TV-MA | 6 episodes | Drama, Thriller | Feb. 24, 2023
It turns out even the French think the French are villainous. There are certainly plenty of secret enemies and hidden turncoats in this French-and-British co-produced series, but the bad guys viewers meet right from the start are all French—and highly placed in the French government and military industrial complex.It is unclear whether French mercenary Gabriel Delage (Vincent Cassel) is with them or against them. That is one of the many questions his former lover, British Home Office official Allison Rowdy (Eva Green) must answer in creator Virginie Brac’s six-episode “Liaison.”
A series of cyber-attacks have the United Kingdom on edge, which annoys Rowdy’s crusty boss, Richard Banks (Peter Mullin), beyond his usual surliness. They could have been a whole lot worse, but they were all embarrassingly visible and the hack of the rail lines tragically led to the deaths of several school friends of Rowdy’s potential step-daughter, Kim Onwori (Bukky Bakray), which makes it personal for her.
Mysterious Conspirators
Reportedly, two Syrian hackers, Walid (Marco Horanieh) and Samir (Aziz Dyab), uncovered detailed information on the cyber campaign launched against the British government when they cracked the Assad regime’s security servers. They were already dissidents, but now they are also fugitives from the mysterious transnational (but mostly French) conspirators.Unfortunately, they have sought asylum in France, where ambitious Didier Taraud (Stanislas Merhar) is making a dangerous play to destabilize the UK, in a way that will benefit French industry. He also intends to solidify his position as the puppet-master of the clueless French president’s government, at the expense of Sophie Saint-Roch (Irene Jacob), the director of the DGSE (France’s equivalent of the CIA).
Taraud hires Delage’s firm to bring in Walid and Samir, but when all three barely survive an ambush, Delage follows the fleeing Walid to London, while Samir goes underground in Turkey, with his wife.
Unfortunately, the British police and government initially suspect the Syrian hackers are Daesh/ISIS terrorists, unaware of their Druze faith. It is a real mess that Delage hopes to exploit, but he cannot help paying a visit to Rowdy, his old flame from their radical days. Their breakup was extremely messy.
Couple Not Credible
The illogic of their working relationship is what really holds “Liaison” back from being a top-tier thriller. There is a lot of smartly executed French political in-fighting, which spills over to the European Union, where Taraud’s mistress, Sabine Lousseu, works as a high-ranking cyber-security bureaucrat.
Cranky Richard Banks is also highly entertaining, in a cynical “Yes, Minister” kind of way. However, it is hard to believe Rowdy would keep compromising herself and her country by entrusting the Syrian hackers and their intelligence to Delage.
In fact, Eva Green’s portrayal of Rowdy is weirdly passive and sentimental. She plays the tough national security expert like a character in a Harlequin novel. However, Vincent Cassel is believably hardnosed and flinty as Delage. Frankly, they just don’t look like a credible couple.
Fortunately, the supporting players help elevate “Liaison,” starting with the great Peter Mullan, who is as quotable as Banks as Dame Maggie Smith was in “Downton Abbey.” It probably would not be particularly pleasant to work with Banks, but Mullan makes him great fun to watch.
Likewise, Irene Jacob and Stanislas Merhar are terrific scheming against each other as the French rivals, Saint-Roch and the crooked Taraud. Gerard Lanvin also adds some grizzled tough guy charm as Delage’s boss, Dumas. Laetitia Eido’s deepens and humanizes Lousseau nicely, while Patrick Malahide adds some further curmudgeonly attitude as Rowdy’s father, Maj. Gen. Jack Rowdy, but nobody out-grouches Mullan.
All six episodes barrel along at warp speed, thanks to director Stephen Hopkins, who also helmed half the episodes of the first season of “24.” His tense pacing helps viewers ignore their reservations regarding the dubious Rowdy-Delage relationship. As a result, the show somehow works, even when we are not fully buying it.
The high stakes and the consistently over-achieving supporting cast contribute a lot to compensate. Just watching Mullan’s Banks gruffly chew the scenery is probably worth the time commitment. It is flawed, but “Liaison” still pulls in fans of beat-the-clock thrillers on a gut-level when it starts streaming Feb. 24 on Apple TV+.
