The Bureau – Series 4
Reading Time: 3 minutes
I missed the arrival of the fourth series of the French spy series The Bureau, but made up for it by watching these most recent 10 episodes over one weekend. My unqualified praise for the first three series (see my 2018 review) had left me a little apprehensive as to whether the exceptional standard could be maintained. This concern was short lived as it soon became clear that this series is not only every bit as good, but possibly the best of the four series.
Once again the settings are exotic – moving between Paris, Moscow, and war ravaged Syria and Ukraine. It was good to see areas of Moscow that are not included in typical tourist images. The scenes set in Syria reinforce and personalise the frightening news footage of recent years. As for Ukraine, the show manages to capture a country that has many western trappings but where turning off a highway may take you to recent war ruins or armed Russian sympathisers.
Most of the characters are familiar to us, and in witnessing their latest missions, we are also reminded of their past, not only thanks to scripts which seamlessly connect this series to the earlier three, but also due to flashbacks which through new footage serve to add to earlier episodes rather than merely reproduce them. This originality caught me out at the beginning of one episode when I was convinced that I must have inadvertently skipped back to an earlier series – even though I could not remember previously seeing the footage.
Series four continues to explore the internal politics of the DGSE office – reminding us that these intelligence officers are also competitive public servants and struggling with issues such as ensuring that they also have personal lives outside of work.
As in the earlier series we are reminded that while there is plenty of tension and fear in spying, there is little or no glamour, even in the personal relationships they form.
A contemporary issue that features in this series is that of artificial intelligence being used to distort democratic processes. Russian interference in the 2016 US Presidential elections is expressly mentioned, reminding us that this show is exploring a real and major issue.
This series reminds us that intelligence gathering is not for those seeking job security, as the lives of employees can and are sacrificed to gain a strategic advantage.
Series four of The Bureau is dangerously addictive television. not because it is relaxing or feel-good, but because it is so realistic in depicting lives of exceptional but almost universally damaged human beings struggling to make sense of their lives.
The online rumour mill suggests that a fifth series is on its way – perhaps as early as late this year. The end of series three was ambiguous as to whether a further series would be produced. Series four leaves open the possibility of a further series, while at the same time providing what I would regard as a moving and fitting conclusion to this show.
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