Omar Sy, the wildly charismatic star who plays Assane in Lupin, more or less singlehandedly turned the Netflix series about a gentleman thief into one of the streamer’s most compulsively bingeable French hits. His is a magnetic presence — boyish charm mixed with movie star good looks. His character is also a master of disguise, one who scampers across the City of Light with mystifying ease. And with the arrival of Lupin Part 3 at the end of last week, one flash of that rakish grin is all it takes for viewers to be reminded that yet another rip-roaring caper packed with thrills and delicious twists awaits.
What’s more: It’s only been available on Netflix for a few days, but the new batch of episodes has already sent Lupin rocketing up the US Top 10 ranking (the series is #2 on Netflix right now). And the good news for fans is that the show’s winning formula seems to remain intact, because Lupin Part 3 is also currently sitting on a perfect 100% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Lupin does so much right, but one of the best things about the series is just how much of a breezy binge it is. Part 3 includes only seven episodes, so fans will no doubt tear through them in short order. And after they do? Well, while awaiting the official word from Netflix regarding Lupin Part 4, you can always spend your time diving into a few other excellent French Netflix series and movies after you’ve finished the latest chapter in Assane’s super-addictive story.
Here are some of Netflix’s biggest and best French releases, in no particular order:
- Call My Agent (4 seasons): At a top Paris talent firm, agents scramble to keep their celebrity clients happy.
- Women at War (1 season): Four French women face the consequences of war on the homefront, as men leave for battle and German troops advance in 1914.
- Sentinelle: In this Netflix movie, Olga Kurylenko plays an elite French soldier who’s transferred home after a combat mission and uses her skills to hunt down the man who hurt her sister.
- AKA: A gritty French crime film in which a hardened special ops agent infiltrates a crime syndicate and forms a surprising bond with the boss’ young son. This one dominated Netflix worldwide upon its release thanks to pulse-pounding action scenes and its tense, twist-filled story.
- Chef’s Table: France (1 season): This Netflix series comes from creator David Gelb, and it presents viewers with “bold new flavors of France (from) chefs who are pushing the boundaries of fine dining and reinventing a rich culinary tradition.”
- Lords of Scam: These next two French Netflix releases are all about real-life thieves who are much different than Lupin. Lords of Scam, for example, follows a group of scammers who pocketed millions by conning the EU carbon quota system — and then turned on each other.
- The Masked Scammer: Drawing from interviews with accomplices and victims, this documentary traces how a master con man scammed millions of euros from French elites.
- Lost Bullet: From Netflix’s official movie summary, “Facing a murder charge, a genius mechanic with a criminal past must track down a missing car containing the proof of his innocence: A single bullet.”
- Athena: In this tense and heartbreaking Netflix movie, the killing of a young boy sparks an all-out war in a French community — a conflict with the victim’s older brothers at its center.
