Vise Le Coeur was created by French screenwriters Fanny Robert & Sophie Lebarbier. They came to fame in France in 2015 for their award-winning series Profilage (Profiling), renown for its female lead. Again, in this series, they have chosen a female lead.
Captain Julia Scola (played by Claire Keim) is a proud police officer, like her father. She’s experienced and efficient and, at home, supported by her partner Daniel. At work, she’s in the bad books with some colleagues for reporting corruption and she has a new boss, Novak Lisica. He was a defence lawyer, is now a fast-tracked senior police officer, and he was her childhood friend and teenage boyfriend. She cannot work with him.
I loved Julia’s restraint. She is thrown by Lisica’s presence in her workplace but approaches the problem with common sense. She behaves as one should. When other writers might have the character having a meltdown, we see Julia taking a breath and responding respectfully. I aspire to reacting as properly as Julia.
Lisica, played by Lannick Gautry, doesn’t behave so well. Julia proposes a solution but Lisica makes it a game. Every step of the way he thwarts her. You can feel the attraction between Julia and Lisica, but all you want is for Julia to stay with the lovely Daniel. He is played by Raphael Ferret, easy on the eye and nice to boot.
Each episode stands alone as Julia and her team solve a crime. Drip fed throughout the series, are details of Julia’s relationships with Lisica and her father. She adores her father but he is a flawed character. Julia’s relationship with Lisica was influenced by her father’s efforts to keep them apart. We think we know why, but there is a twist in the final episode.
There is more here to uncover and I can’t wait for a second series.
SBS On Demand 6 x 50 minute episodes.
Catch the trailer here.