Netflix's Lupin is France's answer to Sherlock

The Daily Dot

Omar Sy plays a criminal mastermind in the heist drama based on Maurice Leblanc's Arsène Lupin novels, the French equivalent to Sherlock Holmes. "Lupin combines heist-thriller hijinks with some obvious cues from Sherlock," says Gavia Baker-Whitelaw. "The music is similar, as is Lupin's glitzy, fast-paced urban setting. It is, however, a lot more conventional and narratively coherent than Sherlock. Not a bad thing. Lupin feels more like a high-quality network series than the sprawling tone of many Netflix dramas, with fun standalone adventures tying into a season-wide arc about corruption and injustice. By rebooting the franchise with a Black protagonist, Lupin puts a new spin on the cat-and-mouse chase between our hero and the police. Assane Diop's childhood was ruined by the machinations of a corrupt French businessman, kickstarting his drive to become a masterful con artist. This gives us a more compelling emotional backdrop for Diop's Lupin-style escapades, in the same way that Leverage's ridiculous heists were often deceptively political. He's determined to destroy his lifelong nemesis, but this grim backstory is balanced out by an entertaining series of elaborate crime capers. (One episode is a reverse prison-break; another involves scamming his way into the Louvre. It's that kind of vibe.)"

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