‘Blood Coast’ Netflix Series Review - An Incoherent Snoozefest

Netflix has tagged Blood Coast under two categories: Adrenaline Rush and Gritty. The show, however, invalidates this classification tediously. It neither gives you an adrenaline rush nor is it gritty. It's the viewer who actually wishes to rush away from the screen while watching this series. Blood Coast is not bad; it's downright unbearable. It sort of reminded me of Fake Profile. Like that "steamy" Netflix "thriller," this Kamel Guemra creation completely disregards something called filmmaking. The scenes are not edited but haphazardly stuck together. There is no rhythm but a sense that the series just quickly wants to be over. The actors regurgitate their lines while we try to decipher whatever's happening on the screen.

I can only confirm that Blood Coast is about Lyès Benamar (Tewfik Jallab), a police officer, and his team, who don't always follow the rules to do their job or retrieve information. Interpol agent Alice Vidal (Jeanne Goursaud) arrives in Marseille and joins Lyès' team. She is there to take revenge. Her target is a man named Murillo (Nicolas Duvauchelle). Lyès and the gang are also after him. Then there is another bad guy who is referred to as the Indian. He is apparently ruthless or something, but this incoherent snoozefest makes sure all the characters look bland and uninteresting. No one manages to leave an impression. Even Goursaud's beautiful face is rendered featureless.

After grasping all the basic details from the first episode, I struggled to make sense of the story from the second episode onwards. Characters constantly entered and left various places, and I had no idea what they were doing there. For the most part, I even failed to comprehend the conversations. It merely feels as if the actors are moving their mouths in different locations. Their efforts, as well as those of their characters, come across as insignificant. You can either offer your full attention or go through your phone while keeping this show on as background noise. In both cases, you will only emerge as a confused individual. I was always asking myself, "What the hell is going on here?"

Is it too much to ask for basic competence? When the story and the characters fail to engage the audience, the viewer naturally enters a comatose state. The filmmaking elements, too, are largely absent from here. There is nothing to absorb except boredom. It's tough to review shows like Blood Coast and Fake Profile because no viewing occurs in the first place. Some disjointed images simply flash on the screen, and after a while, we give up and stop taking in all the information. Our body vehemently rejects the show as if it's some kind of virus. We sit in our chairs motionless and eagerly wait for the suffering to end.

A taxi driver tells Alice that it's hard to ignore the taste of Marseille. Sadly, you cannot extend this compliment to Blood Coast. It's tasteless. One perplexing event leads to another perplexing event, and the police officers receive compliments in the end. The show has room for sex as well as violence, though the two elements are so feeble your only response is "meh." The action sequences come with a camera so shaky we struggle to see the characters and their position. They might as well be a warning for the inscrutable scenes that arrive from Episode 2 onwards. Blood Coast opens with this quote: A wolf raised by a dog remains a wolf. I also have a quote for this show: Ineptness produced by a premium streaming service remains inept.

Final Score- [1/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times