Vortex is a six-episode science fiction/whodunnit/love story from France that is currently streaming on Netflix.

The Netflix tagline sums up the show quite well: “After reconnecting with his dead wife through a glitch in virtual reality, a police officer tries to negate the mysterious accident that cost her life.”

Some minor spoilers follow.

Vortex has two timelines: 1998 and 2025

In the latter, while Detective Ludovic Beguin (Tomer Sisley) is reviewing the digitized version of a case file with high-tech VR glasses at police HQ, he somehow encounters his dead first wife Melanie (Camille Claris) from a 1998 timeline a few days before she died.

The time warp or glitch is never explained, but the way it plays out, it offers up a very clever, thought-provoking premise, with some cool Fx, that qualifies Vortex as recommended.

Ludo, as he is nicknamed, quickly determines that both incidents, and several others, are connected.

He must then overcome the skepticism (which is a typical cliche) of his colleagues to investigate further.

The miniseries portrays how the so-called butterfly affect can have profound ramifications or repercussions in the present/future reality.

Indeed, in that context, Vortex presents a moral/ethical dilemma that the storyline may or may not satisfactorily resolve.

Along the way, both leads portray raw emotion in a show that drags a little and maybe could have been wrapped up in, say, four episodes.

Vortex makes you wonder if even people of good faith and good will are — in the end — selfish or selfless, or a combination?

According to Variety, “A massive hit on France 2, the flagship linear channel, Vortex pulled a 21.3% audience share and was watched by 4.3 million viewers, giving France 2 its best score in this slot since September…The deal also marks France Televisions’ increasing will to collaborate with streamers, including Netflix, on ambitious shows.”

Several other timely observations about the genre-combining Vortex:

  • The 1988 Ludo, a minor character in that timeline, comes across as a simp whose personality bears little resemblance to his hard-charging, frantic 2025 counterpart. Was 1998 Ludo even a cop then? And if so, wouldn’t he notice that his servicer revolver was missing.
  • What’s up with the 2025 Ludo’s hair?
  • Vortex does a good job of keeping you guessing as to which of the potential culprits is the one, although one them may be too obvious.
  • Some of the characters do dumb things, and even if, as a foundational matter, you are willing to buy into the time travel aspect, there are some additional plot holes in the narrative.
  • For instance, why would the prime suspect self-implicate in a location with witnesses, surveillance cameras, and so forth, when that person may be in the clear?
  • If someone says they “destroyed or threw away” a critical piece of evidence, shouldn’t the logical next question be “where did you toss it?” And why would that evidence be left laying around where someone could easily get access to it?
  • Vortex is one of those shows where people somehow never move to different residence let alone a new city, ever after 27 years, and are always home when someone shows up to speak to them.
  • Viewers also have to accept that there is just one jewelry store in that area of France and with an employee that’s still working there 27 years later.
  • In Episode 6, Ludo is unarmed when he is tracking another character. When he wakes up in the public restroom at the gas station after the confrontation, you may have noticed that he has his sidearm. The difference actually makes sense because in that timeline, his superiors never suspended him from the force. As an aside, the suspension is yet another trope from cops-and-robbers dramas.
  • The performance of Juliette Plumecocq-Mech, the actress who plays police VR technician Agathe, is spot on. If you’ve ever worked in an office back when employees routinely gathered in a central location on a daily basis, you’ve encountered an Agathe.
  • The final scene between Ludo and Melanie is deeply heartfelt and “touching.”

Despite the fact that Vortex violates one of the key crime-drama rules, Vortex receives a