Apple TV+ series pilot review with Eva Green

The Apple TV+ action-spy thriller series starring Eva Green and Vincent Cassel falls short of expectations, at least for now!

In the golden age of streaming, there continues to be an understandable appetite for thrillers multilingual filmed in cities around the world such as Liaisonthe new series Apple TV+ Original with Eva Green – sine die entry into the hearts of millions of people after having “signed” together with Louis Garrel and Michael Pitt that beautiful letter to free love and bohemian life entitled The Dreamers – and the bloody beautiful Of La haine and rebel with an unreassuring face, Vincent Cassel. Starting from Syria, before crossing France and Great Britain – through an encounter with Russian mercenaries and a moment of heart-pounding adrenaline on the Turkish border -, the director Stephen Hopkins follows the protagonist agents as they are on the trail of two Syrian hackers in possession of terrible and very precious information. Liaison consists of six episodes that will be released on a weekly basis, every Friday. The pilot of the TV series is available from February 24, 2023 for subscribers to the streaming service.

Liaison: In the plot, two Syrians track down top secret information about impending cyber attacks in Europe. Their case is entrusted to the pair of former lovers Alison-Gabriel, linked to the British and French secret services

Set in post-Brexit Europe and with color photography of a region at the crossroads of cultures, the cyber world and connection technologies, the pilot of Liaison opens in Damascus with Gabriel (Vincent Cassel) wandering drunk around a private party, before a drone shot switches our attention over the city through which the Barada passes towards the hacker Samir (Aziz Dyab). Samir hones his skills and puts his wits to work in a derelict building. Together with his collaborator Walid (Marco Horanieh), he is forced to flee after discovering a terrible criminal plan. The two Syrians try to make their way to France, to let Europe know what terrible secret information they have discovered by hacking into Assad’s police files. Britain and France are not on good terms. France would like to get its hands on that information before anyone else, but there is ongoing conflict between the president’s advisers Sophie and Didier who disagree on the best way to “extract” Walid and Samir. Meanwhile, the National Cybersecurity Center in London, run by a man named Mark Bolton, has been hacked. His computer systems nicely occupied by a pop-up from the cartoon The cat with the boots dancing on Tower Bridge. THEThe case of the Syrians who now need the help of European spy associations to save themselves is entrusted to Alison and Gabriel: two ex-lovers linked respectively to the British and French secret services. The woman lives with a human rights lawyer, but it turns out that she still has a deep secret connection with her ex which is expressed in small details, in the missed kisses and in the intense gazes that pass through the rain-streaked windows: voilà the liaison

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The first episode of the twisted action-spy thriller starring Eva Green and Vincent Cassel disappoints expectations

Eve Green And Vincent Cassel, but in the cast there are also Peter Mullan And Irene Jacob. Unfortunately, however, to make a quality product, it takes solid writing and an exciting staging, and it also needs the actors to work with each other. Liaison it doesn’t get us past the door of mere curiosity: it is basically a product with a twisted plot that develops on several levels, with dialogues that are not excellent – ​​to put it mildly – ​​and with two phenomenal protagonists who, however, do not work together. Green and Cassel do not stray from the roles they have accustomed us to. A monochrome outfit with multi bag and side hairstyle for Eva Green for a restless and dark role. Cassel plays a character who is tough and prone to breaking the rules. But what news? And multilingualism (which should essentially function as a vehicle of suspense), the charisma of Peter Mullan into the character of Alison’s gruff, roaring boss or the Emmy-winning experience Thierry Fremont as an unconvincing French president. For the writer, the interesting part of the Apple TV+ series does not concern the long badly “crushed” love story between Gabriel and Alison, but the political intrigues that stand in the way of it, staged through the use of drones or the viewing angles of the security cameras.

The interests of the various governments, the treaties, the fragile balances between nations, the technology that oversees and the conspiracies that emerge when one digs too deeply reflect perhaps what happens or realistically could happen. Aspects that, in any case, have already been explored in many spy stories such as Tehran, to quote a recent serial product always branded Apple TV +. But if you examine this botched first episode of Liaison, it becomes a problem to understand who is looking for what.