The Traveller

In The Traveller (Le Voyageur), Eric Cantona plays the detective Thomas Bareski. Disgusted by the way difficult cases are being shelved, Bareski takes a leave of absence to travel around rural France attempting to solve cold cases. Working out of the back of a battered blue van, isolated and living off the land, Bareski is the embodiment of the lone detective.

The Traveller is comprised of eight[1] feature length episodes. In the first four, Bareski arrives in a small town to further the investigation of a cold case that was beyond the capabilities of the local police. The police are obviously none too pleased with their historic failures being pointed out by some hobo cop.

The Traveller harks back to the television drama of the Eighties and Nineties. The period after the step change in production values epitomised by Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People but before CSI's reliance on technology for plot resolution or the incessant plot twists of 24. The Traveller takes its time. It relies on cinematography and character acting. Long straight lines of roads, tracks and waterways, top down shots of forests and slow turning things. Wind turbines all speak to the isolation of rural France and to the nature of the investigations. Cantona is a good choice of lead. He has the presence to be able to just be still or just be quiet. This quality fits the mood of the series perfectly.

After four episodes Cantona decided to leave the show. The Thomas Bareski character is replaced by the very similar Yann Kandisky (Bruno Debrandt). The new character feels crowbared in. Episode five is constantly justifying the switch. The dialogue in the episode is littered with exposition as the writers try to pull everything back together. What they do isn't unsuccessful as a piece of drama but it doesn't have quite the same feel as its predecessors.

If you are in the mood for an old school detective drama that is character driven rather than police procedural or forensic technobable then The Traveller is going to be satisfying.

[1] episodes six to eight were not available for review.

The Traveller is currently screening on MHz Choice