fully expect.
-Loved the trucker character and his role, except for how violent he was at home.
-The bad girl was amazingly scary with her dead eyes.
-Poorly done, misspelled, and overly foul subtitles. The F's and S's should be replaced with damn's and hell's. They would class the whole thing up, make the film accessible to a wider audience, and be more in line with who these professional characters are.
-Police who weren't as smart as they should have been.
-Many characters (the three young brunettes and the cop, the lawyer, and some other guy I don't remember) looked so much alike that I got them mixed up for a while. (Partially my fault for not having my eyes on the screen the whole time.)
-Red herrings that I would have liked to have seen resolved.
Good bits:
-Great locations.
-A maze of red herrings and twists and an ending I didn't fully expect.
-Loved the trucker character and his role, except for how violent he was at home.
-The bad girl was amazingly scary with her dead eyes.
I enjoyed this program, but......
scottca07521 April 2021
Don't give up half way thru
nyobatusa10 July 2017
this is actually pretty exciting suspenseful tricky plot where you just have to feel for the mother's duress and heartbreak for loosing her small daughter and the hope to find her must keep you watching as well since the police is so incompetent and stupid that makes you want to give up on the show. I recommend you don't. I didn't because I ran out of something good to watch and I don't regret the time spent.
Slow to start but worth it
jandb-3221031 July 2018
Just Waooohh
sexymoo200030 October 2018
In a nutshell ? "Tell No One" in 6 episodes, and I too didn't think it would be that good after watching two episodes but at the third one, I just knew it was going to be amazing. Until the last 30 minutes I was hooked and I was not disappointed indeed !
So far, so good!
razor3233 July 2021
More ludicrous than serious
paul2001sw-130 December 2019
You get the idea about what kind of series 'No Second Chance' is going to be almost from the start: a woman is shot, her husband murdered, and his daughter kidnapped; yet almost at once the former is out of hospital trying to track down the latter, frequently in open defiance of the police. For good measure, everyone around her seems to be a suspect. It makes sense neither logically nor psychologically, and in consequence I found it hard to get involved with the story, which ultimately is proven to involve at least five perpetrators of at least semi-independent misdeeds. I quite liked the detective who reminded me of Mitterand; but for a serious French policier, watch 'Spiral' instead.
Thankfully more forgettable than his novels
mpless6 March 2017
Warning: Spoilers
If ever a series failed to live up to its title, this is certainly it: Far from there being "No Second Chance" there are extra chances aplenty, for the central character to either redeem herself or rescue her daughter.
I cannot forget the sole example of Coben's work I have read - an appalling novel about some golfer-agent. Years after the reading, it still stays with me for its amateurish, poorly-written prose and dialogue. It simply reads like an early-teen's first draft. Many like his work though and that in itself is a great mystery.
There is too little credibility for any of the characters to possibly suspend disbelief. Alice Lambert is shot and nearly dies (her husband is not so fortunate), and her baby kidnapped. The police seem determined to blame her, despite no explanation as to why the baby is kidnapped, nor how Alice accomplished this whilst unconscious and bleeding to death. Not until episode 4 of 6 do the bumbling, accusatory, superficial, and plain stupid police ask this and other fundamental questions. Alice's lawyer Louis is loyal beyond all reason, openly risking his practice by aiding Alice to break the law and when she is a fugitive, helping her escape. There are many more plot holes and inconsistencies if a viewer cares enough to look.
By the end of episode 4, the future seems to be panning-out clearly as a badly clichéd series of circumstances and premises that have been roundly done to death years ago. Nothing new to see here, folks, so move along!
In the tradition of US pulp TV dramas, when Alice recalls something she gazes trance-like into the camera and the memories then roll. That way the audience has a marker to indicate that it is a recollection and not commence howling at the screen that the "baby is saved" or similar. Sadly her acting range is so finite that this is barely different to her routine expression. The remainder of the cast (particularly Pascal Elbe, who seems to trying to impersonate Jeffrey Dean Morgan with no discernible success) are similarly unconvincing. Add-in subtitles that appear to have been done by someone who does not speak English, and the result is an unappealing mess, the end of which cannot arrive soon enough.
Others have opined that the French often do some pretty good work and I tend to agree. This is not one of them and deserves to be ignored, then forgotten.
I cannot forget the sole example of Coben's work I have read - an appalling novel about some golfer-agent. Years after the reading, it still stays with me for its amateurish, poorly-written prose and dialogue. It simply reads like an early-teen's first draft. Many like his work though and that in itself is a great mystery.
There is too little credibility for any of the characters to possibly suspend disbelief. Alice Lambert is shot and nearly dies (her husband is not so fortunate), and her baby kidnapped. The police seem determined to blame her, despite no explanation as to why the baby is kidnapped, nor how Alice accomplished this whilst unconscious and bleeding to death. Not until episode 4 of 6 do the bumbling, accusatory, superficial, and plain stupid police ask this and other fundamental questions. Alice's lawyer Louis is loyal beyond all reason, openly risking his practice by aiding Alice to break the law and when she is a fugitive, helping her escape. There are many more plot holes and inconsistencies if a viewer cares enough to look.
By the end of episode 4, the future seems to be panning-out clearly as a badly clichéd series of circumstances and premises that have been roundly done to death years ago. Nothing new to see here, folks, so move along!
