Coventry Review of Baptiste

Baptiste (2019–2021)

Tchéky Karyo keeps searching even after "The Missing".

[7/10 · 24 June 2019]

"Baptiste" is actually the third season of "The Missing", but since the missing person is already found in the second episode and an entirely new storyline develops from there, the makers probably thought it was better to start over as a spin-off with a new title. "The Missing" was a great series with tense & convoluted screenplays and a magnificent role for Tchéky Karyo as the brilliant and persistent ex-researcher Julien Baptiste, who still occasionally helps the police with difficult cases. When vacationing with his family in Amsterdam, Baptiste is called upon by the local commissioner (who's also a former girlfriend of his) to help locating the missing niece of a Brit named Edward Stratton. When Baptiste finds the girl, she tells a very different story, namely that she's a prostitute and that Stratton was an overly obsessive client of her. When confronted with her version, Stratton confesses to Baptiste that he's being extorted by a relentless Eastern European human-trafficking ring, the Brigada Serbilu, because he helped the girl to steal a large sum of money from the criminal organization. Shortly after, the young prostitute dies in an attempt to escape from Brigada Serbilu, but the money she stole is still lost and the Brigada now even targets Baptiste's family to force him finding the money. "Baptiste" is nowhere near the greatest TV-series ever produced, and even a step down from "The Missing" already (especially season one), but it remains well-made action/thriller entertainment with great performances, relevant social themes, solid suspense and a handful of unexpectedly shocking twists. Certain sub plots are rather silly and unnecessarily stretched with implausible twists, like the money that keeps disappearing, but every scene involving the portentous Brigadu Serbilu (and notably the creepy Constantin character) network is realistically raw and terrifying. Like "The Missing", "Baptiste" is primarily a British production but in collaboration with Belgium and The Netherlands, which mean that several local acting talents have the rare opportunity to finally star in a more prestigious series than usual, like Barbara Serafian, Boris Van Severen or Tom Audenaert.