Make room for Project Innocence

Breaking news: you will not watch the 52 hours of broadcasts that have been sitting in your recorder since September. Impossible. Insurmountable task. Forget that.

So it’s time to delete this archived content and free up space for the new winter releases, including the legal thriller Innocence Project from the Noovo channel.

This series written by Nadine Bismuth (Indefensible, A family bond) and directed by Catherine Therrien (Turn, Cerebrum) looks like an effective cross between The Good Fight And How to Get Away with Murder. It starts this Tuesday at 8 p.m., and we are promised breathtaking twists and turns for ten episodes.

I saw the first two episodes on Monday, very compact, and I would have happily binged the rest, which is always a good indicator of interest. The story now? That of the famous criminalist Armand Coupal (solid Guy Nadon, as always), who supervises four university students in a project as special as it is complex, that of proving the innocence of a pimp, who denies having killed his girlfriend a dozen ago of years.

Having exhausted all his appeals before the courts, this “pimp”, Anderson Jean-Louis (Fayolle Jean Jr), is a member of a Haitian street gang in the Saint-Michel district and has committed numerous crimes. But did he beat up Vickie Tremblay (Claudia Bouvette), escort and nude dancer, and shoot her twice in the head?

Anderson Jean-Louis swears no, even though he was convicted of Vickie’s murder and is serving a minimum sentence of 25 years in the penitentiary.

This relatively simple plot hides several others, like Russian dolls. By digging into Anderson Jean-Louis’ file, the four students, led by the tenacious Stella (Emi Chicoine), unearth new evidence and test the validity of the alibis. This Stella, ambitious and go-getter, is the daughter of a well-known retired judge and a lawyer mother (Geneviève Rochette) specializing in family law. You can imagine that these three distinct storylines of father, mother and daughter will eventually intersect.

M^e Coupal is the backbone and anchor point of Innocence Project. Recruited specifically by the dean (Sophie Lorain) of the faculty, it is the first time that he has taught at the university and let us say that his brusque methods do not please his students. As criminalist Annalize Keating (Viola Davis) in How to Get Away with Murder, Armand Coupal does not put on four pairs of white gloves. It’s bing, bang, thank you good evening.

The four “interns” of M^e Coupal come from very different backgrounds and backgrounds. The most militant, Bénédicte Lebon (Audrey Roger), wonders what message we are sending to victims of sexual violence by defending the pimp Anderson Jean-Louis. OK, he may not have murdered Vickie Tremblay, but he still exploited several young women, right? Very valid point. Debate.

Innocence Project skillfully integrates elements of legal, police, prison series (memory ofOZhere) and even a touch of The Society of Dead Poetsthanks to the rich woodwork decor of M’s classroom^e Coupal, but also for the mentoring aspect of the TV series.

Yes, the material of Innocence Project, produced by Sophie Lorain and Alexis Durand-Brault from ALSO, is dense. With a few touches of humor in the script and the presence of four young academics, the series stands out from more traditional legal productions. Know that Innocence Project contains no court or courthouse scenes. The action takes place in the field, where we follow the twists and turns of the new investigation, which also goes back into the past of several characters.

Linda Malo plays the mother of pimp Anderson Jean-Louis, whom she disowned. Well. And I don’t know if it’s a deliberate nod, but author Nadine Bismuth named her police chief Bernard Brown (Alex Bisping). Yes, Bernard Brown. Like in the famous Oil of Olay ad from the late 1980s. Mademoiselle Henri? Yes, Bernard Brown. I smiled.

Death of co-authorIndefensible

This sad news shook the television industry last weekend. Criminal lawyer Richard Dubé, creator and co-author of the series Indefensible at TVA, died suddenly on Saturday. He died of a heart attack.

Richard Dubé, 66 years old, worked on Indefensible with his partner Izabel Chevrier, who produces and co-writes the legal series for TVA. In a moving message published Monday on Facebook, Izabel Chevrier spoke of the “indescribable pain” she has felt since the sudden departure of her lover, the man of her life.

“His reassuring presence, his laughter, his humor, his lucidity, his loving arms, he was my companion through all the struggles and all the pleasures. We formed a team united by the heart. A part of my heart died with him. Richard was so happy. He had finally realized a big dream, that of proudly finishing 40 years of practice in criminal law and being an author,” testified Izabel Chevrier.

The filming of the second season ofIndefensible were completed at the end of November, which gives the team a buffer period to absorb this immense shock. The third chapter, confirmed by TVA, will start in September, still at the Lapointe, Macdonald and Desjardins firm.