Streaming series review - Tandem: Return to the Past

Tandem: Return to the Past (Retour vers le passe) ***1/2 (out of 5) This long-running light French police procedural draws to an end after 85 episodes that aired from 2016-24. I reviewed the first dozen or so long ago, and don’t feel I’ve missed a lot of character progression in the interim. The squad and families have remained largely intact, with a few comings and goings of supporting players. Ex-spouses and colleagues Lea (Astrid Veillon) and Paul (Stephane Blancafort) are getting along well and are possibly on the verge of re-tying the old knot. Their son Thomas (Titouan Laporte) has also become an officer. Things are going smoothly all around.

Wellll, that changes dramatically when a floating body turns up in the nearby river, minus one arm. Lea and Paul are vacationing with the family in the boonies when they find what turns out to be the missing appendage – miles from the other remains – perched atop a cairn, imbuing it with even greater significance. They soon learn that both parts came from a woman who was Lea and Paul’s bestie at the academy 20 years earlier. She was believed to have committed suicide. But the way her remains were unearthed and arranged, followed by the corpse of one of their old instructors found lying in her open, recently-vacated grave, indicate that our protagonists are being targeted to revisit the old case, since someone apparently has an axe to grind, and thinks they’re the ones to handle it. Or they might even be getting targeted in a more menacing sense of the word.

Events in this two-part episode move along at a good pace, with humor and a few subplots fleshing out the complete picture and moving all towards closure. The scenery is lovely, as are the old buildings featured in much of the action set in Montpellier and its surroundings in southeastern France. The cast is almost overrun with likable characters. Lea and Paul's faces - especially when smiling - radiate warmth and sincerity that works well with colleagues, witnesses and suspects. I’m sure all who saw the previous 84 will feel as if they’re saying goodbye to old friends. I’ll probably go back and catch the ones I’ve missed. (Since writing this, I already have; good stuff in the interim.)

No more coming without spoilers. Suffice it to report that all wraps up in a satisfactory manner, with no cliffhangers or unanswered questions.

(Tandem: Return to the Past, in French with subtitles, streams on MHz Choice as of12/23/25)