How France's Lupin became the surprise Netflix hit of the season

The charming series combines Ocean's Eleven's slickness with the implausibility of National Treasure to become the first French series to crack the US top 10

The greatest trick by Lupin, a new French series on Netflix, is disguising substantiveness in plain sight. The show, created by the British showrunner George Kay and inspired by the beloved French character Arsene Lupin, packages over 115 years of inspiration (dating back to the character's invention by writer Maurice Leblanc in 1905) in a slick, swift escape easily binged in a day. Its star, the French actor Omar Sy, towers over his scene partners, perpetually unreadable yet brimming with charisma; his character, Assane Diop, is a con man with a heart of gold able to turn his outsized presence into an uncatchable master of deception.

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