SPOILERS: Political assassinations and voter intimidation in France.

It certainly left an impression watching the candor the series took with the political assassinations and the voter intimidation. In light of the terrorist violence in France and across Europe, the callousness with which the plot pushes that minister off the cliff the same day of a critical vote worth millions of euros, and then later blows up the developer in midday on a city street, would have had the FBI, the ATF, and the JD in the USA all over it, before the smoke cleared. One wonders if the policing arm of the French government is truly that impotent - nary a thought to it.

One wonders if this is the true status of French Politics if Islamic violence can gain such a foothold, especially if voter intimidation is so rampant as to play a major role in a film coming out of France. They don't say 'art imitates life imitates art' for nothing.

And what of the Marseille ghettos? Surely ghetto life is bad in the USA, but the series really impressed the notion that French ghettos, if not European Union ghettos altogether (not to mention Belgium's ghettos), are by far that much worse - a great deal more worse. The United States has its problems sure, but wow, the series leads the viewer to think that there are two Frances, the touristy one of its former Dauphin glory, and the underworld ghettos planning attack. Pretty dynamic intrigue. Imagine if House of Cards had this edge of small time violence interlaced with its jet setting businessmen.