Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Rebecca’ on Hulu, A Tingly French Remake Of ‘Marcella’

Hulu seems to have a hit on its hands with Rebecca, a French remake of the UK-produced Nordic noir Marcella, all three seasons of which are available on Netflix. The configuration is the same: A police inspector who plays by her own rules becomes obsessed with a string of unsolved murders even as her personal life unravels around a fractured marriage and frequent blackout episodes.

REBECCA: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Rain crashes down at night as a car idles near a motorway overpass. A woman comes to in the driver’s seat, where she was slumped in a sopping wet heap. On her face is one bewildered question: How did I get here?

The Gist: Anna Friel won an International Emmy for her work in Marcella, and over three seasons the procedural has proven to have legs, working tidily within the straightforward tenets of the Scandinavian noir genre – namely, unambiguous dialogue and an arrival at social commentary via comparison of what’s normal versus what’s hidden. The setup is similar for this Francophonic franchise version of the show, with Anne Marivin (Netflix’s Call My Agent!) in the lead role as police captain Rebecca Lacoste. In 2015, five women were killed in their homes, and the M.O. was always the same – a plastic bag over the head secured with tape, hands and feet bound, death by suffocation, and a trophy taken by the serial killer. With the murders remaining unsolved, Rebecca took a leave of absence from the force, ostensibly for parental leave – she has two young children with husband Julien (Benjamin Biolay) – but by the time we meet her, she and Julien are embroiled in an acrimonious separation, and her kids, away at boarding school, are cold and indifferent to her attempts at contact and normalcy. And on top of it all are her frightening and perhaps even violent blackouts, where she remembers nothing and wakes up disoriented. Rebecca has always been a brilliant investigator. But her personal life is one minefield after another.

When Paris is rocked by a similar series of murders, Rebecca rejoins the force with the blessing of her former colleague Laura Portier (Clotilde Courau), who’s now the police chief. When lead investigator Captain Rafik Abderrafi (Samir Guesmi)  bristles a bit at Rebecca’s arrival, the chief tells him how good she used to be. “Give her some freedom,” Laura tells Raf. “You’ll see.” And Rebecca begins working an old angle, a former suspect named Pierre Collange (Patrick Timsit) who these days is a convict in a work-release program. She also tries to reason with Julien, who flatly considers their marriage to be kaput. Julien is the legal counsel at a food company called Baumann, where the bottom line matters more than ethical business practices, and as for ethics, there’s the matter of Rebecca’s still-married husband’s relationship with Laetitia (Pauline Cheviller), the chief advisor to her mother Sylvie (Valerie Karsenti), who runs Baumann with a cutthroat efficiency that’s startling.

Rebecca’s going to have to learn to work with Raf, and sort out with Julien how to handle their separation when it comes to their kids. And she pleads with him for another chance, even as he angrily denies her. But there’s also the issue of Rebecca’s repeated blackouts, and how much that condition has informed her marital predicament, as well as her ability to quell the killing spree.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Netflix’s Black Spot is also a French-language police procedural, but a terrifically eerie one, with the supernatural air of True Detective playing out among killings and other doings in a mountainous forest region as Police-Major Laruene Weiss (Suliane Brahim) tries to stay sane and keep order.

Our Take: Anne Marivin is immediately compelling in Rebecca, inhabiting a character who, despite her mental faculties faltering and formerly happy marriage imploding, is utterly confident in her ability to find a solution. When Chief Laura Portier tells her they might have an opportunity to finish the unsolved cases of five years before, Rebecca turns away from the bunchy sweaters and stray wine glasses of her time on leave and pulls from a shelf dossiers packed with photos of grisly murder scenes. “I want to go back to work,” she tells the chief with typical matter-of-factness, and Laura understands that her best investigator is back on the job. That direct nature also informs Marivin’s scenes with Samir Guesmi as the all-business Captain Abderrafi, where the two professionals are as reluctant to compare notes on procedure as they are to suddenly have to become partners. The dynamic gives the investigation at the core of Rebecca real sizzle, and also allows Marivin to reveal her character’s unorthodox methods little by little. Here’s hoping the two captains resolve their differences, because it will be rewarding to watch them find this mysterious serial killer together.

As for Rebecca’s tenuous mental state, it’s a plot point that provides as much mystery as the ugly facts of the murders themselves. It’s not clear yet how much she actually understands about her own condition, and since we literally meet her inside the final moments of a blackout, we’re as mystified by the occurrences as she is. It solidifies our relationship with Rebecca, as she navigates these shifty waters, and provides a great hook for the development of character going forward, both in her personal life and work as a police detective.

Sex and Skin: There’s a brief subplot in the first episode of Rebecca concerning a young sex worker’s connection with the mysterious married woman she sleeps with in a hotel room. Something’s going to tie in there – murder? –  but it’s not made clear in the early going.

Parting Shot: The night, the rain, the idling vehicle, and Rebecca once again climbing out bewildered. But now we see the blood staining her hand and soaking into her sleeve, and we also know that she confronted Laetitia about her relationship with Julien. It seems Rebecca can really get around during these blackouts.

Sleeper Star: Valerie Karsenti is fantastic as Sylvie Baumann, the smart and ruthless boss of her family business. When her bleeding heart stepson challenges her call on an environmentally sound but costly purchasing decision, she turns on him with a mouthful of acid. “You have a desk and a phone here, and a nice little business card, because that’s what I promised your father on his deathbed. That, and nothing more.”

Most Pilot-y Line: An argument over their separation has gone south for Rebecca and Julien, but when she suddenly awakens alone in the kitchen, she’s at a loss. “What happened?” she asks him. “I don’t remember.” But Julien, his lip bloodied, simply turns to go. “I remember very well.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. With Rebecca, Hulu joins Netflix in playing its true crime documentary side off the dramatic notes of shows like this, where the body counts rise as the cops try to keep their marbles together.

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges