Caïn is a French Police Procedural/Detective Drama series that ran in eight seasons from 2012 to 2020.
Frédéric Caïn (Bruno Debrandt) is a French police officer with the rank of Capitaine. He is paraplegic since a self-inflicted motorcycle accident. A very cynical man with a dark and dry sense of humor, Caïn likes to be on the verge of legality in his investigations and trouble with his hierarchy often ensues. He is assisted by Lieutenant Lucie Delambre (Julie Delarme).
Has nothing to do with the Biblical Cain.
Caïn provides examples of the following tropes:
- And I'm the Queen of Sheba: In the first episode, the black traffic cop who arrests Caïn responds "And I am Omar Bongo" (a former president of Gabon) to Caïn's claim that he's also a cop. Caïn then digs on the joke, calling him "Omar" and saying he's a fan.
- Anti-Hero: Caïn, perhaps the single most famous French example of a protagonist using Disability as an Excuse for Jerkassery.
- Calling the Cops on the FBI: In the first episode, Caïn (in his car, with no police armband or siren) follows a car with blood dripping from the trunk and calls Delambre on his cellphone. Using cellphones at the wheel is a major Road Code offense in France, and sure enough, a traffic cop spots him and makes him stop, and he loses trail of the car as a result. Making things worse, he mockingly answers to the traffic cop who responded with "And I am Omar Bongo" to his claim that he's a cop. At least he had enough time to remember the registration plate.
- The Coroner: Dr. Elizabeth Stunia usually examines the victims' bodies.
- Cowboy Cop: Caïn couldn't care less about standard procedures and leads his investigations the way he wants. Meaning he often goes rummaging on crime scenes or other places without warrants.
- Da Chief: Commandant Jacques Moretti, Caïn's superior who has to put up with his shit.
- Disabled Snarker: Caïn almost never turns off the snark, especially when it comes to mocking his disability or people's reactions to it. However, flashbacks from before the motorcycle accident that landed him in a wheelchair shows that he was always like that.
- Disability as an Excuse for Jerkassery: Caïn was already an asshole before he ended up in a wheelchair, but now he can mock the "bipeds" around him and watch them hesitate to respond in kind to a disabled man. The few that don't hesitate get slightly more respect from him. As his ex-wife Gaëlle puts it:"So your goal's not to be happy, rather making sure everyone's just as miserable as you are."
- Fan Hater: Caïn hates stereotypical nerds with hoards. To the point he assumes computer scientists and coroners alike are this and treats them with contempt as a result.
- Ghostwriter: The first murder victim of the series was a writer and ghostwriter.
- Internal Affairs: At the start of the series, Caïn is under surveillance by the DRPJ (Direction Régionale de la Police Judiciaire, the French "police of the polices").
- Name of Cain: Guess who? To be fair, he's a big jerk instead of a bad guy.
- No Warrant? No Problem!: Caïn doesn't care if he doesn't have warrants to search for clues, he'll go in regardless.
- Odd Couple: Caïn, a snarking paraplegic police officer, and Delambre, an able-bodied, more professional and overall nicer police officer.
- Pet the Dog: Caïn is an asshole to pretty much everyone, except his beloved son. He's genuinely kind, loving and supportive to him and always worries about him getting along well with his mother's boyfriends.
- Self-Deprecation: Caïn regularly makes fun of his own disability.
- The Snark Knight: Save for his beloved son, no-one can escape the snarking machine that is Caïn, not even himself. Though when he finds someone who can snark back as much as himself, he'll actually behave as if he found a Worthy Opponent and exhibit some respect.
- The Squadette: In the first episode, Delambre effortlessly neutralizes a male suspect who's much heavier than her. Caïn jokes that she was a man before joining the police. She reveals to Caïn that she had a military career before the police, as a parachutist Corporal.
- The Teaser: Each episode starts with about a minute of Caïn minding his business and getting a call for a case or already working on a case.
- Til Murder Do Us Part: In Season 2, Stefan Jordel murders his wife, trying to disguise it as a suicide, and marries another woman who is in love with the killer side of him. He murders her too on the day of their marriage, just before Caïn arrests him.
- Wunza Plot: One's a paraplegic cop and a jerk, the other's an able-bodied and nicer cop. They solve criminal cases.
