Astrid Revisited (My Rating: Still 5)

And a British remake on the way?

However strange it may seem to say about a murder series, Astrid is just a lovely program. I first highlighted the show in September 2023 as “a French series starring Sara Mortensen as Astrid, an autistic woman, with complete recall of the police crime archives (where she works), who comes to partner with a rather flamboyant Parisian commander in the judicial police.” Gave it a Five rating in my full review. Since then there have been two new seasons – three and four – and they can be found on PBS/Walter Presents.

I watched season three last year and am now catching up with season four. The show remains one of the best. Astrid and Commandant Raphaëlle Coste have deepened their friendship and collaboration. It’s fun watching the two women interact with affection and mutual respect while each teaching the other about the parts of life she needs help with. Astrid continues her social skills sessions with that interesting group of fellow neurodivergents. She finds ways to become more comfortable with interaction with neurotypicals, including her boyfriend Tetsuo. It’s a pleasure to see Astrid sort her way into discovering new things about herself through these encounters.

The combination of crime solving and personal dynamics – something I don’t usually like in my detective shows – works well here because each feeds into the other. The locked-room scenarios are also on the frontier ranging from bio-engineering to AI. Astrid is filmed in Paris and in French (with subtitles), so what is not to like! Still a 5.

As with Professor T – which the excellent original Belgian version gave birth to a UK version – a British version of Astrid appears to be destined for PBS as Patience.