Entertainment
Netflix’s 3-Part Spy Thriller Is the Perfect Binge Before Michael B. Jordan’s ‘Thomas Crown Affair’
Few genres are as inherently exciting as the heist caper, which might be why another version of The Thomas Crown Affair is set to release next year. Even though there have been two previous iterations of the art-robbery adventure story, every generation deserves its version of The Thomas Crown Affair because of its razor-sharp premise. The notion of a “gentleman burglar” who steals from the rich to serve the public has been iterated upon countless times in different forms of media, but the most famous might be Arsène Lupin, the fictional master of disguise created by the French author Maurice Leblanc in 1905. The original stories have been adapted into and inspired various projects, but Netflix’s international crime series Lupin is a clever reimagining of the classic character that features a star-making turn from Omar Sy.
Lupin is set in the modern day, and acknowledges all the existing facts that are known about both Leblanc and his characters. Sy stars as the professional thief Assane Diop, an immigrant from Senegal who moved with his father Babakar (Fargass Assandé) to France when he was a child. A love of the Lupin stories is what brought father and son closer together, but Babakar was falsely accused of stealing a valuable necklace, which forced Assane to fend for himself without a stable home. The tragic backstory is necessary for making Assane into a charismatic hero who has something worth fighting for; while it is exciting to see the extravagant means that he takes in order to get away with some of the most ingenious heists imaginable, Lupin is ultimately the story of justice and redemption.
‘Lupin’ Is a Revisionist Take on a Classic Character
Lupin is a cleverly constructed narrative because the series plays out like a con, offering only clues about how Assane pulls off his heists. While this might seem like a straightforward trick in caper films, it’s much harder to sustain over the course of entire television seasons. Lupin reveals just enough about Assane’s strategies for it to be believable for him to pull off his plans, but doesn’t make the mistake of revealing too much in a way that would lessen the impact of seeing them play out. It helps that there is substance between the set pieces thanks to Assane’s complex relationship with his wife, Claire (Ludivine Sagnier), who has full custody of their son, Raoul (Etan Simon). The focus on broken families offers the perfect setup to explore more of Assane’s backstory, as the flashbacks featuring his father provide important emotional context for why he chose a path of thievery.
Lupin is just grounded enough for the international espionage and adventure to feel exciting, but there is an aura of old-fashioned mischief and snark that is rare on streaming. The show also feels unabashedly massive in scale, but not because it commands a huge budget; there is an art to how Lupin utilizes the architecture of its locations, with a particular celebration of Paris and its vast cultural history. Credit is due to Louis Leterrier, a veteran French filmmaker behind several blockbusters, who helmed many of the most pivotal episodes of the show, including the electrifying pilot. Having someone used to operating in a cinematic medium helped set an aesthetic tone for Lupin that makes it unique within the streaming landscape, as it has a signature personality that doesn’t feel algorithmic. The series has even been able to acknowledge its success as a sleeper hit, given that Part 3 focuses on the challenges that Assane faces after becoming a celebrity.
‘Lupin’ Is the Perfect Binge Watch
Lupin avoids being derivative because the show matures and escalates the stakes as it goes along. The first installment of the show has a whimsical yet poignantly light-hearted tone with only occasional dips into melancholy, but it concludes with an exciting cliffhanger that sets up Part 2. Since the first two parts essentially follow a continuous storyline, Part 3 takes a major step forward in examining Assane’s past and future when his allies are put in real danger as a result of his actions. Even though Lupin pays tribute to the classical works of literature that inspired it, the show does not feel restrained by the past. Some of its strongest notes involve the institutional oppression that Assane faces due to racism, classism, and xenophobia, and his perseverance is part of what makes him such an inspiring hero.
Lupin is the rare show that is as narratively exhilarating as it is emotionally satisfying because it takes joy in its twists and turns without forgetting that there is a reason to care. In an era when streaming shows can become very bloated, the fact that each season of Lupin is relatively short makes each feel like a true event with no moment wasted. It’s become less common in the contemporary television ecosystem for a show to span more than three seasons, but Lupin warrants continuation because of the ample possibilities for escapism, intrigue, and innovative set pieces. Assane is a character who uses charisma to mask his sneaky ambitions, and the same description can be applied to Lupin as a series.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login