Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Lupin’ Season 3 On Netflix, Where The Master Thief Returns To Paris To Make Up For His Only Failure

In 2021, Lupin became a surprise international hit for Netflix, but if you watched the first season, you knew why the show was so well received. Omar Sy not only was great as gentleman thief Assane Diop, but he contributed to the lush look of the series, as well. The plots, especially the heists, were simply well-written and executed. Now Assane is back for more in Part 3.

LUPIN PART 3: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A crate is opened and a rare black pearl is shown to a representative of the buyer. The year is 2017.

The Gist: We see the security measures that were taken to get the pearl to its destination, including having the courier get out of his car and take the Metro because the driver may be compromised. Still, the pearl gets stolen, anyway, by gentleman thief Assane Diop (Omar Sy).

We cut to Marseille in 2021. Assane is in hiding, disguising himself and living with his dog in a broken-down flat. When he sees that his estranged wife Claire (Ludivine Sagnier) is still being harassed by the police and media for the heist at the Pellegrini gala.

He decides to go back to Paris and try to rectify things with Claire and their son Raoul (Etan Simon). He finds Claire and tells her that the three of them should just leave France. But she thinks that the only way to make up for the hell he’s put them through is to turn himself in.

But Assane has other plans, as he tells his friend Ben (Antoine Gouy); he’s going to rectify his only failure and steal the Black Pearl. We see the aftermath of him grabbing the pearl on the Metro, where police somehow manage to catch up with him before he leaves the station.

He brazenly walks into the jewelers where the pearl is being displayed and hands a letter to the admin of the place’s manager. She recognizes him, but he claims he’s mistaken for Diop all the time; he has different-colored eyes. Of course, when her boss reads the letter, telling him when he’s going to rob the place, she realizes her mistake.

Lieutenant Sofia Belkacem (Shirine Boutella) is in charge of the case, but she presents the letter to Youssef Guédira (Soufiane Guerrab), who investigated Assane’s other cases; he finds the references to Arsène Lupin, showing him that he’s still one step ahead of law enforcement. Belkacem tells him that no one else has seen the letter, but then we see that the letter has been leaked to a reporter named Fleur Belanger (Martha Canga Antonio).

That stirs up a crowd outside the jewelers, people who are fans of Assane’s, who are eager to see what will happen at the time he specified. There seems to be quite a bit of security around the pearl, beefed up by the RIB commander put in place. But, shortly after the designated time, the pearl disappears anyway.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? We maintain what we said when this show debuted: It reminds us of Money Heist, but with a more personal angle.

Our Take: Assane’s motivations for his big heist in Lupin Part 3 are still personal, but a bit different. While we still see flashbacks of a young Assane (Mamadou Haidara) living in the aftermath of his father’s suicide, the flashback is more about the relationships he had when he was a teenager that pay off in the present day.

This time around, his motivation is truly to get out of the business of being a gentleman thief, and make up for all the hell he put Claire and Raoul through. What we don’t quite understand is the jump he took from Claire essentially telling him to piss off to deciding to make up for the one failure he’s had as a thief. But once he comes to that decision, the way he pulled off the caper is yet another fascinating scenario to watch, thanks to Sy’s performance and the writing of showrunner George Kay and his staff.

So the plotting isn’t quite as tight in Part 3 than it was in Parts 1 and 2. At this point, it won’t matter if the capers Assane pulls off are as good as they were in the first episode. The way the episode ends, though, shows that the Black Pearl heist isn’t actually going to be Assane’s greatest caper. Perhaps that will make Part 3 more interesting than at first blush. As long as Sy keeps doing what he’s doing, and the reveals are as satisfying as they were in the first episode, we’ll be along for the ride.

Sex and Skin: None in the first episode.

Parting Shot: As he hops rooftops trying to escape, Assane slips and falls to the street, and a crowd gathers around his seemingly lifeless body.

Sleeper Star: This time, we’ll give this to Soufiane Guerrab as Youssef Guédira, who seems to almost appreciate Assane’s efforts and roots for him to pull off his plans.

Most Pilot-y Line: Nothing really stood out, but we’d just like to see Assane’s sneaker collection, as he seems to have Air Jordan 1s in every colorway imaginable.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Lupin continues to be a very satisfying watch because of Omar Sy’s performance and the well-written and executed heist scenes.

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.