Police captain Julia Scola (Claire Keim) is a good cop in a bad situation. She recently stood up and testified against two fellow officers accused of rape. They went to prison; she became an outcast.
While some of her comrades support her, others see her as a snitch who sold out those she was meant to stand by. Graffiti outside her locker, a doll hanging inside, and a whole lot of attitude from those around her all add up to the kind of workplace where she could really use friends in high places.
Instead, midway through her latest case, she discovers that her unit’s new superintendent is Novak Lisica (Lannick Gautry – also in at SBS On Demand). Even before he sits down there’s two strikes against him. The first is that he’s a former criminal defence lawyer, one of those who put the criminals that Scola and her colleagues arrested right back out on the streets. Exactly why he changed career is a mystery, though it seems likely that his separation from his wife – and former partner at their law firm – has something to do with it.
Clair Keim as Julia Scola. Source: Nicolas Roucou / Beaubourg / TF1
The second strike is a bit more personal: he’s Scola’s ex. They didn’t part as friends.
Unlike a lot of crime serials where there’s one big case running throughout the background of the series, the mystery here is more personal – why did the pair break up so badly that her first reaction to his arrival is to offer to resign? He persuades her to stay with a bet: if he solves her current case then they both stay, but if she gets to the answers before he does, he’ll take it as a sign he’s not cut out for this line of work and move on.
Lannick Gautry as Novak Lisica. Source: Nicolas Roucou / Beaubourg / TF1
(Vice Le Coeur is a six-part series, so it’s no spoiler to reveal that his knowledge of exactly how criminal lawyers train their clients to get their story straight gives him an edge when it comes to solving at least part of the puzzle.)
As for her current case, it’s a murder that doesn’t involve a body (there’s so much blood, they have to assume the victim couldn’t have survived) but does involve a wolf. Presumably the killer left it behind in the garage, nobody seems to know for sure. Julia isn’t someone who could just let a wild animal be destroyed, but when she takes the wolf out into the wilderness to set it free, she discovers it has a secret of its own.
Future episodes see Scola and Lisica dealing with a teen obsessed with UFOs found dead on top of a truck, a murder where the only witness is a young girl with autism, a manhunt tracking down a mentally ill medical student who terrorised his family, and a double homicide that has the duo struggling with the way their own history was once intertwined. When they’re working on a case, they make for a great team; it’s outside their day job that the trouble starts.
Her precarious position in the wake of her testimony (when a fellow officer says “your father would be proud” early on, it’s hard to know whether he’s being sarcastic) and Lisica’s status as an untried newcomer should make them natural allies. But Julia is convinced he’s up to no good - so much so that she gets fellow squad members to secretly dig up his past while she’s taking photos of his breakfast meetings. “He’s a liar and a manipulator,” she tells one of them, “never believe a word he says”.
At a crime scene Source: Nicolas Roucou / Beaubourg / TF1
Adding to their present-day dramas is an extensive series of flashbacks running throughout the series, starting with Julia and Novak’s first meeting at primary school (he’s the new kid at school; she just beat up a bully) and following their increasingly connected lives as they grow up.
Seeing their childhoods adds a new layer to proceedings, making their past something real rather than just a device to set them at each others’ throats today. Julia’s desire for justice and her interest in crime were there from the start (having a policeman father who drops crime scene photos around the house helped there), while her bond with Lisica doesn’t seem to point to the intense hatred and suspicion she feels for him today.
Vice Le Coeur is French for “Aim for the heart”. Over the years Julia Scola’s become pretty good at keeping her heart protected. But with Novak Lisica back in her life - and with some secrets of his own - will her mistrust be enough to keep her safe?
