Review / “Brocéliande” tonight on TF1: a disappointing series, more thriller than mystical

It is with Broceliande by Isabelle Polin and Eric Delafosse that Nolwenn Leroy arrives as a TV series heroine. The latter is launched as a “back-to-school saga” on Monday, September 16 on TF1. Bulles de Culture's opinion and series review on this monolithic fiction with its labored narrative threads.

Synopsis:

A renowned and admired biologist, Fanny Legoff (Nolwenn Leroy) has lived in Paris for over 20 years, after leaving the university of Brocéliande during her studies, following the disappearance of her best friend Laura (Eva Hatik) for which she had been suspected. When Fanny receives a package containing a billhook covered in dried blood, she decides to return to the scene, 20 years after the tragedy.

By agreeing to participate in a seminar at the biology faculty of Brocéliande, Fanny finds herself back in places she knows well and that are full of memories. But shortly after her arrival, one of her students disappears in the same way as Laura…

In both cases, Fanny is the last person to see them alive. Why does history repeat itself like this?

Broceliande : a back-to-school saga rather than a summer saga

After filming ended at the end of July 2023, the French series Broceliande first landed on The Onein Belgiummid-May 2024. It is now in France, on TF1that the 6 episodes carried by the singer Nolwenn Leroy are making a place for themselves in the channel's back-to-school schedule.

During its back-to-school conference, Europe's leading channel announced that it wanted to reconnect with the fallen genre of Summer sagas of the 90s and 2000s… but by moving it to the return of the vacationers. But for this first serial fiction, even if the form is renewed in aesthetics, the content is less tasty.

Nolwenn Leroy: from Breton song to Breton “acting”

So this is the artist Nolwenn Leroy who wears Broceliandeafter taking her first steps as an actress in the episode Light and dark from the series Captain Marleau from France 3.

Now fully-fledged stakeholders in the production of fiction, the regions play a strong role in what is shown before your eyes on TV. And it is with the support of Brittany Cinemafrom the region Brittany and of CNC that TF1 was able to allow Nolwenn Leroy to return to her native land to play the lead role of Broceliande.

For this series, the production team set up its filming equipment around the Paimpont foresthas Renneshas Donut and to Bourgbarré in Brittany.

On autopilot during the first episode, Nolwenn Leroy the actress plays the role of Nolwenn Leroy the singer quite a few times: her fans will have no trouble finding several of her facial expressions on TV and on stage in the series. But fortunately, a fan of minimalism, the artist has no reason to be ashamed of her performance.

Especially since she doesn't sing! original music was entrusted to Anne-Sophie Versnaeyenand Nolwenn Leroy therefore remains only an actress during the 6 episodes of 52 minutes.

Broceliandea series with many flaws

With Broceliande, the artist Nolwenn Leroy evolves into a classic back-to-school series, with very poor staging and where the scenes follow one another without passion. In a first episode supposed to make the characters endearing and keep us loyal, Broceliande can't do it.

School-orchestrated, The series is indeed full of gross errors. :

• Fanny/Nolwenn Leroy, who surprises a rifle shot in her axis and who hides in the ideal place to shoot him a second bullet,
• the forest ranger (Arnaud Binard) who always has a cop gun on him,
• a plant biology laboratory that has everything needed to analyze human blood and deliver results in 24 hours maximum,
• a police officer wading through an influencer's video (Margot Heckmannseen in Skam France) and forgets to look at the date of the post of said video to advance in the resolution of his investigation,
• a body dug up with great care in cutting the ground…

And all this on the first three episodes only!

The characters navigating around the main cast (made up of familiar faces from the small screen, such as Marie-Anne Chazel, Thomas Jouannet, Arnaud Binard, Medi Sadoun, Lorànt Deutsch…) are introduced with a trowel and without naturalness. Which also weighs down the mechanics of the game.

Furthermore, unlike the much-loved sagas of the 90s and 2000s, here, mysticism and the paranormal are only a very small element of the plot in their own right. They are just present in the background, which was not the case in Dolmen for example. Esotericism only serves to artificially inflate the plot of Broceliande.

The spectators of almost everything that is produced TF1 are not going to, in any case, leave their comfort zone: the gallery of typical characters is there, stereotyped and ready to shine!

Our opinion?

The lack of ambition in terms of substance and form is a letdown Broceliandethe 2024 back-to-school series of TF1The situations are improbable, the characters bland and featureless, and the plot is flimsy.

Learn more:

• Broceliande is broadcast on TF1 from Monday September 16, 2024 at 9:10 p.m., with two episodes each Monday
• Broceliande is available in streaming and replay on TF1+
• Series not recommended for children under 10 years old