If a new series starts and is of the highest quality and popularity, it is by no means guaranteed that the second will match the first. Luckily, for Lupin, this was not the case – although I think we were considerably helped by the fact that the whole 10 episodes were essentially of one story and so Series 2 simply carried on and resolved everything – in an eminently satisfying way.
Lupin himself remained a wonderfully endearing and admirable character with a quite remarkable range of abilities and resources, both physical and mental. And, no matter how remarkable the resources, one never felt that it was getting absurdly improbable. But he was not shown without faults which helped to give him a human and rounded character so that he did not come across as some almost unnatural superman-type figure, in the way that Sherlock Holmes is often in the danger of doing.
The plotting and inter-relationships remained marvellously clever and convincing with disbelief more than easy to suspend. The introduction of new characters was very cleverly done and, as with the use of flashbacks, their true nature – and how scenes previously seen had in fact been completely planned and orchestrated by Lupin – remained one of the endearing joys of the series. {Paris and its landmarks is marvellously evoked, as ever, as well as somewhat darker aspects of the story with Lupin’s invisibility as a black man always being a slightly darker and necessary reminder that this is not merely a story of wonderfully elaborate heists.
Throughout this second series, I found myself, interestingly, getting slightly more admiring of Pellegrini – there was something weirdly endearing about his utter self-absorption and by the end of the penultimate episode I found myself thinking that I would not be surprised if he managed to wriggle away at the end. And I will leave it at that so I do not give any spoilers!
And so, on to Series 3, apparently!