Le Bureau des Légendes

I wrote a really short post about this French television show a few weeks ago – a very short, shitty little post that didn’t do it justice. It really is my favorite show of the year – of several years, really. (Hm… not counting The Americans. That show remains way up high on my list.) We just started season four-I’m already panicked about the fact that it’s the last season, and I don’t know how long we’ll have to wait for a season five. (That’s assuming there will be a season five… oh, please let there be a season five!)

If you watch the American show, Homeland, and like it, you really need to watch Le Bureau des Légendes. I thought that I liked Homeland. I thought it was one of my favorite shows. When I first told Husband about Le Bureau, I told him, “It’s like a French Homeland… but so much better.”  It revolves around Guillame Debailly/Paul Lefebvre/Malotru, a GDSE agent who, when the show begins, has just returned from an undercover operation in Damascus. (The GDSE is the French equivalent of the CIA, MI-6, etc). It’s so much more intense, more international, and more in touch with actual political issues of today than Homeland, for starters. It’s a right sexy show that traverses the globe and for a linguaphile like me, it’s pure language porn. There is the French, bien sûr. There’s some German here and there, a great deal of Arabic from seasons one through three… and then. AND THEN, just when I think it can’t get any better, they move to Russia for season 4.  (As you may know, I’ve recently returned to studying Russian, and I was thrilled to be able to read most of the signs and understand a pretty good amount of speech! Хорошо!)

If you’re not yet convinced, check out this trailer for Season Four. (Hot tip: Mathieu Kassovitz, the lead of Le Bureau, also played the love interest in Amélie, which also remains one of my favorite movies of all time.)