In the tradition of US pulp TV dramas, when Alice recalls something she gazes trance-like into the camera and the memories then roll. That way the audience has a marker to indicate that it is a recollection and not commence howling at the screen that the "baby is saved" or similar. Sadly her acting range is so finite that this is barely different to her routine expression. The remainder of the cast (particularly Pascal Elbe, who seems to trying to impersonate Jeffrey Dean Morgan with no discernible success) are similarly unconvincing. Add-in subtitles that appear to have been done by someone who does not speak English, and the result is an unappealing mess, the end of which cannot arrive soon enough.
Others have opined that the French often do some pretty good work and I tend to agree. This is not one of them and deserves to be ignored, then forgotten.
Doctor Duh.
paulcreeden4 January 2017
Warning: Spoilers
I found this series very disappointing. French crime drama is usually slick and darkly tinged with existentialism. Not so this piece. Perhaps it was infected by a certain current feminism, which elevates any female dysfunction under stress as unassailable.
Alexandra Lamy, as the assaulted and besieged mother/doctor of a kidnapped babe, is most likely doing her best with the bad script. She comes across as an unlikely physician. She is neither pragmatic nor level-headed. She also seems incapable of team work with anyone. Her denial of her sister's addictive criminality is just plain dumb and unlikely in an urban physician.
The rest of the cast, with the exception of veteran Hippolyte Girardot (Detective Tessier), deliver melodramatic, soap-opera performances. I have to attribute this to the script. It is comparable to Danielle Steel romance pulp. It makes Agatha Christie's 'Miss Marple' series look dark by comparison.
This series brings forth a concern I have had about Netflix international selections. If Netflix begins to cater to demographics instead of literary taste, it may lead to a leveling of production quality to a poorer standard. The appeal of Netflix to date has been its peaks and valleys of quality and cultural diversity. It would be unfortunate if it contributes to a reduction of its own productions to a flat plain of mediocrity.
Alexandra Lamy, as the assaulted and besieged mother/doctor of a kidnapped babe, is most likely doing her best with the bad script. She comes across as an unlikely physician. She is neither pragmatic nor level-headed. She also seems incapable of team work with anyone. Her denial of her sister's addictive criminality is just plain dumb and unlikely in an urban physician.
The rest of the cast, with the exception of veteran Hippolyte Girardot (Detective Tessier), deliver melodramatic, soap-opera performances. I have to attribute this to the script. It is comparable to Danielle Steel romance pulp. It makes Agatha Christie's 'Miss Marple' series look dark by comparison.
This series brings forth a concern I have had about Netflix international selections. If Netflix begins to cater to demographics instead of literary taste, it may lead to a leveling of production quality to a poorer standard. The appeal of Netflix to date has been its peaks and valleys of quality and cultural diversity. It would be unfortunate if it contributes to a reduction of its own productions to a flat plain of mediocrity.
Entertaining, but don't try to make too much sense of it
shsch-884665 April 2021
I just finished watching this on PBS Passport with the English subtitles that came with the video stream.
In my opinion there is no way you can predict the real motives and the ending. There are lots of twists to keep all the characters busy and keep you guessing. But you also begin to wonder why, like they add things just so there can be even more characters. The real story is revealed at the end.
Looking back, you should have a number of unanswered questions about the plot and the resolution for some of the characters. There appears to be no official consequences for their actions.
I don't consider the next few sentences a spoiler as I don't believe what I reveal has much if anything to do with the plot. There's a scene with 2 of the alleged bad guys, one male and one female. The female rolls up her shirt and her partner slugs her hard in the abdomen twice I believe and she falls down, but she's OK. That's it. So what purpose did the scene serve? I don't know.
In my opinion there is no way you can predict the real motives and the ending. There are lots of twists to keep all the characters busy and keep you guessing. But you also begin to wonder why, like they add things just so there can be even more characters. The real story is revealed at the end.
Looking back, you should have a number of unanswered questions about the plot and the resolution for some of the characters. There appears to be no official consequences for their actions.
I don't consider the next few sentences a spoiler as I don't believe what I reveal has much if anything to do with the plot. There's a scene with 2 of the alleged bad guys, one male and one female. The female rolls up her shirt and her partner slugs her hard in the abdomen twice I believe and she falls down, but she's OK. That's it. So what purpose did the scene serve? I don't know.
Could the police be any more pitiful?
jps-854854 April 2021
Are cops really that stupid
lawnmorgan22 January 2022
Warning: Spoilers
How is she a suspected in her own attempted murder? What kind of person tries to hide a spouse's murder by allowing themselves to be shot in the back? Would police really interrogate someone who has just woke from an 8 day coma and is recovering from flatlining? Seems implausible.
Preposterous
greenclancey4 May 2021
Warning: Spoilers
This is one of the most preposterous series I have watched. I couldn't find one character I found likeable, the police were bumbling, and incompetent, the lawyer just plain evil and the mother hard to relate to. Nothing made much sense to me., like one cop shooting another to prevent the grieving mother from shooting him, WTH? Yes, there were plot twists and turns, to me, none of them revealed anything believable. I presume the Harlan Coben novel was far superior. There are plenty of good suspense mysteries out there...not this one!
Keystone cops and over the top story
thorntonburns25 July 2021
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