Thy Will Be Done - Season 1 - DVD

Content: The Catholic Church is struggling with many problems. This is also noticeable at the renowned Capuchin monastery in Paris, where the number of candidates for the priesthood has been noticeably declining for years. This year, just four new seminarians have been accepted - sensitive Yann (Julian Bouanich) from Brittany, Emmanuel (David Baiot) from Lyon, who suffers from severe depression, Guillaume (Clément Manuel) from Orsay and wealthy Raphaël (Clément Roussier) from Versailles. Desperate for a fifth aspirant, Abbot Primate Father Fromenger (Jean-Luc Bideau) and his deputy Father Bosco (Thierry Gimonez) find one in former prisoner José (Samuel Jouy) from Toulouse. While preparing the young men for the difficult tasks that come with being a priest, Fromenger and his colleagues must contend with numerous other problems. Not only is there a lack of money everywhere for necessary renovation work, but tensions are also growing between the Capuchin monastery and the Bishops' Conference. The latter wants to improve the image of the church with a large-scale campaign against hunger and make it a new bearer of hope for the people especially in times of crisis. In order not to stand in the way of this advertising campaign, the vocation day of the new Capuchin priests is to be postponed. When Fromenger refuses to comply with this request, Cardinal Romain does everything he can to get rid of the former worker priest. And while the air becomes thinner and thinner for their abbot primate, the young seminarians are also increasingly tested with self-doubt, high pressure and very personal problems in their faith...

The first season of the French series Thy Will Be Done is another prime example of the high quality of many current TV productions. Good actors, polished scripts and a high quality production make this series entertainment on quite a high level. Although the whole thing is in essence a rather standard drama, but the makers have succeeded with the idea to tell the story in a monastery from the point of view of five young aspirants to the priesthood, a special coup.

For although the actual stories of intrigue, friendship, love, grief, self-doubt and corruption are in itself rather conventional knit, they are through this rather unusual for a TV series but something very special. For the love of a woman (or a man) is something quite different for an aspiring priest than for someone who has not dedicated himself to God. Also, doubts about one's own strength take on a special significance in the face of the difficult tasks that await a clergyman, especially in a time when the Church is repeatedly criticized. And the view that the series allows behind the church walls, which also illuminates the bureaucratic side and aspects such as image cultivation, is incidentally also extremely interesting.

You do not have to be particularly religious to be carried away by the series. The very secular way in which the various spiritual issues are dealt with here is extremely engaging and never lurid. Whether it's celibacy and homosexuality, suicide, forgiveness and betrayal, arrogance or sacrifice, the creators always demonstrate a sensitive touch in portraying the events in a realistic and believable way. The five main characters are sympathetically drawn and although each is a classic prototype in his own right, they are not one-dimensional figures.

Whoever likes sensitively told TV dramas and appreciates high-quality European series fare should not miss the first eight episodes of Thy Will Be Done. In the end, all that really remains is the hope that there will be a sequel soon enough. Absolutely recommendable!

Picture + Sound: The implementation of image and sound on the DVD is on a good TV level. The picture is very clean, but shows in the darker moments again and again slight image drizzle. This also affects the sharpness of the picture, which is very good in the brighter outdoor scenes, but shows some weaknesses in the darker scenes. The sound, which is only available in a decent stereo mix, is largely restrained, but allows the dialogue to sound very intelligible, which is also the most important aspect for this series. For this, there is then an unspectacular, but decent: Good!

Extras: Except for trailers and a booklet, there is unfortunately no bonus material.

Conclusion:Your will be done is a very well acted and engagingly directed drama series that takes an interesting, exciting and also very emotional look at the lives of five young aspirants to the priesthood. The series shows a high respect for the institution of the Catholic Church, but at the same time deals in a very sensitive way not uncritically with many important issues that affect not only life behind the church walls. The makers do not want to provoke, but are rather concerned with a view of the life and work of priests and seminarians that is as authentic as possible and, for many viewers, also new. A very sensitively and yet stirringly told series, for which there is only one possible rating despite the lack of bonus material: absolutely recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp