Streaming series review - Sambre

Sambre *** (out of 5)Among the dozens of mysteries and procedural series from European TV that I've reviewed, almost all the assessments were on the basis of entertainment value, rather than historical or cultural insights to be derived. This French six-hour miniseries is quite an exception. It's based on the 30-year run of France's most prolific serial rapist before he was finally caught and convicted. Though the script is fictional, it does closely follow the appalling realities that transpired. The title refers to the river near which the earlier rapes were perpetrated.

Structurally, each of the half-dozen episodes covers one of the creep's active periods between the first known case in 1988, and his ultimate conviction three decades later. We're pretty sure early on who the perp is, so the suspense lies in how many women he'll victimize and how he'll be caught. Each episode also focuses primarily on one of the key figures in that time frame, whether victim, profiler, prosecutor or cop, with considerable attention to the emotional damage and the effects on friends and loved ones; as well as the frustrations of many law enforcement people who tried and failed along the way. The main asset of the scripts from this trio of credited writers, which included the investigative journalist who wrote the underlying non-fiction book about these events, Alice Geraud, is the depth with which it explores so much of the aftermath and collateral damage.

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Though he committed about 50 rapes during this stretch, the series shows very little of the violence wreaked upon the victims. They mention that 74% of serial killers and rapists are socially repressed loners, who drift from job to job with little stability in any facet of their lives, passing unnoticed in any crowd. This guy was quite the exception, which was part of why it took so long to ID him. The fellow was a solid family man with a lifelong factory job and active in the community, well-liked and respected by all who knew him.

One other reason for the delay – the lack of DNA tracing in the early years- is no longer an issue. Another is that he did his deeds in several towns on both sides of the French-Belgian border, keeping anyone from seeing the whole pattern. Information access and sharing among agencies is better now. But the skeptical treatment given to young women who dare to report such crimes remains an inhibiting factor. Perhaps the harshest scene in the series isn't any of the stalking or rapes, but the brutish interrogation of a young victim by a cop who wouldn't even consider that she might be telling the truth.

The cast is solid throughout, with a number of suspenseful or otherwise powerful scenes. The pace is slow in the early episodes, but less so in the later ones. Credit also goes to the makeup department for masterfully aging several of the main players who appear in multiple episodes. MHz Choice subscribers or other genre fans may also appreciate – as did I – the fourth episode featuring Clemence Poesy and Patrick Descamps as statistical profilers brought in before such expertise became widely available to law enforcement. Among series I've covered before, Poesy notedly starred as a lead detective in The Tunnel. Descamps brought warmth and gravitas to In Tandem, playing the lead actress' father.

Approach this like a documentary, though it isn't one, to set your mood properly for awareness rather than escapism.

(Sambre, in French with subtitles, streams on MHz Choice as of 9/15/26)