Cat Fancy

Mademoiselle Holmes S02E01, “Suivez le chat” (Follow The Cat), runtime 49:52
Subtitles download link


Season 2 begins with no payoff to last season’s cliffhanger ending. Charlie is safe, telling us (rather than showing us) how she got to where she is– a rest home where she’s been enjoying a voluntary mental health holiday.

April Moriarty vanished after her Big Fall from the cliff at Gray Rocks; Georges has recovered; IGPN has cleared Charlie, ruling the cliff was an accident (presumably Georges gave testimony about who really shot him, but it’s not mentioned. Bad writing). Which means Charlie can return to work.

Charlie and Samy check out Violaine's shop

But before Charlie can get there she and Samy happen upon a dead man in the street with no ID. The only clues are a wristwatch, paint on a shirt covered with cat hair, and cat scratches on his body. In true Holmes fashion she quickly deduces where he lives, leading to an identification, and the hunt for the killer is on.


MISC.

Sherlock Holmes went for rests in the country in the stories “The Reigate Squires” and “The Adventure of The Devil’s Foot.”

In “The Adventure of The Lion’s Mane,” Sherlock— sans Watson— investigates after witnessing the death of a man with whip-like injuries on his body, not cat scratches.


NOTES

SDF = Sans Domicile Fixe, ‘homeless’ (5’17”).

5’54”: I can’t recall a wristwatch making a ticking sound you could hear without putting your ear up to it. More bad writing.

Cha-cha-cha

Capitaine Marleau #36, "La 7eme danse" (The 7th Dance), runtime 1:39:15
Subtitles download link

Véronique and Alexandre Rémonville own a bustling Latin dance school, she's the artistic heart of the operation and he's the management. When we meet them they are preparing for their big annual dance festival. Dozens of happy participants will engage in various styles of Latin dances, concluding with a big ball. What could possibly spoil this idyllic scene?

Well, just a curious rash of pickpocketing.  But then Véro and Alex's daughter Bérenice vanishes, and the local gendarmes call in Marleau. Then Alexandre's brother Luc (he runs the festival refreshment stand) ends up with his head bashed in.  Where’s Bérenice? Who killed Luc? The suspects are many:

• Bérenice herself
• Daniel, a sketchy Corsican biker
• Momo, accordion player and Bérenice’s boyfriend
• Zoé, a nervous and emotional festival-goer
• Dr Chastaing the veterinarian

Marleau follows the links between Luc and all these suspects, as well as the joint secret he and Véro are protecting.

Masiero, with Aurelie Verillon as 'Speedy' 

MISC.

Véronique appears to have been the final role played by Émilie Dequenne, the Belgian actor passed away March 16, 2025. Her husband Michel Ferracci plays Daniel the biker. 

Alexandre is played by Gregoire Bonnet, who was the gruff and troubled Capt Monet in “Meurtres à Amiens.”

The show has done a good job lately of adding narrative content in the cold opens and opening credits. This episode begins with possibly the most plot-propelling pre-credits scene since Season 1's "À ciel ouvert."

The locations for the episode were in the Paris region.

The sound designer for this episode went bonkers with the animal sounds: birds, dogs, sheep, cows, roosters.

Who Shot G.H.?

Mademoiselle Holmes, S01E06, “Le Dernier probléme” (The Final Problem), runtime 51:34
Subtitles download link

The first season concludes.

Even after the shock of the climax of the preceding episode, Charlie wants to work with the rest of the team on the hunt for Georges’s attacker. But that's against regulations, so instead Florence hands her a safe little stolen packages case. But she and Samy solve it in just a few hours. What to do? The haul from the package thief’s place yields a clue to her reckless driver from Episode 1– and she takes the bait.

This episode takes its title from the Doyle story of the same name. I don't notice any plot similarities, other than the Reichenbach Falls.

