'Maigret' Fails to Multitask in Series Premiere, “The Lazy Burglar Part One”

Welcome to the latest on-screen incarnation of Maigret, the famous 1930s-era Parisian policeman, created by author Georges Simenon, played by British actor Benjamin Wainwright (Belgravia). If Wainwright's sculpted face and fluffy hair weren't enough to tell you we are dealing with a hot-cop version of Maigret, his first scene, which features him getting out of bed in his underwear, confirms we are in for Maigret's characteristic brooding brand of crime solving — but we are going to look good while doing it! 

Objectifying the new Masterpiece detective aside, Jules Maigret is going through a tough time. Paris is suffering from a robbery epidemic at the start of the new series. He's just been promoted to Chief Inspector, but a lot of people are not-stoked about it, since he's failed to find a lead on a series of gang bank robberies. The pressure is mounting from his team, the upper brass, and the public for Maigret to make a break in the case. 

You know that Maigret is a fictional cop because when he's overwhelmed at work, he signs up for more work instead of bed-rotting in an anxiety spiral like a normal person. The bank robbers are just taking money, so boring. Maigret's colleague, Foulon (Jack Deam), is investigating a murder, which strikes Maigret's fancy a great deal more. 

As the new Chief Inspector, he becomes even more invested in Foulon's case when they discover that the victim appears to be the suspected thief. (It takes them a minute to figure this out because the body is found missing its face.) It was Honore Cuendet (Waleed Elgadi), whom Maigret had questioned twice for previous robberies, and had developed a bit of a rapport. To everyone's annoyance, Maigret insists they should find out why someone would make Cuendet's murder look like a gang killing.

Unfortunately, Maigret's argument that he should investigate both cases because the robberies haven't caused any physical harm is disrupted by the gang hitting a jewelry store, which took a turn when a patron's personal bodyguard opened fire, injuring one of the robbers and killing two pedestrians. Now there's blood on the stolen merchandise, and Maigret can't put off solving this case in favor of finding out what really happened to Cuendet.

Can he find answers for both cases before he loses his job? The collar on his plaid peacoat is popped. The five o'clock shadow on his face is giving proper haggard vibes. Our boy is ready to glower into space while he connects loose threads and solves crimes. Let's freakin' go. 

In a flashback, Maigret questions Cuendet after their first meeting because he catches him riding a scooter with six expensive suits on his lap, still with the tags on. The questioning leads to the discovery that Cuendet recently stole an art painting, which lands him in jail, where he learns to be a much better thief. When he gets out, he starts robbing rich people of bracelets and trinkets. There's evidence of a break-in, but he never steals enough to generate serious investigations. 

When Maigret pulls him in again for questioning about the crimes, Cuendet implies he breaks into people's houses while they are still in them, so he can judge whether they deserve to be robbed or not. Maigret respects a thief with a philosophy. He doesn't get the evidence he needs to arrest Cuendet, but the thief obviously sticks in Maigret's mind.

Cuendet was a thief, but not a violent person. He was very selective about who he stole from, so why would someone not only hit him over the head with a heavy lamp but continue to do so until every bone in Cuendet's face is broken? Why would they then go through the trouble of removing his face and dumping his body in a public park? If it were simply a case of finding an intruder in your home, the first blow from the lamp would be enough, and then you would call the police. Something fishy is definitely going on here. 

Maigret initiates the investigation by speaking with Cuendet's mother, Justine (Amira Ghazalla), who leads him to Cuendet's girlfriend, Sophie (Rachel Shelley). Sophie has a stack of Cuendet's old magazines, and Maigret discovers a flagged page with the Pendant of Monaco on it. The pendant, which once belonged to Grace Kelly, was bought at auction by a Syrian tycoon for his girlfriend a few months before Cuendet's murder. Just like that, we have a target. 

The tycoon and his girlfriend live in Paris, so Maigret and Foulon can locate Cuendet's last known residence by searching hotels and Airbnb listings in the vicinity of the property. They discover that Cuendet rented a room for six weeks at the hotel behind the Syrian's house, giving him the perfect vantage point to plot and execute the robbery. 

They need to find proof that Cuendet actually entered the house to justify a search warrant, but that will have to wait, now that the jewelry store robbery led to two people dead. To be fair, Maigret is not ignoring the case entirely; he has a whole team on the string of robberies, compared to Foulon working Cuendet's murder all alone, so he could use that to explain away splitting his attention.

His team has reviewed footage from an Instagram influencer who was eating lunch outside of the previous robbery before the fatal one. The video reveals that the gang is not only stealing taxis to escape, but also a city garbage truck, used to block police and let them get away. The involvement of a city truck reminds Maigret of another apprehended burglar, Gustaf Fernand. 

The issue with making Gustaf the primary target is that he's already in prison for his previous crimes; however, his wife, Rosalie (Merlin alum Katie McGrath), is not serving time. She is definitely acting suspiciously when Maigret and Lucas (Kerrie Hayes) visit her, highlighted by her phone starting to ring at the exact moment Maigret and Lucas get a message about another jewelry store robbery. 

(A coincidence, perhaps? Definitely not. This woman is involved, but Maigret and his team need to prove how.)

Their best chance of cracking the case is to lean on one of the robbers, Jacques Raison (Dániel Kanalas), the robber whom the bodyguard shot, who has been rolled into surgery, with semi-decent odds of survival. Maigret leaves his second-in-command, Cavre (Rob Kazinsky), at the hospital to question Raison once he's out of surgery and awake, so that Maigret can continue chasing down leads on the Cuendet murder. 

Cavre isn't pleased with the assignment because he has his own leads he wants to follow up on (and prove to their boss that he's taking this case more seriously than Maigret), but Jules doesn't care. He should have. Just as he's making headway in the Cuendet case, he gets a call that Raison has been taken from the hospital. The gang came in dressed as paramedics with fake transport papers and loaded Raison into the back of an ambulance before sneaking away. The operation is successful because Cavre isn't there to check the papers — he was out chasing those aforementioned other leads. 

So Cavre is on Maigret's shitlist, but Maigret has his own boss to worry about. Losing a member of the gang and putting the investigation back at square one is unlikely to help Maigret maintain control. Our Chief Inspector has excellent instincts and is obviously a skilled detective, but if he can't figure out how to multitask more effectively, he won't be solving any more crimes for this department. 

Maigret will continue with new episodes every Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on most PBS stations, the PBS app, and the PBS Masterpiece Channel. It will follow a weekly release schedule on Sundays through mid-November. All episodes of the show's first season are available on PBS Passport on premiere day for members to binge. Season 2 has not yet been greenlit.