Streaming series review - Family Detective (originally, Enquete en famille)

Family Detective (originally, Enquete en famille) *** (out of 5) Among all the European TV crime series I’ve reviewed, ranging from deadly serious to comedic, this one is probably the zaniest. Claire (Clementine Celarie) and Philippe Rochette (Bernard Le Coq), who own a hardware store in Renne are thrilled when their daughter Charline (Naima Rodic) returns home from Paris to serve as a police captain. They’re overflowing with suffocating involvement in her life and career. They’re not only helicopter hoverers by nature, but avid devourers of crime fiction who stumble all over themselves and others in their unsolicited efforts to help Charline and her partner Bastien (Marc Ruchmann) solve each week’s murder.

The season is six 50-minute episodes, each with its own case for Charline and her team to handle. In a town where everyone seems to know everyone, with gossipers spreading news of crimes and developments in their solutions faster than any electronic medium could match, Charline is variably helped, hindered and annoyed by her parents’ well-intended, but often counterproductive or redundant, attempts to streamline her job.

Unlike most of these shows, the lead cop is not the star. The camera stays mostly on the parents, whose over-the-top arguments and strategies dominate the proceedings. They are likable enough, but Charline’s desire for distance from them is easy to understand. She thought she was coming home with her beau, only to find that he’s decided to stay in Paris and ignore her calls for explanation. Soon, she also learns that she’s pregnant with his kid. All this while starting a new position of responsibility.

The scripts by Bruno Dega and Jeanne le Guillou serve up a nice array of typical murders, ranging from a likely staged suicide to a murder masked by arson, to a woman shot (mistakenly or deliberately) while riding her horse through the woods, to a dead scam artist found in his hotel. The most engaging scenario is probably the magician in the familiar box who gets run through when one of the swords does what it shouldn’t hadda oughta done to him.

In each case, the crime is mainly a setup for what the parents will do, with varying degrees of help and hindrance. Claire is absurdly strident, often bordering on hysterics. Both parents have their moments of being astute and clueless, with the latter considerably more prevalent. Ms. Celarie has shone in several other productions I’ve covered, and this role is a big stretch from those more serious and low-key performances. It was probably great fun for her to overact to this extent.

I recommend the series with a caveat. A little of Claire’s histrionics goes a long way. Bingeing for review purposes became rather exhausting. Since each episode is a stand-alone, I advise spreading them out to enjoy the comedy as the producers intended. Be sure to see them in order, since relationship progressions are important. And, in case you’re as curious as I was, they did not incorporate Naima’s real-life pregnancy into the scripts. Charline’s rapidly burgeoning belly is a set of prosthetics that was planned from the get-go.

The series aired abroad in October, 2025. No decision yet on whether there will be a second season. They don’t end with serious cliffhangers, but there are questions about what may come next on the interpersonal plot threads that I hope will be pursued.

(Family Detective, in French with subtitles, streams on MHz Choice as of 5/19/26)