What I enjoy most about the Cremer series is how well it captures the atmosphere---from bars and bistros and apartments and mansions to the wet pavement of the streets to the peripheral noises to the varied dialogue to the quiet moments---that the author George Simenon brings to his Maigret stories. One doesn't read Simenon's Maigret mysteries simply for setup, epiphanous moment, and denouement. I would say the same is true of watching this series. Getting to and finding out "Who did it?" matters, yes, but only a bit. The best parts are the lingering moments in between.
"The Liberty Bar" is based on Simenon's novel of the same name, a story of the murder of William Brown, a man important enough to prompt the French government to send Maigret to the Riviera to investigate. Brown's body was found buried in his garden. Two women, having fled the house (and the buried body), are taken into custody. And then Maigret arrives. Soon after sifting through the murdered man's home, talking with the women who knew him, and learning the facts of his earlier life, Maigret comes to appreciate "good old William" and maybe we do too. The show follows the book quite well except for the name and appearance of one character: Here, I guess I'm being a Simenon purist, but I was looking forward to seeing how the filmmakers (and in turn the actress) delivered "Jaja" the owner of the Liberty Bar, and I was a little disappointed. In the film the name is changed to "Mado," and her appearance is quite different from the Jaja of the book. Yes, the character behaves here as in the novel and Pascale Roberts as Mado gives a fine performance, but (again I admit to being not just a purist but an obnoxious purist) I wanted Simenon's Jaja and we don't get her. Still, this is a splendid presentation of one of the better Maigret mysteries. Though a mystery with the expected twist here and there, this is as much a well-told story of a man---a man murdered and buried in his garden---we never get to meet.