Fans of Astrid, rejoice! This sleeper hit French mystery series is returning to the US and Canada with its second season next month. (Yay!)
Mark your calendars, folks!
Astrid: Season 2 premieres in the US and Canada on Friday, January 20, exclusively on the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel and the Walter Presents digital channels.
For viewers who may not be familiar with this awesome series, Astrid (known as Astrid et Raphaëlle in France) is a police procedural/mystery series that stars Sara Mortensen (Perfect Crimes, The Art of Crime) and Lola Dewaere (Fear by the Lake, Bright-Eyed Revenge) in the lead roles. Mortensen plays Astrid Nielsen, a single woman on the autism spectrum with Asperger’s syndrome, who works as an archivist in the police’s criminal records department. Dewaere plays Raphaëlle Coste, a police commander and single mum.
Some folks think Astrid is like Saga Norén, the Swedish cop in The Bridge (or Elise Wasserman in the show’s British-French version The Tunnel), and it’s understandable (although autism is implied rather than stated in The Bridge). But Astrid would likely give them a litany of reasons for why it’s both an apt comparison and an imprecise one. The two characters have many similarities but also a number of differences, the more notable ones being Astrid isn’t a police officer (although she is authorized!) and she doesn’t like being touched. Nor does she drive (a Porsche or any other vehicle). Astrid does, though, love puzzles and work on investigations by way of her job in criminal records — the latter coming about after she helps Raphaëlle solve a complex triple-murder case (in the pilot episode). Ditto cases involving a haunted house, a drowning that occurred nowhere near a source of water (or other liquid), and the corpse of a young man who was actually 80 years old.
These clever whodunit stories are simply delicious! And more are on the way in Season 2. Across eight episodes, the fabulous crime-fighting duo of Astrid and Raphaëlle must figure out a magician’s sleight of hand, outwit a witch’s evil spells, and determine if a man was murdered by a mythical Golem. They also take on a Japanese yakuza (mafia), investigate a potential alien abduction, and get to the bottom of a crime where the victim was found in the organ at the Paris headquarters of Radio France.
While the cases force Raphaëlle to confront her past, Astrid must get used to a life of being completely on her own, now that her guardian is gone — and the pair’s friendship is invaluable as they each tackle emotional traumas in the new season.
Returning cast members include Benoît Michel (Bright-Eyed Revenge) as Nicola, Raphaëlle’s police partner; Meledeen Yacoubi (Girlsquad) as fellow flic Arthur; Jean-Louis Garçon (Family Business) as their boss, Commissaire Carl Bachert; Husky Kihal (Out of Frame/Hors Champ) as medical examiner Henry Fournier; Jean Benoit Souilh (Munch) as William, leader of the AAA (Aide aux Autistes Adultes) support group meetings that Astrid attends; and Timi-Joy Marbot (By the Grace of God) as Théo, Raphaëlle’s son.
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