Minuit, le soir (2005–2007) User Reviews

Excellent series

[hbrecliner · 10/10 · 24 September 2006]

The plot is about three bouncers in downtown Montreal, but it really revolves around the hardships of those three guys outside of work.

This is the freshest and most gripping series that has been filmed for Quebec television. The authors have mentioned that they wanted to shoot a dark comedy... well they got the dark part right, but this is no comedy. The characters are complex, and the plot development is very intense. The background music adds to the heavy tones of the show. The actors are superb, getting their message across with minimal dialog. In fact, the most gipping scenes have almost no dialog, but rely more on the intensity of the situation, and the actors response to it.

By the closing credits, you curse to yourself because you want it to continue. Awesome series!

Indeed a comedy

[raymond-andre · 9/10 · 16 July 2011]

Someone sold me the box set of all three seasons for 15$. I did not know just what a bargain I had made until I watched this wonderful TV series.

As the first episode began my wife and I did not know quite what to expect. A few scenes into it the main character, Marc, played by series creator Claude Legault chases a man out of a downtown nightclub and through the streets, then across the Jacques Cartier bridge, then down the highway, then down a country road before finally catching him and beating him to a pulp. It was both an impossible montage and a bizarre thing to stick into the middle of the episode. Then we got it. This was not meant to be taken literally or seriously. The closest thing like it I have seen recently was the American series Scrubs. Both series takes us into the inner world of the characters, where reality really has no place. The care and delicacy with which the series is shot is amazing.

My favourite scene comes around episode 10 or 11. It lasts maybe 45 seconds. The main character is at a party and he is carrying a punch bowl out of the kitchen when his woman boss, with whom he is infatuated, stops him and starts pouring a bottle of vodka into the bowl. Time seems to stop. He leans forward and gets a whiff of her perfume. Time slows down. He lets go of the punch bowl and it just floats there. The camera does a 360 around them and we get a series of dissolves as he reaches out and just almost touches, almost caresses her hair, then her face and shoulders and waist and breasts. The intimacy is excruciating. He moves around behind her and their bodies are almost making full contact. The camera is moving in closer with each dissolve. The most amazing thing about it is the actress's eyes. You see from shot to shot the growing awareness in her eyes of the attention he is paying her. She first seems flattered, then maybe disturbed by the invasion into her space. The scene ends with him leaping back into place to catch the punch bowl before it falls to the ground. It is a technically complex and flawlessly executed scene.

The series is full of such brilliant ideas. One of the best TV series I have ever watched.