''Astrid et Raphaëlle'', aired in the United Kingdom as ''Astrid: Murder in Paris'', and in the United States simply as ''Astrid'', is a Franco-Belgian detective television series, created by Alexandre de Seguins and Laurent Burtin and broadcast beginning April 12, 2019, on France 2. The series is a co-production of France Télévisions, JLA Productions, Be-Films and

RTBF The ''Radio-télévision belge de la Communauté française'' (RTBF, ''Belgian Radio-television of the French Community'', branded as rtbf.be) is a public service broadcaster delivering radio and television services to the French-speaking Commu ...

(Belgian television). It features a duo of policewomen: Major Raphaëlle Coste, an impulsive police detective played by Lola Dewaere, and autistic archivist Astrid Nielsen, played by

Sara Mortensen Sara Mortensen, (born 10 December 1979) is a French-Norwegian actress. She is known for her role as Coralie Blain in the television series ''Plus belle la vie'', and that of the young autistic criminology expert, Astrid Nielsen in Astrid et Raph ...

Synopsis

As the series begins, 30-year-old Astrid Nielsen is an autistic woman who works discreetly as an archivist for the judicial police and knows every case she has handled. She meets Raphaëlle Coste, then in charge of an investigation into the suicides of doctors. The two solitary women help each other, Astrid offering Raphaëlle a methodology and Raphaëlle offering Astrid behavioral help in return.

Cast

Main cast

Principal actors

; Department of Judicial Police (DPJ) * (pilot) / Jean-Louis Garçon (first season on): commissaire Carl Bachert * Lola Dewaere: Commandant Raphaëlle Coste ** Chloé Chevallier: Raphaëlle as a child * Benoît Michel: Captain Nicolas Perran * Meledeen Yacoubi: Lieutenant Arthur Enguien ; Criminal documentation *

: Astrid Nielsen, documentarian ** : Astrid Nielsen as an adolescent * : Alain Gaillard, director of criminal documentation and Astrid's guardian (principal season 1, guest seasons 2 and 3) * : Gilles, criminal documentation employee (recurring season 1, guest seasons 2 and 3) ; Other officials * Husky Kihal: Henry Fournier, medical examiner * : Julien Frédéric, police scientific technician * : prosecutor (season 2) ; Family of Astrid Nielsen * : Angus Nielsen, Astrid's father (recurring season 1, guest seasons 2 and 3) * Elisabeth Mortensen: Mathilde Nielsen, Astrid's mother ; Family of Raphaëlle Coste * Timi-Joy Marbot: Théo Coste, Raphaëlle's son * : Philippe Coste, Raphaëlle's father * Octave Balekdjian: Benjamin Coste, Raphaëlle's older brother ; Autism support group * Jean-Benoît Souilh : William Thomas, group leader ** : Paul Thomas, doctor and brother of William (season 1, episode 7) ** Eléa Folcher : Camille Berezin, William's girlfriend * Clément Lagouarde : Max * Lizzy Brynn : Alice * Clément Langlais : Benoît * Angélique Bridoux : Camille (since season 3) ; Others * Kengo Saito : Tetsuo Tanaka, nephew of the grocer, then Astrid's boyfriend (since season 2) * Akihiro Nishida : Apu Tanaka, Astrid's grocer *

Valérie Kaprisky Valérie Kaprisky ( Chérès; born 19 August 1962) is a French actress. Life and career She was born Valerie Chérès on 19 August 1962 in Neuilly-sur-Seine. Kaprisky is her Polish mother's maiden name. She is of Greek-Ottoman and Argentine de ...

: Anne Langlais (since season 3)

Production

Genesis and development

The idea for the series dates to 2017; its producers wished to create a thriller in which a main character would be autistic. Screenwriter Alexandre de Seguins met Jean-Sébastien Bouilloux, working for producer Jean-Luc Azoulay; the pilot was accepted for broadcast on France 2, replacing the series ''Caïn''. Hippolyte Dard and Elsa Bennet directed the pilot. Six more episodes were to be ordered if the pilot met audience targets. On April 25, 2019, Sara Mortensen announced on her Instagram account that, following the pilot's success, France 2 has ordered six 52-minute episodes: "Broadcast on April 12 last, the 90-minute pilot achieved solid ratings. The new duo of heroines from France 2 will now be entitled to an entire season. After bringing together five million viewers in April the evening of the pilot's broadcast (20.7% PDA), ''Astrid and Raphaëlle'' obtained the green light from France 2 for a season 1 consisting of six 52-minute episodes".

