“The Art of Crime” Season 6 – TV series review

This light crime series from France, “The Art of Crime,” provides the usual elements of TV mysteries with a painless education in the meanings of classic paintings and personalized art history. Don’t yawn yet. Keep reading a bit further.

The Paris police have a special unit for art-related crimes. Antoine (Nicolas Gob) is assigned to it as a banishment from the serious crime squad he’d thrived on until he pissed off the wrong honcho. His complete lack of knowledge about or interest in this milieu makes the transfer even more punitive. He’s also forced to accept a partnership with a quirky consultant, Florence (Eleonore Bernheim), whose expertise in the Old Masters is essential to catching the offenders. Each case is handled in two 50-minute episodes, so no pressure to binge.

The novelty is that Florence hallucinates conversations with the subject artist of each case in reaching her “aha!” moments of insight into the who and why of all the thefts, forgeries, murders, etc. they handle. Whenever I Googled the artist or painting du jour, the scripts seemed to be on the nose, providing an entertaining and painless path to learning something new. Those already educated in this area may differ on the facts, interpretations and speculations in the scripts, so don’t take my words or theirs as gospel.

As must be the case for all oil-and-water pairings in such fare, the two clash constantly. Antoine seems incapable of absorbing and retaining whatever he needs to learn about the art. He also runs on a default angry setting, due to resentment about how he got there, and some serious daddy issues. Florence is excited about this new use for her knowledge but has a whole different set of issues with her dad, Pierre (Philippe Duclose), who keeps inserting himself into her personal and professional existence, whether wanted or not; usually, the latter. Pierre’s annoying actions in trying to prove himself indispensable make him an unusual asset to the production.

The tension between the two principals leads to an all but inevitable will-they-won’t-they bit of comic relief that runs throughout. Season Six is a pair of two-part episodes, in which the personal dynamic between Antoine and Florence takes some odd turns straddling the fence separating warm humor from silliness. It may be the funniest of the series, while still offering a couple of sufficiently twisty crimes for the suspense factor. The first begins with a dead nude model that requires a deep dive into Monet.

Production values are first-rate, making excellent use of the Louvre and many other Paris landmarks and attractions in each of its stories. The scripts also maintain a nice balance between the sleuthing and personal subplots. The progression of several relationships makes watching them in order advisable.

In the second, a murdered actress posed in a subterranean vampiric tableau triggers Florence’s imaginary chats with Edvard Munch for resolution. The season ends with some lingering questions but fear not. Season Seven has just aired in France, and is sure to follow the first six across the ocean.

“The Art of Crime,” in French with English subtitles, streams on MHzChoice starting May 14.

RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars