Back in February, I called "Monsieur Spade" the best show you're probably not watching. Unless you caught the rest of season 1 while it aired on AMC or signed up for AMC Plus, there's a real chance you still haven't watched it.
But now, you have no excuse — because "Monsieur Spade" season 1 just dropped on Netflix. Unlike AMC Plus, if you have any of the best streaming services out there, you probably have Netflix. So now there's no reason not to watch what's still my favorite detective show of the year so far.
Yes, it's better than "True Detective: Night Country." And it's certainly better than "Sugar," which was one of the worst shows I've watched this year. Here's why this newly added Netflix show is the one you need to watch next.
'Monsieur Spade' nails the detective noir genre
"Monsieur Spade" stars Clive Owen as Sam Spade, the fictional private detective made famous in "The Maltese Falcon" book and movie adaptation. That adaptation starred Humphrey Bogart as the San Francisco sleuth, and is often considered among the best movies ever made. So "Monsieur Spade" and Owen had some big expectations to meet before the first episode even aired on AMC.
Well, Owen and show creators Scott Frank and Tom Fontana managed to meet those expectations. I won't pretend that they exceeded "The Maltese Falcon," which is probably the first great movie I ever watched. But Owen more than holds his own having to live up to Bogart's 1941 performance.
And the show manages to hold to the detective noir genre established by films like "The Maltese Falcon." It's in color rather than black and white, but the same dark, gritty nature of the genre is there. Owen fires off brilliant dialogue like they could do it in his sleep, and there's no shortage of the shady characters you'd expect in a detective noir story.
If I had to highlight the best aspects of the show, I'd clearly pick Owen's performance. One encounter between Spade and one of the show's bad guys — Phillippe Saint Andre (Jonathan Zaccaï) — in episode 3 is particularly enjoyable. But it's not just Owen who puts on a noteworthy performance. Cara Bossom as Teresa is a potential career-launching performance and Denis Ménochet as the local Chief of Police is great whether he's acting alongside Owen or not.
Despite being billed as a limited series, Owen and Fontana have publicly discussed that a second season is being discussed. So watch all six episodes of season 1 now on Netflix while waiting for season 2 to be officially announced.
