Transporter: The Series: Season 1 (2012)

Transporter: The Series: Season 1 (2012)

12 episodes, approx 45 minutes each.

British actor Chris Vance replaces Jason Statham as ex-SAS man Frank Martin in a spin-off from the Transporter movies. Frank's house is well-ordered and he carries a spare suit in the boot of his car. That's the kind of guy he is. He's also a resourceful driver that transports packages from A to B with no questions asked; discretion is paramount. He lives by his own code and is a stickler for the rules:

01. NEVER CHANGE THE DEAL.

02. NO NAMES.

03. NEVER OPEN THE PACKAGE.

He'll often quote one of them (for the audience's benefit) just a few minutes before breaking it.

Vance's portrayal of the character is more sympathetic than Stath's. He's a sucker for righting an injustice. He needs to be, though, because it isn't just 90 minutes of explosive escapism, it's an ongoing development in which the (anti)hero operates in a grey area of morality and law.

Frank's rules mean that he doesn't always know what he's carrying, but he's aware that it's more than likely illegal. That willingness to facilitate criminals needs to be offset by something if viewers are to continue to like him; they need to know he's a nice guy beneath the 'out of sight - out of mind' ideology. Besides that, his mannerisms and penchant for using location-specific objects in creative ways during fights are the same as they were in the movies.

He's assisted at times by his mechanic Dieter (Charly Hübner) and his agent Carla (Andrea Osvárt). Dieter is the comic relief much of the time, but it's never goofy and he's a solid, dependable guy. He was my favourite. Carla is less successful but only because she's purposefully mysterious. She's an enigma. All we really know in the early episodes is that she arranges deals and acts as a liaison between Frank and the clients. She's like Batman's Oracle.

The only returning actor from the films is François Berléand, who plays Inspector Tarconi; he drops in occasionally to keep Frank on his toes.

You'll need to make some small allowances for the fact that it's a TV production, but if you liked the movies, then chances are good that you'll like the first season of the series, too.