HO DESERVES A Christmas bonus? Execs at Netflix France, for starters. The miniseries known across the Channel as and now streaming here as (Netflix) is a cherishably eccentric, rewardingly funny weighing with the ceremonial trappings replaced by cheese and sheepskin coats. Weirdly, Tapie has much in common with Assane Diop (Omar Sy), hero of global hit (Netflix), back for a third instalment. Both are born shapeshifters, rarely observed wearing the same hat twice; both know the value of money in today’s world; and both seem but a heartbeat away from the one false move that will land them in irons. The show has made no such mistakes in updating Maurice Leblanc’s serial about the “Gentleman Burglar” to contemporary Paris, limiting itself to smaller series so as to better channel its creative energies into top-drawer twists and only the finest close shaves (season three may arrive at the ultimate in narrow escapes, involving a coffin). It remains a gift of a show, and one of the modern era’s great adaptations: literate yet nimble, and set to run and run.
