Première welcomes Trepalium as a rare gamble in French television drama. The series imagines a society in which only twenty percent of people have jobs. A wall separates those in work from those excluded beyond the city: science fiction gives the social divide a visible form.
The review focuses above all on Vincent Lannoo's visual work. Cold architecture and repurposed real locations make this future immediately believable. The article singles out Oscar Niemeyer's French Communist Party headquarters and the National Library of France, which give the series scale despite its tight budget.
“Le résultat visuel est bluffant”
Première
For the magazine, this command of the image carries the subject as powerfully as the plot. It makes Trepalium a landmark of French speculative fiction and gives its social anxiety a physical presence.
The original article
Trepalium : la première série dystopique française a de la gueule
Première · Première editorial team · February 18, 2016