The Bureau: spies so real, real spies approve

Pick of the day: The Bureau, streaming on SBS on Demand.

Season three of celebrated French spy series The Bureau arrived on SBS On Demand yesterday, hot on the heels of the first two that debuted in recent weeks. Set in the General Directorate of External Security (DGSE) — analogous to Britain’s MI6 or the CIA in the US — it tells the story of the French agents who forgo normal lives to protect their fellow citizens from harm.

It builds slowly and concentrates more on the psychological and bureaucratic game of intelligence gathering than on James Bond-style spectacle. It also highlights France’s different perspective on geopolitical issues because of its unique colonial experiences.

The series has particular claims to authenticity, as producer Alex Berger revealed after winning the best TV series award from the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics last year. Because of the respect accorded to the show’s director, Eric Rochant, who wrote a film called The Patriots in 1994 that later was used as a DGSE training film, it was agreed that 300 secret agents would preview the first two episodes for verisimilitude. The result was a standing ovation.

The main character is Guillaume Debailly (Mathieu Kassovitz), a spy who recently has returned to Paris HQ from Damascus with a mistress in tow.

Audiences may recall Kassovitz from 2001’s Amelie or his more recent turn as Napoleon in last year’s War & Peace. Less well known is his directing career, which includes 1995’s outstanding film La Haine, set during a Parisian race riot.

Kassovitz has a message for audiences: “Please don’t binge,” he told The New York Times. “The real pleasure is to let it sink in and keep the wait up for next week because the series goes higher and higher and higher.”

His reasoning is sound, but with 30 episodes available to stream now, the temptation to respectfully ignore his wishes may be too great for most.