Honestly, if you missed the buzz around The Sentinels (or Les Sentinelles for the purists) when it dropped on Canal+ late last year, I don’t blame you. It’s a French-language production, and unless you’re deep into the European TV scene, it might’ve slipped under your radar. But here’s the thing: this isn't just another dry period piece about the Great War.
It’s basically what happens when you take the gritty realism of 1917 and smash it into a radium-powered, dieselpunk superhero origin story.
The show is based on the graphic novels by Xavier Dorison and Enrique Breccia. If you haven't read them, they’re dark. Like, "radium-batteries-leaking-into-your-bones" dark. The TV adaptation, which premiered on September 29, 2025, captures that exact brand of French melancholy and scientific horror.
Why The Sentinels Isn’t Just "French Captain America"
A lot of people see the premise—a wounded soldier gets a serum and becomes a super-soldier—and immediately think Steve Rogers. That’s a mistake.
Gabriel Ferraud, played with a sort of haunting desperation by Louis Peres, isn't some wide-eyed patriot. He’s a man who was blown to bits in the trenches of 1915 and basically "reconstructed" by a top-secret government program. There’s no shiny shield here. Instead, you get a guy who is faster and stronger but feels like he’s losing his soul to the machine.
The "serum" in this universe isn't some clean, magical blue liquid. It’s radium-based. It’s toxic. It’s messy.
The show does this incredible job of showing the cost of technology. In one of the long, lingering shots in the first episode, you see the physical toll the augmentation takes on Gabriel. It’s not a glow-up. It’s a survival tactic.
The World Building is Wild
Most WWI shows focus on the mud and the futility. The Sentinels does that, but it adds a layer of "what if" that feels strangely plausible for the era's obsession with early radioactivity.
- The Setting: 1915 France, but with a retro-futurist twist.
- The Tech: Think brass, leather, and glowing batteries.
- The Vibe: Heavy Gauloises smoke and existential dread.
Thierry Poiraud and Édouard Salier, the directors, clearly wanted the trench mud to look like it was glowing with an unnatural light. It gives the whole series this "magical realism" feel that sets it apart from the glossy, high-budget look of American superhero shows.
The Cast That Makes it Work
You’ve got Louis Peres as the lead, and he’s fantastic. He’s got this way of looking at his own hands like they don't belong to him anymore.
Then there’s Thibaut Évrard as Djibouti and Kacey Mottet Klein as De Clermont. They aren't just sidekicks. They’re part of this elite, weird unit that the French army uses as a "hail mary" to break the stalemate of the war.
What's really interesting is the subplot with Gabriel's wife, Irène (Olivia Ross). She thinks he’s dead. He’s officially "presumed dead" so the government can keep their experiment quiet. The scenes where she’s searching for him while he’s out there becoming a monster of war are some of the most gut-wrenching moments in the eight-episode run.
What Most People Get Wrong
The biggest misconception? That this is an action-first show.
Sure, the fights are there. And yeah, seeing a guy in 1915 gear move with superhuman speed is cool. But the show is really about the dehumanization of modern conflict. It’s asking: how much of yourself can you replace with "progress" before the person is gone?
It’s slow. Sometimes too slow, if you ask some of the folks on Reddit. Episode 5, in particular, had people divided because Gabriel makes some choices that aren't "heroic" in the traditional sense. But that’s the point. He’s a soldier, not a mascot.
How to Watch It Right Now
If you're in the US or UK, it’s a bit tricky. As of early 2026, it’s primarily on Canal+ and some regional streaming services like SBS On Demand in Australia.
- Check for Subtitles: Don't wait for a dub. The French performances are too good to lose to a voice-over.
- Look for the 360 Campaign: If you're lucky enough to be in Paris, Canal+ actually ran an exhibition at the Gare Saint-Lazare showing off the costumes and props.
- Read the Comic: Seriously, the Enrique Breccia art is legendary. It helps you appreciate the visual language the show is trying to mimic.
Is Season 2 Coming?
The word on the street is yes. Scripts for a second season were already in the works before the first one even finished airing in November 2025. Given how the first season ends (no spoilers, but it’s a cliffhanger that literally changes the map of Europe), they have plenty of room to grow.
Whether you're a history buff or a sci-fi nerd, The Sentinels is worth the effort to find. It’s rare to see a show that takes the "super-soldier" trope and actually treats it like the body-horror nightmare it would probably be.
Next Steps for Fans
If you've finished the series and need more of that "weird war" vibe, check out the original Les Sentinelles graphic novels by Delcourt. They go even further into the "Taillefer" character—the literal man-machine powered by a radium battery—than the show does in its first season. You can also track down the director's previous work, Black Spot (Zone Blanche), for more of that eerie, atmospheric storytelling.
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Keep an eye on the official Canal+ press releases for the Season 2 production schedule, likely aiming for a late 2026 or early 2027 return.