There's a new Netflix crime thriller to watch on the streamer, and it continues the platform's trend of very literal names: Blood Coast indeed takes place on the coast and involves lots of blood. Most of it is leaving bodies at the speed of a bullet.
Blood Coast is a new French crime action show set in and around Marseille, about a ruthless criminal who takes over the city's underworld, as well as the cops who are determined to take him down no matter how many rules they break.
In fact, even this first episode involves multiple gunfights, public torture scenes and police officers hunting for vengeance and the pursuit of vendettas! Could this be one of the best French shows on Netflix? Let's see!
So here's our Blood Coast episode 1 recap, for the episode entitled "Crazies".
Welcome to Marseille
In our first scene, a long-haired criminal is taken to a graveyard by a whole host of armed policemen. This is Franck Murillo (Nicolas Duvauchelle), who's visiting the funeral of his young son. Just then, armed assailants attack the police and Murillo manages to escape. The rest of the story picks up eight months after this.
A drug deal is going down at a beach in Marseille between a buyer, a dealer and a biker. Watching this are some police officers: Lyès Benamar (Tewfik Jallab) and his team.
The group tries to bust up the drug deal as it's going down, which results in a brief firefight on the beach. Eventually, the dealer, buyer and biker are apprehended, but not before a teen is shot and rushed off to hospital.
On the drive back to the station, Lyès interrogates the dealer: he asks the young man for his phone pin, and then the owner of a number he's been texting a lot. Whenever the dealer refuses to provide information, the police officer tortures him. First smashing his head through the window and then literally hanging him out of the moving vehicle.
We learn that, a few months prior, a new mystery man showed up and began taking over the city's drug scene, sparking fear in everyone when he brutalized those who stand in his way. The dealer knows that this man is white, but he has a busy accomplice called The Indian (who is not Indian) who helps him.
After this interrogation, we jump over to another storyline to find out who this man is: it is Murillo, who's informed about the dealer capture by The Indian. They know about Benamar and his team, but that's not their priority now. No, they're focused on a rival drug man called Kamel.
We see Kamel and his lieutenants as they beat up some dealers who've defected from him to work for Murillo. One of them has their arm broken.
After this, we're introduced to our last main character: Alice Vidal (Jeanne Goursaud). She's brand new to Marseille, and grabs a taxi cab to visit the hotel and then the police station.
The rogue cop and the rookie cop
At the police station, Benamar and his team interrogate the drug buyer, who's on probation from jail. They get no useful information, but the man knows that the team is stealing some of the money they collect in busts. Benamar is summoned by his superior, Commissioner Fabiani (Florence Thomassin), who dresses him down for the beach-front gunfight. She also lets him know that Internal Affairs is beginning an investigation on him, and also that he has a new starter next week: Vidal, a rookie from Interpol.
Vidal arrives at the station. In the lobby she bumps into someone she knows from home, who came to Marseille to work in the police's Internal Affairs Division. Then Vidal briefly meets Benamar before being briefed by Fabiani. We learn that Vidal's father was one of those killed in the graveyard in the first scene, but the woman promises that she's not here for revenge. After all, as far as the police is concerned, Murillo is dead (he faked his death after the graveyard escape apparently).
Benamar talks to his team, telling them about Vidal joining, and checks what juice the three arrestees have spilled. They've either made up obviously fake stories or said nothing at all, however.
After this, Benamar goes to the area of the city where he grew up, called The Projects. We find out that he's been stealing police money... to give to a poorly-off family member, and he's also been doing other bits to help around the area like staving off an impending eviction. So he's a rogue cop with a heart of gold.
The man also visits the boy who was shot in hospital, to check he's okay. Also in attendance in the ward is the drug dealer whom Kamel attacked. He knows that The Indian is planning to kill Kamel, and even gives him and time and location of when and where it'll go down.
Another gunfight, and the villain is revealed
Vidal visits her father's grave, to put flowers on it. Later that night she goes through Murillo's files, and is skeptical that he's dead. The next morning, she visits the retirement home where Murillo's mother is living, and asks for more information, but gets nothing. Eavesdropping in is The Indian, who eventually leaves...
... and Vidal follows him.
Benamar and his team are staking out the location where the attack is due to go down. Kamel and his bodyguards are lured their under false pretences, and they go into the big warehouse. Eventually, The Indian shows up and also enters... and Vidal appears shortly after.
Vidal quickly joins Benamar's team when he alerts her to his presence, and they hear gunfights in the warehouse. Kamel and his men are already dead, and the police get into a standoff with The Indian and his men. The man escapes, and Vidal sees him go... and also catches a glimpse of Murillo, confirming her suspicions that he's alive.
Commissioner Fabiani shows up to once again tell of Benamar and his team for starting another gunfight in the middle of Marseille. But Benemar is ready to explain why the hit went down: it was done so that The Indian could lure Kamel's well-off uncle, Ali, to the city. It seems that this man is actually the one who controls Murillo's rival empire... and now he's in the firing line too.