Filming

The "Documentation Criminelle" where Astrid works is in fact the building of the Departmental Archives of Val-de-Marne. Filming for Season 1 took place between October 2019 and January 2020 for release in spring 2020. Filming for season 2 took place from 3 August to 8 December 2020. Guest actors included Pierre Palmade, Hubert Delattre, Alysson Paradis, Gérard Majax, Ingrid Juveneton, Kentaro, and Richard Gotainer. Filming for the first four episodes of Season 3 took place from 30 August to 28 October 2021, with guest actors Valérie Kaprisky, Stéphane Guillon, Bruno Wolkowitch, and Michaël Cohen. The last four episodes were shot from 2 November to 21 December 2021. Filming for season 4 took place from 16 August to 6 December 2022 in Paris and adjacent regions. Announced guests included Tom Villa, Philippe Chevallier, Stomy Bugsy, Xavier Gallais, Jean-Baptiste Guégan, and Hélène Médigue.

Broadcasts

In France, the pilot attracted 4.221 million viewers, or 19.5% market share, ensuring the broadcast of eight other episodes on France 2. In Belgium, the pilot attracted 236,000 viewers when it was broadcast on La Une. The episodes in the table below are presented in the order of broadcast on France 2. The ''Puzzle'' pilot was rebroadcast on France 2 on Friday 10 April 2020, drawing 4,885,000 viewers, an 18.3% market share. The show has also been broadcast in the United States and the UK, and on the Welsh language channel S4C as "Astrid et Raphaëlle" with burnt in Welsh language subtitles together with optional English subtitles available.

Reviews

According to Julia Fernandez of '' Allociné'', the group discussion scene between autistic people is one of the most successful scenes in the pilot, the weakness of this episode residing in a certain predictability of the police investigation's outcome. During the broadcast of the pilot, the Belgian magazine ''Moustique'' noted a strong resemblance to the American series '' The Good Doctor'': "Like Shawn Murphy, Astrid is going through a difficult family situation but can count on the help of her tutor. Like the young doctor, she came out of the isolation caused by her atypical neurology—thanks to her job—but must regularly face the incomprehension of those who do not know".. At the start of the first season, this magazine insisted on the difficulty for the screenwriters to invent stories involving "disabled characters": "They have to slalom between the interest of the story, respect for political correctness and the concern to avoid caricature, into which it is easy to fall for the pleasure of a moment of emotion or a funny scene". The journalist considers the gamble rather successful: "Without avoiding all the pitfalls, the series really holds up and manages to treat Astrid's autism only as an element and not a definition of the young woman".

Features

According to Lola Dewaere, this thriller allows "another look at difference". Astrid resembles a feminine

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...

. According to one of the writers, Alexandre de Seguins, Astrid, whom he wants as far as possible from the cliché autistic genius, is inspired by the works of Temple Grandin, which revealed to him "the elements of her way of seeing the world, the difficulties of everyday life". He was also inspired by his meeting and discussions with

Josef Schovanec Josef Schovanec (born in Charenton-le-Pont Charenton-le-Pont () is a Communes of France, commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the Kilometre Zero, centre of Paris, to the north of the confluence of the Se ...

, as well as a dozen autistic people who read and commented on the texts of the episodes. One of the three co-authors of the series has been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, a form of autism. Autistic actor

Hugo Horiot Hugo or HUGO may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Hugo'' (film), a 2011 film directed by Martin Scorsese * Hugo Award, a science fiction and fantasy award named after Hugo Gernsback * Hugo (franchise), a children's media franchise based on a ...

plays a neurotypical character in season 1 episode 7.

Bibliography

* Julia Baudin, "Astrid and Raphaëlle: France 2 dares to be atypical. The channel is launching a pilot built on a tandem of heroines, one of whom is autistic and the other completely unmanageable", ''TV Magazine'', ''Le Figaro'', Paris, 7 April 2019, p. 12.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Astrid et Raphaëlle 2019 French television series debuts Autism in television French police procedural television series