Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Sophie: A Murder In West Cork’ On Netflix, A Docuseries About A French Woman’s Murder In A Remote Irish Town

Sophie: A Murder In West Cork is a 3-part docuseries about the December, 1996 murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, a French national who had a vacation home in the remote town of Schull, in the West Cork region of Ireland. It was a shocking event for a number of reasons. One of them is that murders just don’t happen in Schull. But the second reason is that she was the wife of French film producer Daniel Toscan du Pantier.

SOPHIE: A MURDER IN WEST CORK: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Shots of the remote Irish town of Schull. A bar owner talks about how Sophie Toscan du Plantier would come to his bar first whenever she was in town.

The Gist: The first episode of the series, directed by John Dower, sets up the hows and whys of why du Plantier liked to visit West Cork, and why she bought the house as her escape from the spotlight of being married to the famous producer. But it also sets up just how sleepy Schull is, and how the local Garda (the name for the Irish police departments), along with federal Garda agents, investigated the case.

The police canvassed basically the entire town and managed to narrow down the suspect list. But as much as the series is about the case, it’s also about a local reporter, Ian Bailey, who had moved to the town in the ’80s, who was the go-to resource for the local angle on the case. But a phone call from a woman reporting someone stalking du Plantier the night of her death. The report, called in under a fake name, will turn the case upside down; the case didn’t come to a resolution until 2020.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Maybe it’s the Irish setting, but Sophie: A Murder In West Cork reminds us of Secrets Of A Psychopath, which was about an equally confounding case.

Our Take: The first episode of Sophie: A Murder In West Cork plays out more or less like just about any other true crime docuseries you’ve seen in recent years. Ruddy cops recalling investigations from decades ago. Stories about how evidence was collected and how things like DNA analysis technology wasn’t as sophisticated then as it is now. Background on the victim from friends and relatives.

It’s all standard stuff, presented with news footage and lovely shots of the shore town of Schull. Then we find out who the anonymous caller was, and who the alleged stalker she witnessed was, and our eyes and ears perked up.

Of course, if you have gone and looked up the case by now, you know that Bailey, whose byline was on dozens of articles about the investigation, became the prime suspect. He was even convicted by a French court in abstentia in 2019, but the Irish High Court refused to extradite him.

The rest of the episodes will likely go over how he became connected with du Plantier, and how the witness, Marie Farrell, came to see him the night of the murder. Given the fact that it’s only a 3-part series, we’re wondering how 25 years of history in this case will be covered in the other two episodes, but no one connected with the series will be accused of stretching things out to fill time.

Parting Shot: Farrell says that the person she saw the night of the murder was Bailey, and we see him staring straight into the camera.

Sleeper Star: We enjoyed hearing about the open-minded population of West Cork, who embraced the “blow ins” that migrated to the town.

Most Pilot-y Line: None that we could see.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Because of the twist at the end of the first episode and the series’ relative brevity, watching Sophie: A Murder In West Cork should be worth your time.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Sophie: A Murder In West Cork On Netflix