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Critic Reviews
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Uneven but fun to watch, “Monsieur Spade” eventually yields a suitably baffling ending, delivered via an exceptional cameo I’d hate to ruin. The show’s main flaw is its MacGuffin. .... The series collapses, by the end, into a narrower, more parochial sense of its stakes.
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Owen’s performance transcends the languid plotting in the first episode of Monsieur Spade. Will Owen make us forget about Bogart’s portrayal of Spade? Absolutely not. But he does a good job of bringing Spade into a more of a modern context.
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This results in Monsieur Spade being a somewhat fuzzy thing. I was consistently intrigued by the series, especially for Owen’s interestingly prickly work and the beauty of the surroundings, but it isn’t always clear why Frank and Fontana were inspired to reconsider Sam Spade, and their approach isn’t always compelling.
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Monsieur Spade does an impressive job of dress-up without ever feeling especially vital or insightful. Too often, Spade is merely part of a fussy, ornate narrative mosaic, and despite a strong supporting cast, few of the suspects, love interests, damaged souls, and very clearly secret agents who cross Spade’s path are as interesting as the venerable private eye.
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Clive Owen does a great job delivering witty dialogue, and he’s bolstered by some strong supporting actors, but that’s not enough to redeem a clumsy attempt at bringing the legendary PI out of retirement.
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While it may invoke tropes from the 007 films and Christie’s mysteries, Monsieur Spade’s heavy-handed setup and unsatisfying ending prevent it from rivalling those works.
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Unfortunately, the miniseries never quite lives up to all that assembled talent, nor does it ever really justify the idea of placing a much older Spade so far outside his and our comfort zone. It’s not without its charms — Clive Owen‘s magnetism chief among them — but it’s fairly low-energy, and much less stylized than you would expect from Frank as director and co-writer.
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