There’s something about the larger-than-life characters from a specific era of European crime novels that keeps resonating with audiences, as is evidenced by the persistent influence of figures like Sherlock Holmes more than a century after his debut. Fitting into this trend, Netflix’s take on Maurice Leblanc’s gentleman thief Arsène Lupin shot to the top of the streamer’s charts when it came out in 2021, becoming the most-watched non-English series on the platform at the time (although Squid Game would shatter this record later that year).
At the heart of this new Lupin’s success was that it modernized the slickness of old-school caper stories to deliver fun narrative sleights of hand alongside compelling familial drama, all anchored by Omar Sy’s deeply charismatic performance. Thankfully, Part 3 picks up right where its predecessor left off. Between its smartly crafted intrigue and well-portrayed exploration of our hero’s fractured relationships, each of its seven episodes are packed with excitement.
This season takes place a year from where we left off: after narrowly escaping Paris and successfully entrapping Pellegrini, the man who framed his father for theft, the Lupin-inspired master thief Assane Diop (Omar Sy) is in hiding. However, as the news cycle obsesses over his exploits, he realizes his fame is negatively affecting the family he was forced to leave behind, including his wife Claire (Ludivine Sagnier) and his son Raoul (Etan Simon). Compelled to do right by them, he returns to Paris for what he hopes will be his last job. Reuniting with his best friend Benjamin (Antoine Gouy), the two concoct a scheme that should fix Diop’s personal problems and let him right a previous botched assignment, the theft of France’s Black Pearl, in one fell swoop. But things don’t exactly go as planned, and our modern-day master of disguise is visited by a ghost of his past who threatens to unravel everything.
First and foremost, Part 3 pulls off a non-stop barrage of exciting heists that are even more cleverly constructed and frequent than in the previous installments. Due to circumstances which I’ll avoid spoiling, our gentleman thief is forced to carry out a string of daring schemes, each defined by layers of misdirection. These play out similarly to what came before: going in, usually only clued-in on part of the trick, leaving room for sudden gratifying reveals that recontextualize what’s unfolding. However, even though I expected this structure, I still found myself fooled by ingenious twists as I was caught up in the tension of each gig. These ruses are further amplified by snappy editing and sleek camera work that captures their intricacies with style, emphasizing the guile and skill employed by our protagonist and his co-conspirators.
Part of what made this show so popular is how it melds its source material’s complex “aha” moments with the grounded specifics of a modern setting, letting contemporary audiences more readily buy into its many turns. Although there is some fudging (particularly around its depictions of technology), these heists rely on strategy and misdirection that often seem like they could actually work. Additionally, flashbacks clue us into the moments where the seeds for these duplicities were planted, creating a clear chain of cause and effect.
Another crucial element of the series’ success is that, despite the many qualities that make Assane an unrivaled thief, such as his quick wit, understanding of psychology, and sleight of hand, he can’t outsmart the ways his line of work causes tensions in his personal life. While the last season was largely based around him trying to find justice for his wrongfully imprisoned father, this one focuses on his unresolved relationship with his mother. We jump between the ‘90s and the present, learning more about how the absence of his parental figures led to him falling in with an exploitative boxing club owner who manipulated teenagers with nowhere else to go. These flashback scenes are frequently brutal, whether it be seeing Assane lose contact with his estranged mom or when he and his buddy Bruno (Noé Wodecki) are pitted against each other by their warped “fatherly” figure.
And, of course, another major point of focus is our protagonist’s family situation in the present. We witness the ways Claire and Raoul are affected by the unwanted fame of being associated with the most-wanted man in France; Claire is hounded by reporters wherever she goes, and her son is bullied at school. While Assane finds ways to keep tabs on them, he’s torn between wanting to live out his Lupin-esque lifestyle and the desire to be there for them, establishing a friction that is played with affecting pathos. This drama also works better this time around because his wife and son get more to do, as they find themselves puzzling through riddles and backtracking the thief’s steps to reach some semblance of closure.
It’s all further enriched by Sy’s endlessly captivating performance as Assane. Our lead captures such a range of emotions, from his subtle kindness to the puckish glee he takes in outsmarting the cops (take a drink every time a French police officer yells “merde” as they get thoroughly owned). Sy not only sells that this man can accomplish near-impossible feats as he transforms alongside each disguise, but also that he’s fallible when it comes to his relationships with his friends and family. Another delight is the scenes where he gets to play up the bromance with his best bud Benjamin, who’s given pitch-perfect side-kick energy by Antoine Gouy.
That said, there are a few trade-offs compared to what came before, as this season doesn’t lean quite as hard into the social commentary the last two parts had and doesn’t feel as focused as a result. While there is still a satisfying quality to watching rich people get robbed blind, with justice already served for Assane’s father, this installment mostly sticks to steadily dolling out thrills alongside its relationship drama instead of focusing on issues of discrimination and classism in contemporary France. Although I would argue its heists are even more deviously designed, they don’t always have the same emotional weight behind them as when our protagonist was avenging his dad’s fate.
Still, this stretch of Lupin is excellently paced, and every episode is packed with intricate schemes or well-conveyed familial strife. High stakes push the previously established character relationships to their limits, forcing our self-assured hero to weigh the value of those closest to him against his desire for showmanship. With a dexterous hand, it sets up seemingly impossible scenarios, only to reveal imaginative solutions that always remain novel and gripping. These sequences are further elevated by slick direction, which effortlessly slips between breezy moments of cool and tense exchanges with the same self-assuredness of its protagonist. It all makes me hope that Netflix grants this show the same longevity as the novels that inspired it.
Lupin Part 3 premieres Thursday, October 5th on Netflix.
Elijah Gonzalez is an assistant TV editor for Paste Magazine. In addition to watching the latest anime, he also loves videogames, movies, and creating large lists of media he’ll probably never actually get to. You can follow him on Twitter @eli_gonzalez11.
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