I loved the fact that, for once, there was a majority of Maghrebi actors and actresses in the roles of the series and that they were not playing "racaille de la cité". It was a window into the "other" France which is no more homogenous at all than the actual country - as the series revealed, some of the people descended from the Maghreb were religious, some totally secular, some openly in out-of-wedlock relationships and others more traditional. I do sense a political message in this from the writers and producers. We have an unplanned pregnancy, a gay couple, a teen girl having an affair, the religious, the virtuous, the evil. It shows a microcosm of France itself. It's saying that these people are as French as the French (whatever that is), which is the prevailing orthodoxy. France did not go down the British route of multiculturalism.

We have a story, as the plot outline tells us, of a Maghrebi being elected to the presidency. There are those who would wish to stop him in both conventional and abominable ways.

It's a tale of derring do and during its recounting there are some holes in the plot which we can, however, forgive.

The speech at the end of the series contains noble sentiments and some hard truths rarely mentioned in TV drama. I have to say that it was slightly mawkish but still somewhat moving.

SBS did a good job on the subtitles, as usual. I watched this all in the space of twenty four hours. Six episodes was absolutely right. If it had been stretched to the normal eight it would have been too long.

I recommend this.