Charlie and Samy debate her final chance to trap Georges's assailant

NOTES

1’17”: We learn that the Holmes lake house is at 5 Impasse de L’Etang (lagoon/pond), a fake address in Fay-de-Bretagne, a real town near Nantes. There are several Impasses de L’Etang in France, the closest to Fay-de-Bretagne is in Petit-Mars, 15 miles to the east.

I can't find fanboy Samy’s chess board factoid (5’19”) in Holmes canon.

Mademoiselle Holmes S01E05, “-20 Degrés”

Mademoiselle Holmes S01E05, “-20 Degrés” (-20 Degrees), runtime 52:49
Subtitles download link

The penultimate episode of Season 1, we come to a 2-episode story arc and a cliffhanger. I have no idea which Sherlock Holmes story this episode references, if any.

The brigade is called to Maison Yvrard, a successful gourmet ice cream company, where the glacier has been found dead in a freezer. Maybe things aren’t as successful as it appears. Charlie quickly homes in on company founder Vincent Yvrard. He’s played by Stéphane Brel, whom I automatically suspect because he excels at playing honest-looking handsome guys who turn out to have no problem with criming (see the final episode of Les Pennac(s) and the Candice Renoir Halloween special). In that way he's sort of the male Anne Caillon.

L-R: Dewaere, Caroline Ferrus as Eléna, Stéphane Brel as Vincent.

Meanwhile, Georges has gone off to their lakeside country house for some relaxation and to polish his chess game.


NOTES

5’18”: Claus Henssge (1936-2021) was the German doctor who developed the standard formula for estimating time of death, expressed in a table or grid.

Mademoiselle Holmes S01E03, "Sortie de route"

Mademoiselle Holmes S01E03, "Sortie de route" (Left The Road), runtime 48:28

Subtitles download link

This time I'm trying something a little different. I have no French subtitles to start from for most of Season 1 of Mademoiselle Holmes, such is the case with about a third of my subtitling projects. In such situations I have to translate it using my ears and Google Translate. But this time I thought I would try the Vosk audio transcription add-on for Subtitle Edit. Yes, I know many say Whisper is better, and maybe it is but I can't get it to work at an acceptable speed (20-36 hours to process one 90 minute file is ridiculous). Even if Vosk doesn't get the words right, I'm hoping it will at least get the slots and timings correct and I'll save some time. I'll sum-up at the end.

The mystery at the center of "Sortie de route" concerns the car accident death (immolated following an engine explosion) of Anthony Sinçon, brother-in-law of Charlie's old friend Nicolas Belliard.

Charlie and Samy are greeted by a kid armed with a banana

Something about the circumstances feels off to Charlie. Chris and Florence first suspect Nicolas, then his wife Suzy, a mechanic, then Roxane, Nicolas’s former mistress/current stalker. Charlie naturally just wants to help her friends. Florence's cool private eye sister Muriel pops in.

The plot has an element of the Sherlock Holmes story "The Bruce-Partington Plans," except the victim dies by falling from a train, and there were missing submarine plans.

It occurs to me that perhaps Muriel is meant to be the Mycroft analog, but Florence's sibling rival rather than Charlie's.

Mademoiselle Holmes S01E02, "#RECHERCHEK-LISTA"

Mademoiselle Holmes S01E02, "#RECHERCHEK-LISTA" (#LookingForK-Lista), runtime 49:09
Subtitles download link

Charlie's style makeover continues, and Georges's vigilance becomes concerning.

Charlie discovers massaging car seats.

Chris hands Charlie and Samy a missing persons case: a man is reporting his daughter Callista missing. She's a fashion influencer on social media, where she goes by 'K-Lista.' Is Callista's disappearance due to a crazed fan? A competitor? Her PA? Her father? Her secret boyfriend? And what role does lactose intolerance play?

NOTES

Cold open: Le Tigre was an all-woman American synth/punk band with one album in 1999, reissued in 2004.

Nantes does not have an Avenue de Gallebin (5'46").

Finally, Georges mentions his father (12'40").

