The bottom line: Sometimes They Come Back.
Clémentine Célarié (Lebowitz contre Lebowitz) plays Louise Poquelin, a blue collar police captain and a mum. Joffrey Platel (Demain nous appartient, Riviera) co-stars as Lieutenant Étienne de Beaumont, an aristocrat who lives in the family château, loves books and drives a chic vintage car. The actor is a familiar face of France 3, where he played in Les ombres de Lisieux, Murder in... Lorraine (Meurtres en Lorraine) and the one-off TV movie Classe unique with Clémentine Célarié.
Rémi Delasalle, the director of the Lycée hotelier international, finds his wife Alicia hanged in the cold room of the establishment. Capitaine Poquelin rules out a suicide in a case which echoes a personal drama. De Beaumont must deal with his past too when a young woman writes "Assassin" with a lipstick on the windshield of his dear Peugeot. Poquelin and Étienne suspects Rémi but also Samba M'Bengue, a dismissed student. Raphaël wants to know what is his exact place in Louise's life.
The pseudo-rebellious Louise Poquelin remains a Captain Marleau on antidepressants but without Should I Stay or Should I Go by The Clash (the title song of the first episode). Her romance with Raphaël is more Un si grand soleil or Demain nous appartient (1) than Richard Curtis, though she tries hard by getting on a car roof. The required quota of humour includes yoga and Poquelin tormenting the duo's boss between two tantrums. Poor Étienne has now a reason to cherish his precious vehicle.
The dialogues are calamitous and often laughable. Olivier Rabourdin plays Rémi Delasalle. The great Francine Bergé appears as Annette Delasalle. With Jules Houplain (Antoine Poquelin), Olga Mouak (Violette Langlois), Cyril Garnier (Raphaël), Cypriane Gardin (Manon Poquelin), Adèle Choubard (Anaïs Poquelin), Benjamin Bourgois (Timothée Richard), Lilly-Fleur Pointeaux (Héloïse), Antoine Chappey (Le commissaire), etc.
Produced by Terence Films and Gétévé Productions with France Télévisions, Fontana and RTBF (Télévision belge). With the participation of RTS Radio Télévision Suisse. Produced by Bertrand Cohen and Stéphane Meunier. Music by Armand Amar. Created by Sandrine Lucchini & Matthieu Savignac. Written by Eugénie Dard and Charlotte Joulia. Directed by Gabriel Aghion. Police de caractères is distributed by Banijay Rights. France 3 will air Police de caractères: Post Mortem and a repeat of the original TV film on Saturday, February 27.
(1) Two of France's answers to EastEnders or Coronation Street.
See also:
https://tattard2.blogspot.com/2020/01/police-de-caracteres-france-3.html