Astrid et Raphaëlle

Peter McGinn

We have watched three series so far and are waiting for the most recent fourth one to drop, carried by PBS Masterpiece’s’Walter Presents’ collection. In French and subtitled, it is an excellent show and avoids a major potential pitfall. The show concerns the crime solving efforts of a woman who is as smart as Sherlock Holmes, but with zero social skills. This is due to her autism, and we quickly come to know her litany of fast-talking idiosyncrasies and ways of dealing with a life that feels overwhelming to her, with every small social exchange potentially an ordeal or at least awkward. With this type of character with special needs and traits, it could be easy to fall into a pattern of repetition and cause every show to seem like merely a slight variation of each other. But the smart writing and on the mark acting avoids this crevasse. Her crime-solving colleague and eventual close friend Raphielle provides support and a shield to help Astrid deal with events and grow as a person. A support group of other austistic people provide further balance and assistance to her. Even the police coroner, after early antagonism, becomes a sort of fan to her and enjoys working with her sharp kind and encyclopedic memory. Astrid’s growth in dealing with scary day to day life is handled with patience and is believable. Like many of the show’s characters, we root for her development and celebrate her small advances in the ongoing subplots as fairly complex murders are solved by this unusual crime-solving duo.