Streaming series review - Master Crimes: Season 3

Master Crimes: Season Three ***1/2 (out of 5) This charming French procedural returns for its third – and likely final - season, of Criminal Psych professor Louise (Muriel Robin) solving murders with Paris police detective Barbara Delandre (Anne Le Nen) and her quartet of students learning the craft from their mentor. Below is my review of Season One. Although I equally enjoyed more of the same sleuthing and levity in Season 2, I apparently did so too late to review it for this esteemed publication. So, to refresh memories (including mine):

https://patch.com/missouri/clayton-richmondheights/streaming-series-review-master-crimes-season-one

Most of the main cast returns. The aforementioned hottie (Astrid Roos) is replaced by newcomer Allyson Yang (Ayumi Roux), who brings an air of mystery about her backstory, along with a razor-sharp mind to their talented team. Louise is on the verge of finally marrying her long-time suitor, the Chief (Olivier Claverie). He’s thrilled to be making elaborate plans for a gala affair; her enthusiasm level is far short of his. Anne’s nascent relationship with medical examiner Theo (Michael Cohen) is complicated by the arrival of his newly-discovered bitchy daughter, who resents the hell out of daddy’s main squeeze. And, for one more subplot thread to run through the season, Louise’s adult son, Guillaume (Nicolas Gob, who co-stars in the classy light-hearted series, The Art of Crime) comes home with his tail between his legs over his failing marriage.

As to the crimes to be solved in each of the six hour-long episodes, they all provide suitable challenges with multiple possibilities for our set of protagonists. The two dozen credited writers who crafted the 18 episodes maintain consistent quality in both plotting and character development. Directors Marwen Abdallah and Amandine Bonnin, who helmed four and two episodes, respectively, made fine use of Parisian exteriors and interiors as settings, pacing the stories and sidebars so nothing ever seemed to drag.

The first begins with a woman’s body dramatically and publicly displayed. The second starts with a woman who is mutilated shortly after divorcing her oppressive hubby under the liberating influence of a self-help guru. The third victim is the Mother Superior of a convent who'd made it her mission to reform criminals by bringing them into the cloisters as novitiates for God to reverse the path society had provided. Her idealistic plans did not meet with universal approval.

The fourth gives us a considerable tone shift, as Louise, Anne and the students are abducted by a man who’d just finished serving time for murdering his wife. He confines them in the home where it occurred, rigged to explode if they don’t exonerate him and prove who really did it within 24 hours. He is convinced the culprit was Anne, who’d figured prominently in his arrest and prosecution. The fifth opens with a sous chef killed and set in an elaborately staged picnic in front of the upscale restaurant in which he'd worked under his aunt. The finale revolves around payback for a rapist/murderer who gets what’s coming to him after the law did its (presumably inadequate) part.

Of course, all the crimes are solved within the allotted time, and most of the B plotlines wrap with some degree of closure. There are still a few more story arcs worthy of pursuit if the Gods of Renewal decide to smile upon this excellent series. If they do, I’ll smile along with them.

(Master Crimes: Season 3, in French with subtitles, streams on MHz Choice as of 4/28/26)