Netflix’s Lupin opens with a theft, but the real heist is the one pulled on the audience. Omar Sy plays Assane Diop, a professional thief working from a playbook written a century ago. The show premiered on 8 January 2021, when Netflix released its first five episodes. Another five followed on 11 June 2021. A third installment debuted on 5 October 2023. A fourth part is scheduled for 23 October 2026.
Trailer, via Netflix.
Assane Diop and the Necklace
The setup is simple and mean. Assane is the only son of an immigrant from Senegal who came to France for a better life. His employer, the wealthy Hubert Pellegrini, frames him for the theft of an expensive diamond necklace. Assane’s father takes his own life in his prison cell. His son is fourteen, alone on the streets of Paris.
Twenty-five years later, Assane works from a book his father gave him: the adventures of Arsène Lupin, the master thief Maurice Leblanc created in the early 1900s. Charisma, disguise and subterfuge are the tools. Clearing his father’s name is the job.
Wikipedia’s entry describes the show this way:
Lupin is a French mystery thriller television series created by George Kay and François Uzan.
That description undersells the thing, and it also undercounts the creators. Wikipedia credits Kay and Uzan alone, but the series is also credited to Marie Roussin, Florent Meyer and Tigran Rosine. Lupin is a revenge story built on a literary inheritance, and Sy carries it without breaking stride. The first part is subtitled Dans l’ombre d’Arsène — in the shadow of Arsène — and the show never lets you forget whose shadow it is.
What the Later Parts Do
The second part turns on the search for Assane’s kidnapped son, Raoul, and the plan to take Pellegrini down. Pellegrini is not killed. He is imprisoned. The third part revolves around the theft of “the priceless Black Pearl” and Assane’s attempt to mend things with his wife and son.
The show was watched by 76 million households in its first month, the most-watched non-English series on Netflix at the time. It won a Critics’ Choice Award for Best Foreign Language Series. It was nominated for Best Drama Series at the International Emmy Awards and the Golden Globe Awards. Sy’s performance drew particular praise, and it earns it.
Here is the thing worth saying plainly. Lupin works because it treats its source as a set of rules rather than a costume. The disguises, the misdirection, the gentleman thief’s code — all of it is load-bearing. The father’s death is not decoration. It is the engine.
The third part stretches Assane thin between a jewel and a family he cannot quite hold, and this paper found it the least satisfying of the three. That is a judgement on the writing, not a verdict on the show. The first two parts are close to perfect pulp, and Sy is the reason. 8.2 of 10.
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