The first-ever original Netflix series in French is—or was, since it was canceled after two seasons (2016-2018)—a political potboiler with strong soap opera elements. As the first eight-episode series begins, Robert Taro (beefy Gérard Depardieu), mayor of the French city for two decades, is at the point of retirement. He plans to turn control over to his deputy and hand-picked successor Lucas Barrès (Benoît Magimel), along with a plan to build a casino at the port that will both rejuvenate the tourist trade and wrest power from local mafia lord Cosini (Jean-René Privat).
But Lucas, a silkily smooth operator especially where women are concerned, has other ideas: working with Cosini, he sabotages his mentor’s scheme. The motive behind Barrès’ betrayal is a personal one, revealed midway into the season, which changes the men's relationship unalterably and prompts Taro to reenter the upcoming election. The campaign becomes an improbable chain of tawdry double-dealing, involving not merely collision with the underworld but secret arrangements with other parties, culminating in a couple of election night shockers.
The political shenanigans, which also feature Machiavellian femme fatale Vanessa d’Abrantes (Nadia Fares), are accompanied by personal turmoil surrounding Taro’s emotionally fragile wife Rachel (Géraldine Pailhas) and their journalist daughter Julia (Stéphane Caillard). She shows an interest in bad boys from the slums, including handsome Eric (Guillaume Arnault), a fellow with a short fuse who must share her attentions with Selim (Nassim Si Ahmed) while toeing the line with Cosini’s drug-pushing underling Farid (Hedi Bouchenafa).
In the second season, another city institution takes center-stage: the soccer team and stadium, the sale of which becomes a new bone of contention—and a cause of violence that unsettles the community and helps bring Robert and Lucas together. But a new factor is added to the equation in the person of Jeanne Coste (Natacha Régnier), a beautiful but totally untrustworthy member of a far-right party who weasels her way into the deputy mayor’s slot—and Lucas’ bed.
What results is a personal crisis that mirrors the one in which Taro had found himself in the first season, and leads to the exposure of the corruption in the government—both municipal and national—that, along with the resolution of familial turmoil, ends the series on a positive note, even if a final twist indicates that the city’s problems are far from over.
While aspiring to be a Gallic House of Cards, the series is more like a steamy political version of Dallas. Its melodramatic swerves are ludicrous, but the cast plays them with commitment, and the frequent airborne views of the city add some glamour. The action periodically pauses for Taro to deliver a poetic expression of his love for Marseille; a viewer is unlikely to be so entranced by the series titled after it but might appreciate it as a guilty pleasure. The only extras are trailers for each season. Optional.