You can read our review of Part 1 of Lupin here.
Lupin is back! After a seemingly interminable wait (five months feels like a really long time in lockdown), the breakout French series returns to Netflix, this Friday, to wrap up its first season with five brand new episodes. Part 2 picks up immediately where we left off, resolving that last cliffhanger in a truly thrilling manner (don’t worry, no spoilers here!), before quickly moving on to delivering one of the most satisfying seasons of television we’ve seen this year.
The series, which began in epic fashion (I mean, who pulls off a heist of the Louvre in Episode 1?), very quickly becomes a story that is about character and consequence, establishing for the audience that this isn’t just your typical heist-of-the-week drama. Over the course of these 10 episodes, we are treated to a heady mix of Ocean’s Eleven, meets National Treasure, meets Fantastic Mr. Fox. Lupin is a modern take on an old-fashioned character, one that takes longstanding genre tropes and twists them into something that feels remarkably refreshing.
Here are five reasons why the series works so damn well.
1. Omar Sy Is the Epitome of Cool
The gentleman thief, the lovable rogue, the master tactician has always been an appealing character. From Daniel Ocean to Tommy Shelby, Simon Templar, and Carmen Sandiego, popular culture is full of these dauntless schemers, who are supremely competent, and utterly unflappable under pressure. They may live on the wrong side of the law, but they nevertheless possess qualities that the rest of us aspire towards.
In this series, Omar Sy doesn’t play Maurice LeBlanc’s quintessential gentleman thief Arsène Lupin, but a version of him. He is Assane Diop, a Senegalese immigrant, and an avid fan of the character, who emulates Lupin’s methods and ethos in his quest for vengeance against the Parisian billionaire who framed his father for a crime he did not commit.
Assane always has a plan. He’s always five steps ahead of everyone else. (Even when he’s not.) And he’s never not calm under pressure. Omar Sy takes on this role with such style and charm, leaning into the sometimes outlandish impossibilities of his circumstances with such verve that you cannot help but be enthralled. Watching him will make you want to go out and buy a long coat and a beret and start plotting that heist to liberate the good chocolate from your spouse’s secret stash.
When I first started watching this series I thought to myself, it’s a real pity that a Frenchman could never be James Bond, because Omar Sy would be perfect. 10 episodes later, I’m thinking Omar Sy is Lupin dammit, who the hell needs Bond?
2. It Provides Fantastic Social Commentary Without Being Preachy
One of the cleverest things about Lupin is how well the series handles the issues of race in French society. Assane Diop is a towering black man who uses his race to his advantage, seesawing between visibility and invisibility as and when he requires.
This dichotomy is displayed with great dexterity in the first episode. At first, when posing as a member of the Louvre’s janitorial staff, Assane is completely unseen, allowing him to case the joint with minimal attention. Later in the episode, he comes back to the Louvre, this time as a billionaire tech entrepreneur, where being the only black man in the room all but guarantees that he is above suspicion for the theft that’s about to take place.
In fact, all of Assane’s racial and racist encounters are handled with great subtlety and nuance. The series highlights a reality of French life and how people of colour are forced to navigate these fault lines without ever tripping into polemics.
3. Lupin Shows Us a Side of Paris We Don’t Usually See on Television
As international audiences, we often see a very romanticized version of Paris. It is, after all, the city of lights, the city of love and romance, home to van Gogh, and Cézanne, and Picasso, and Matisse, and popular culture has obviously milked that cachet for all it’s worth.
Lupin takes a different approach. This series shows us every side of the city. From the opulent lives of the manor born, to the cluttered apartment of a disgraced journalist, to the Pont Morland between the Seine and the Place de la Bastille, we are given a view of Paris from every angle. We see parts of the Louvre that we’d never ever otherwise experience. We explore the catacombs of the city. We wander these streets from a different point of view. It is still as beautiful. It is still as romantic. But it’s charm comes from character and not just its landmarks.
Forget Emily in Paris, this is the version of the city you want to visit. God knows it gave me the escape I needed from yet another lockdown.
4. Lupin Is a Masterclass on How to Adapt a Classic
And not just in adapting a classic, but in making it accessible to a global audience that might be unfamiliar with the source material. Maurice LeBlanc’s creation, while a French staple, isn’t quite as well known throughout the world – except maybe to avid readers and anime fans.
Where most shows would use the literary character as a crutch, here the show’s creators, George Kay and François Uzan, use the books a way to introduces Arsène Lupin to new audiences while avoiding pandering to those who are already familiar with him. Which, mind you, is key to why the series is so popular both in France and across the world.
Kay and Uzan also contemporarize the character in a fascinating way. This isn’t a Sherlock Holmes who’s been transplanted into the 21st century. This isn’t Arsène Lupin rendered Black for the sake of diversity. Assane Diop is a character in his own right. He may be “inspired by” and “rooted in” something longstanding and timeless, but having him be his own person is a very cunning way to not just adapt a literary classic, but also keep it relevant.
5. The Series Nails Its Ending
How many times have we wasted our lives on a television series, sitting through countless episodes, only to have it disappoint us in the end? Well, fear not, because this back half of this season does not disappoint.
If I could describe Lupin to you in one word, it would be, “satisfying.” This is a series that delivers on all of its promises. It is a thrilling caper, with well rounded characters, and a rewarding resolution. Every loose end is tied up and every question is answered. This means that Assane isn’t just obsessing over the same thing throughout this series, making the same mistakes with his family, and reaching for that one thing that remains outside his grasp. There is actual growth and progression here. (This isn’t something like The Mentalist, for example, where we needed to wait for six seasons before Patrick finally gets his revenge on Red John.)
This first season of Lupin is a self-contained story that leaves just enough room for more should the series be renewed. (I for one am hoping for seven seasons and a movie!)
Follow Us