TV review: Lupin
Sometimes, it feels like you would need to stage a heist to get viewing figures from streaming services.
And yet, Netflix has declared to all that its French crime caper Lupin is on track to be viewed 70 million times by Feb 5 - more than its recent big hitter The Queen's Gambit.
For a French production, subtitles and all, Lupin has hit it big worldwide and in Singapore too. It is clear that word of mouth has been good and with justification.
YEAR'S BEST
The first episode alone is brilliant and pulls some incredibly deft sleight of hand.
If it was a film, it would be a contender for the year's best - it is that good an experience.
The series combines Ocean's Eleven, a Christopher Nolan level of reveal, The Thomas Crown Affair and a sniff of Sherlock Holmes.
Omar Sy is Assane Diop, who convinces some thugs he owes money to to get in on his plan to steal Marie Antoinette's necklace from the Louvre.
Assane's great influence in life is Arsene Lupin, the 1905 book by Maurice Leblanc about the titular fictional gentleman thief, given to him by his father who was taken from the young Assane for a crime he did not commit.
For Assane, his skills are only ever used against those who deserve being taken down a peg or ten.
Outwardly, Sy is an extraordinary choice for a master thief, towering over his co-stars and with shoulders so broad he must have had to navigate most doors sideways.
A gentle giant, and like his hero, wearing a genial nature as a mask.
But then, the show does play with presumptions - ours and other characters' - over Assane's appearance. He is an immigrant from Senegal which means he faces bias, which he uses to his advantage.
Director Louis Leterrier (The Transporter films, The Incredible Hulk, Clash Of The Titans, Now You See Me) gives the first episode a cinematic feel, while writers George Kay and Francois Uzan hand him the smartest material he has had to work with.
Criminally, the first season has been split and the remaining five episodes cannot arrive soon enough.
Score: 4/5
SERIES: Lupin
STARRING: Omar Sy, Ludivine Sagnier, Vincent Londez
THE SKINNY: Professional thief Assane Diop (Sy) owes a lot of money to low life Paris gangsters. To pay them back, he ropes them into a daring heist to steal a necklace - once the property of Marie Antoinette - from an auction at the Louvre.
SHOWING: Netflix
RATING: NC16
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