À L'instinct : The Pilot Of A New Series On France 2
On Friday, February 3, France 2 will broadcast in prime time a police TV movie that could become the pilot for a new series. The TV movie À l'instinct features a duo of unusual policemen, played by Christopher Bayemi and Charlie Bruneau.
A cop who works on instinct
The hero of this TV movie is Teva Royer, a police lieutenant in Cayenne who was raised in a village deep in the Amazon.
As an infant, he survived alone in the jungle for seven months. No one knows what happened during those long weeks, but since that experience, no emotion, no hesitation and no movement escape this cop like no other.
This empathetic investigator uses his uncommon sensory acuity to 'feel' people and solve criminal cases by instinct, hence the title of the TV movie.
A duo full of contrasts
With his very personal method, listening to his sensations and instinct, Teva Royer (Christopher Bayemi) is the complete opposite of Ana Kerjouan.
This Nantes SRPJ captain (played by Charlie Bruneau) is known for her rigor, authority and patience. This brilliant 34-year-old cop heads a team of two officers in charge of violent crimes.
When the body of Isis Le Cam, the niece of a real estate tycoon, is discovered in Nantes, Teva is dispatched to France to assist Ana's team. He is forced into the investigation by the victim's family, but his methods do not please the very rational and perfectionist Captain Ana Kerjouan.
A concept that lacks originality
Despite the efforts of the TV movie À l'instinct to propose an original concept for a future police series, this new hero is not unlike that of the American series The Sentinel broadcast from 1997 to 1999 on M6. In this otherwise rather classic series, the main character was also a cop with hyperdeveloped senses.
Moreover, this 90-minute TV movie does not avoid clichés, starting with that of the hero close to nature or the duo of antagonistic cops but already letting through a love ambiguity destined to expand over the episodes.
This recurrent pattern in crime series can be annoying, as if all the fictions of this genre were created in the same mold. In spite of this drawback, this new TV movie is nevertheless pleasant to follow, thanks in particular to its interpreters.
A brilliant actor
The TV movie À l'instinct confirms the talent of Christopher Bayemi, who French viewers have seen in the TV series Cassandre, HPI (as the medical examiner) and Luther on TF1.
Thanks to the charisma of this actor, the character of Teva avoids the ridiculous when we see him sleeping in the garden of his colleague from Nantes, hugging a tree and walking barefoot. Christopher Bayemi brings to this new hero the complexity needed to convey these clichés about communing with nature.
Other positive points, the realization is neat and the investigation, which follows a classic storyline, proves to be thrilling. These are all good reasons to discover this TV movie, broadcast on Friday, February 3 at 9:10 pm on France 2.
Do not miss this novelty if you are a fan of Christopher Bayemi, who is undoubtedly an actor to follow! If viewers are at the rendezvous, this pilot could give birth to a new recurring series on France Televisions.