This is a Lola Dewaere stan page

Mademoiselle Holmes S01E01, "On ouvre ses chakras!" (We open our chakras!), runtime 50:33
Subtitles download link

Four-and-a-half months after deciding to translate only episode 4 of Season 1 of this light mystery, I've received reader requests for the other five episodes as well. They asked nicely, so here we go.

This episode does what a pilot or first episode is supposed to do, establishing the setting (Nantes), main characters, and their dominant personality traits.

• Charlie Holmes:  great-granddaughter of Sherlock; police detective (low level at first). 'Nuff said.

• Samy Vatel is the Watson, sweet-natured yet slightly anxious.

• Chris Hervieu is the Lestrade, the brigade criminelle team leader who is capable but not especially clever, a harried divorced father of teens.

• Grandfather Georges seems a kindly old man, but, as I wrote about episode 4, he uses Charlie's medications like a leash. He was a high-ranking cop, commissaire at Charlie's station, so he can't have been all sweetness and light.

• Florence Billon, Georges's successor as commissaire, is expectedly tough yet caring toward her work family.

• Jess and Loïc are the lieutenants, she's not as obviously quirky as Daphne on HPI, but he appears to be as strange as Gilles.

I don't yet see a Mycroft analog.

 

Lola Dewaere (the ice cream is a clue)

Second thoughts: Capitaine Marleau, "La cité des âmes en peine"

Masiero and Dalle in episode show art

Three-and-a-half years later, and it has suddenly occurred to me 💡 that the title of Capitaine Marleau episode 23 (the one with Beatrice Dalle), instead of "The City of Souls In Pain," should be translated "The Lost Souls Project."  Recall that cité, 'city,' can also mean 'housing project/estate.'  The housing for the fish factory workers is a cité in both senses, and additionally Marleau's project is helping the lost souls living there.  Well, that's how I see it.

"The Lost Souls Project" at Opensubtitles

Les Pennac(s), Pilot

Les Pennac(s), "Un air de famille" (A Family Resemblance), pilot, runtime 1:35:52
Subtitles download link

Last year I was happy to find the one and only season of Les Pennac(s) on a link aggregator, and enjoyed the six episodes. The pilot wasn't available at the time, but last week it was online, so I am finally able to see it and create a translation.

The differences are noticeable right away. Where Episode 1 started off with Annabelle almost joyfully making time during a foot pursuit to talk to Louis on the phone about school, the pilot begins on a downbeat note: Views of Annabelle's OCD closet, glum Hannibal, glum Annabelle getting ready for work.

Christian Rauth (L) as Hannibal, and Julie-Anne Roth as Annabelle

Astrid et Raphaëlle, S05E08

Astrid et Raphaëlle, S05E08 "Un mariage et quatre enterrements" (A Wedding and Four Funerals), runtime 58:03
Subtitles download link

The fifth season concludes. Tetsuo is back in France and they're getting ready for the wedding. Astrid briefs him on her search for Denis Chartreux, the equestrian center monitor from hell.

Raph couldn't be more excited, because the squad has been called to a movie studio. A famous actor was shot to death, during a take, with a prop gun that was supposed to be loaded with blanks. Prior to that we see, Columbo-like, the SPOILER methodically set up his alibi and go through the steps to swap real bullets for blanks. But it turns out this 'great artist' didn't have the imagination to devise the plot on his own, but had to bring in a 'murder script doctor.' Astrid and Raph have to unmask the real architect of the crime.

Mortensen and Dewaere, with Alex Goulde as Paul Gérard

NOTES

Et on tourne pause apr'?, 'And we shoot break after?' (1'54") includes a contraction (I'm assuming the apostrophe) of aprés. I'm making it 'What do we shoot after the break.'

2'47": That took 6 minutes?

Two more instances of Astrid being called 'Lt Nielsen' (7'44", 8'33").

People who rewrite scripts (10'44") in addition to script doctors are called script consultants in Hollywood.