Monsieur Spade Season 1 Review – Clive Owen Shines in this Neo-Noir Marvel with a Fractured Narrative

Episode Guide

Episode 1 -| Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 2 -| Review Score – 4/5
Episode 3 -| Review Score – 3/5
Episode 4 -| Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 5 -| Review Score – 2.5/5
Episode 6 -| Review Score – 4/5

After a gap of almost four years, Scott Frank is back to the old ball and chain. The writer/director is a master at delving into the intricacies of human nature within the framework of compelling narratives. Netflix’s Queen Gambit was his last major work where he did the bulk of the creative lifting. However, with AMC’s Monsieur Spade, Frank finds an able companion in Tom Fontana who reciprocates Frank’s vision for Dashiell Hammett’s Samuel Spade. The limited series has the hallmarks of his cinematic genius and his commitment to revamping the source material is admirable. However, Monsieur Spade eventually falls short due to its fractured narrative. 

Season 1 of Monsieur Spade is set entirely in the town of Bozouls in France. The detective had first arrived in the quaint town to drop off Teresa, the young daughter of con artist Brigid O’Shaughnessy. However, when Audrey, Brigid’s mother-in-law, refuses to take her and Philippe, Teresa’s father, is absent, Spade drops her off at the local convent. 

Spade’s fortune turns as he meets and falls in love with Gabrielle, a local vineyard owner. The main story takes place after several years in 1963 when six nuns at the convent are murdered by a madman. The case involves all major stakeholders in the town and sets into motion a wretched plot, at the centre of which hides a potential spiritual Messiah. 

As the series progresses, we see our characters face numerous dangerous situations. Many histories and tragedies unravel to give the show its emotional core. The nature of the storytelling assumes a darker undertone as we go forward and the mystery becomes more elusive.

Picture Clive Owen as our titular character, bringing to life a modern Sam Spade with a dash of dry humour, completely averse to the stupidity of humans, and a lot of complexity. Think Humphrey Bogart, but with a twist. As Frank and Fontana spin the yarn, the noir genre takes a scenic route, morphing into neo-noir before your eyes. And who better to guide us through this journey than Monsieur Spade himself?

The brilliance of Monsieur Spade lies not just in its geographical homage to noir’s birthplace but in how it dances between slow-burn tension and laid-back exploration. Despite being AMC’s prestige offering, Monsieur Spade is a cinema lover’s delight. The appreciation of details gains an important list in Frank’s priority list. It facilitates a deeper connection with the characters and the setting. But there is also a flip side. At times, the writing is so focused and contained that it sprawls to serve only a particular subplot or tangent of the story. 

The disconcert that I alluded to earlier stems from this part of the execution. There is so much going on that it becomes a very difficult task to track all the moving parts. Since they aren’t cut out of the same cloth, the subplots do not complement each other as a collective. That requires viewers to be more attentive and pick up on many cues that we do not get to see. It is like in a football match where a good centre-back is supposed to act in anticipation of a play being made. He must apprehend the patterns and foresee the threats to his goal.

The belief of the makers in our ability to do so is attempted dialogue in itself. However, I think that the confidence is somewhat misplaced. While the positioning of Monsieur Spade in the AMC lineup allows Frank and Fontana to be bold with their presentation, it takes away accessibility and appeal. Scott Frank believes in your ability to keep track of it all, and for those moments when the convolution threatens to engulf you, there’s a break – an invitation to follow Spade’s lead, brush off the complexities, and focus on extracting results from the convolution.

Clive Owen’s performance is a big part of why the show is so watchable. Spade’s character isn’t your typical detective who adores showmanship like Poirot or enjoys banter like Sherlock. Placing him in such an intricate setting also plays a part in how he turns out but there is something very inherently fundamental to how he was imagined by Dashiell Hammett that influences Owen’s portrayal. Spade, in essence, is us, overwhelmed by the intricacies and convolution of a world he’s trying to navigate.

But he’s more than that; he’s a seasoned detective, weary from solving one too many convoluted cases. His humour becomes a shield, a finely crafted defence mechanism against the weariness that seeps through the noir-tinted smoke lingering in the air – a trademark of the genre.

Even when Spade takes a step back from the central plot, we feel his frustration and envy his quick wit. He becomes a mirror reflecting our confusion in the face of the convoluted world. And there’s something strangely endearing about his dismissal of the absurdity around him, a dismissal encapsulated in the ever-present cigarettes that may be his undoing.

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