Walid (Marco Horanieh) And Samir (Aziz Dyab) are two fierce hackers who end up inside a Syrian police server, finding evidence of imminent attacks in the West. Forced to flee Damascus, they try to exchange the information in their possession for a safe haven on French soil. A contractor, a former French legionnaire, is indirectly charged with the recovery by the transalpine secret services: Gabriel Delage (Vincent CasseL). When the operation fails, the sensitive data in the possession of the two fugitives becomes a treasure that multiple organizations seek to get their hands on. Among them, also the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) of the Secret Services across the Channel, led by the humoral Richard Banks (Peter Mullan) and from his right arm, the able Alison Rowdy (Eve Green). Delage, who has had an affair with Alison in the past, continues his hunt for the two hackers and what they know, contained in a USB stick. Meanwhile, the war between spies rages between France And Great Britainwhile trying to figure out when the attack will take place, who the terrorists are and what they are really aiming for.
Liaison comes up Apple TV+ with the ambition (at least on paper) of being a very French but at the same time international product. This is confirmed by the directorial signature of Stephen Hopkinsfamous for the quintessential television spy-series such as 24as well as the second Predator and of Race. Her career was discontinuous, navigating between one genre and another uninterruptedly, with ups and downs. Which in itself is not a small premise to evaluate this series, scripted by Virginia Brac, French writer and screenwriter much loved at home. From the outset, though, she can’t seem to pin down exactly what Liaison try to give us. Having a nuanced identity can be something very positive, as long as you know what you’re doing. This is not the case since since first episode in terms of rhythm, atmosphere, as well as writing, characterization and world building, the whole appears to be a confused moving puzzle. Apart from a few isolated elements of interest, Liaison therefore it turns out to be a not very successful series.
Abbie ParrApple
The Apple TV+ series he does nothing to hide that he has a high opinion of himself and his characteristics, all in a multi-layered narrative. The plot gradually reveals the true face of the various characters, their past, their secrets, especially their weaknesses and the interests they defend. The whole winks decisively, in addition to the typical French noir, also to the novels of Robert Ludlum And Frederick Forsythwhich then served as the main source for the saga of Jason Bournewhose protagonist lives in many respects in the interpretation of Vincent Cassel. His Francois Gabriel is a shrewd and life-hardened veteran, the classic anti-hero character that modern cinema uses again and again. However in the end Liaison he is satisfied with giving it a mere generic imprint, without giving it anything more than a melancholy air very fine in itself. A point in favor of the series is however its desire to be a credible and realistic story also in the action aesthetics: no jumping from six-story buildings, no infallible aim and no “superhero” quality, indeed Cassel takes them in more than one occasion. Too bad, however, that the chemistry with Eve Green works only intermittently.
it was Vesper Lynd of the saga of the last 007 of the two, she appears to be the least at ease, perhaps because she is dealing with a character who is not all that sophisticated compared to those she usually has in her dowry. His Alison is a fragile woman, grappling with a past that she tries to hide from her current wife, while trying to navigate a world of lies, duplicity and suffocating bureaucracy, with treacherous colleagues and an ex-flame she would like to forget . Too bad though that the monotonous repetition of those elements ultimately makes it incredibly predictable and dull. The sentimental aspect of the narration tightens Green and Cassel like in a cage, often slipped with bad grace in the least indicated moments, with coarseness, completely setting aside the thriller component. Which then is the mirror of the biggest problem: there is a lack of a real ability to give us something defined, to create an understandable and genuine atmosphere. The ultimate purpose of the narration most often appears simply painted on the walls, as a sterile exercise in style for its own sake.
Abbie ParrApple
If you want to look at the glass half full, it is still of a certain interest such as Liaison wants to paint the current geopolitical reality, in which Europe post-Brexit it looks like a huge beehive gone mad, with different countries reluctant to join forces against external or internal threats. Something that winks at the spy-stories of the Cold War which was, with their deviant services, dirty private interests, double and triple games, on which the modern battlefield is inserted: the cyber warfare with all its unknowns. But all these possible developments are then always put aside at the most beautiful, sacrificed to languid glances, tears, unexciting soap opera atmospheres and a general lack of warmth of the whole. Something that brings Liaison towards the only direction he probably didn’t expect to take: conformity. Because with the forced way in which he tries to be a middle ground between many things, with characters mere appendage of the narrative, this series becomes a mediocre thriller sui generis, of those who once went direct to video with old stars of the big screen now laid up.