'Astrid' Season 3 Heads to PBS Passport in January
Lola Dewaere as Commandant Raphaëlle Coste and Sara Mortensen as Astrid Nielsen in Astrid Season 3
PBS/Walter Presents
Astrid is heading back to PBS and the Masterpiece Channel on Amazon just in time for the new year, with a new caseload and a whole new set of puzzles to work out with her accidental bestie Raphaëlle as new episodes arrive stateside. The French series, known in its home country where it airs on France 2 as Astrid et Raphaëlle, has become one of Walter Presents' most popular shows on PBS streaming, almost purely by word of mouth. The series has proved so popular that some local PBS stations have begun airing it on linear on Thursdays, despite it being in French with subtitles. Season 2 recently concluded its on-air run in November 2023, and now Season 3 is following on streaming.
Walter Presents first struck a deal with PBS Distribution in the Fall of 2018 to supply the newly launched PBS Passport (and the Masterpiece Channel, which soon followed) with the same foreign language offerings that proved so popular in the U.K. on Channel 4's All4 streaming service. Like Masterpiece, an anthology series of the Best of British TV, Walter Presents is an anthology of the Best of European TV, though with a lot more titles per month since there are many more countries to cover. Its first breakout hits included expected ones like Professor T, a detective series already remade in two languages, and a few surprises like Seaside Hotel (Badehotellet), a Danish 1930s dramedy about a summer holiday spot facing down World War II.
Astrid took a little longer to catch on, but the series, which stars Sara Mortensen and Lola Dewaere as the titular team, has become one of the most hotly anticipated PBS Passport arrivals every season.
Here's the synopsis for Astrid Season 3 (translated from the original French by PBSD):
Astrid and Raphaelle try to balance their bizarre caseload with great emotional upheaval. Is it too late for Raphaelle and Nicolas? Is love possible for Astrid with Tetsuo?
Mortensen and Dewaere return as the leading crime solvers, Astrid and Raphaëlle. They will once again co-star alongside Jean-Louis Garçon as Commissaire Carl Bachert, Benoît Michel as Captain Nicolas Perran, Husky Kihal as Dr. Henry Fournier, Bruce Tessore as Julien Frédéric, and Meledeen Yacoubi as Lieutenant Arthur Enguien. Elisabeth Mortensen returns as Astrid's mother, Mathilde Nielsen, Kengo Saito plays Tetsuo Tanaka, Astrid's on-again, off-again boyfriend, while Timi-Joy Marbot, Michel Bompoil, and Octave Balekdjian return as Raphaëlle's son, father, and brother, respectively.
Geoffroy Thiebaut and Laurent Lévy once again guest star as Alain Gaillard and Gilles in the Documentations department. The rest of the cast includes Akihiro Nishida, Aliocha Itovich, Jean-Benoît Souilh, Eléa Folcher, Clément Lagouarde, Lizzy Brynn, and Clément Langlais. Season 3 also adds Angélique Bridoux and Valérie Kaprisky to the cast.
Astrid Season 3 arrives with all eight episodes on PBS Passport and the PBS Masterpiece Channel on Amazon on Friday, January 5, 2024. Season 4 is currently airing on France 2, with the finale slated to air just before Christmas, on December 22, 2023. Season 5 is expected to be greenlit next year.
