Tag: Arte

Netflix’s Transfers Season 1 Episode 4 Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 3 Comments

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In episode 4, Transfers takes the viewer deeper inside the illegal transfer business, showing the perspective of a buyer who is an average person and showing the workings of a mass body theft scam. The investigative process used by the BATI is also followed closely, and where it all goes wrong is revealed. There is unjust bias among the BATI and  there are important people exerting undue influence. There are BATI officers who are obsessed with following their own agenda. But those could all be overcome. It’s the major leaks from a highly placed person in the BATI to a ringleader in the transfer traffickers that foil the BATI every time.

Florian is still working his way through his philosophical and moral crises. Sophie is discouraged by his continued exploration of Sylvain’s life, but her uncle, Vautier, tries to reassure her that this is a normal part of the process for many transfers. As Sylvain, Florian is making waves by taking a stand on transfer issues, which causes everyone around him to reassess him, their relationship and their own opinions.

He’s not exactly keeping his head down and blending in so that he can quietly slip away with Sophie and the kids in a few months. Instead, Captain Sylvain Bernard is becoming more famous, and more controversial, than ever.

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Netflix’s Transfers: Season 1 Episode 3 Recap

~ Metacrone

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In episode 3, Florian digs deep into the realities of Sylvain Bernard’s life and world. After finding out in episode 2 that Sylvain took part in the beating of political enemies with Gabe, Florian realizes that he needs to find out as much as he can about the life he’s taken over. To this end, he acquires the recordings of his sessions with Sister Viviane and he tries to get to know Sylvain’s son. Both share information about Sylvain he isn’t sure he wants to hear.

Sylvain’s grown son, Fabrice, is involved with an organized illegal transfer business. Fabrice’s job is to lure an unsuspecting young woman into a relationship, then, once the client has approved her, trick her into becoming a transfer for a famous pianist. This transfer is meant to show us how specific and open the very wealthy can be with their transfers, despite the fact that the procedure amounts to murder.

Thomas is hospitalized for his injuries, which has Florian and Sophie on edge. Liza hangs around the hospital to keep tabs on them. Eventually, she goes to meet with Fausto, to make some financial arrangements that she can’t make as a child. Liza makes another visit to an old friend, with disturbing consequences. But this time, we find out who is hiding inside Liza’s skin.

Childhood has its benefits and drawbacks, even for a transfer.

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Netflix’s Transfers: Season 1 Episode 2 Recap

~ Metacrone

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In episode 2, Florian learns more about Sylvain Bernard and the plight of the transfers, as he works the case of two transfers who’ve escaped from the Transfer Center. He and Béatrice search for a missing man who was a young Chinese paraplegic. He had a legal, therapeutic transfer into the body of an able-bodied young white man. Now, he faces prejudice from his family and the community.

Florian also continues his reunion with Sophie and his children, with mixed results. He spends an evening with the family, which goes well. He and Sophie try being intimate, which is a disaster. They both need more time to adjust to Florian’s new situation.

As Sylvain’s coworkers try to figure out the changes in him, we learn that he wasn’t universally liked. We also learn that he had some questionable ethics. We get to know the members of the BATI better, and visit the Transfer Center, where the people they arrest are sent. As part of the investigation, this episode gives us our first look into the world of underground illegal transfers.

As episode 2 begins, Liza, the girl from the end of episode 1, ties a ribbon around her ponytail, then surveys the rest of her hair ornaments, of which there are many. They all disgust her.

She can hear her parents arguing downstairs about the changes they’ve noticed in her. Mom thinks she’s a transfer. Dad thinks their little girl is just growing up.

They aren’t the first parents to wonder if their preteen child is a changeling. In this case, they’re correct.

Liza takes care of “her” parents to ensure their silence, then eats breakfast as their blood drips onto the carpet.

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Netflix’s Transfers Season 1 Episode 1 Recap

~ Metacrone

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This is a recap. My review of Transfers Season 1 is HERE.

Transfers (Transferts) is a French science fiction-thriller series from the Arte network, which aired in November, 2017. The entire 6 episode series, which was created and written by Patrick Benedek and Claude Scasso, is now streaming on Netflix. Transfers won Best French Series and Best Actor (for star Arieh Worthalter) at the 2017 Séries Mania Festival, an international festival. The series was filmed in Belgium.

Transfers follows the story of Florian Bassot, a down to earth cabinetmaker and married father of two. Florian goes into a five year coma after suffering a swimming accident. He’s woken up from his coma by his wife Sophie’s uncle, Dr Vautier, who has transferred his mind into the body of another man, anti-transfer paramilitary officer Sylvain Bernard.

Sylvain was shot in the shoulder, but died from a reaction to the anesthetic used in his surgery to remove the bullet. His doctor kept his death a secret, and brought him to the transfer center for Dr Vautier to use in his experiments. Florian is confused when he awakens and sees his own dead body on the next table.

Since no one knows Sylvain is braindead, and everyone thinks Florian is braindead, Florian/Sylvain must assume Sylvain’s life as a violent officer in the anti-transfer police, the BATI. He’s forced to try to convince the people who were closest to Sylvain that he has amnesia, while navigating the world of illegal underground transfers and organized crime, as well as attempting to secretly rekindle his marriage to Sophie and reconnect with his children.

All while trying to avoid being identified as an illegal transfer, arrested, and interned in the transfer center for life.

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Netflix’s Transfers: Season 1 Review

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

*This is a review of Season 1. Recaps of individual episodes can be found HERE and on the Home Page as they are published.*

Transfers (or Transferts) is a 6 episode science fiction-thriller series, produced in France, which is now streaming on Netflix. The series aired in France in November, 2017, after having won Best French Series and Best Actor (for star Arieh Worthalter) at the 2017 Séries Mania Festival, an international festival. Transfers was created and written by Patrick Benedek and Claude Scasso.

Transfers takes place in the near future in a generic French city. Florian Bassot, a woodworker and family man, drowns while boating with his wife and children. He wakes up after having been in a coma for 5 years, and finds himself in another man’s body. While he was asleep, body swapping technology was developed, legalized, and then made illegal again two years later.

His wife, Sophie, never gave up on Florian, and arranged to have his mind transferred into the body of Sylvain Bernard, a brutal member of the anti-transfer police force, known as the BATI. Sylvain was shot in the shoulder, but died during surgery from a reaction to the anesthetic. Even though transfers are illegal, Sophie’s uncle, Dr Vautier, is a major researcher in the field, so he was able to secretly help her and Florian.

There is a thriving black market in illegal transfers and the kidnapping of young healthy people for their bodies has become a crime wave. An anti-transfer offshoot of the Catholic church has grown up around a young, charismatic priest named Father Luc, who believes that transfers are doomed by God. Father Luc uses technology to his benefit in slightly unscrupulous ways, and has an order of fanatical bald nuns who follow him. Father Luc also has a wealthy patron, Dangeac, who has supported his work from the beginning.

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