The Confidante is a French series inspired by the true story of a woman who exploited survivors of the Bataclan terrorist attacks, in Paris in 2015, by worming her way into a grief support group and falsely claiming financial benefits as a victim. The fictional Christelle Blandin is an aging, unemployed rock chick who still lives with her mother. Following an abortive date on the night of the massacre, she gets swept up in a crowd of people running from the slaughter at the Bataclan. She senses an opportunity and befriends a group of traumatized survivors, claiming to be close friends with an injured victim called Vincent. It would be easy to make Chris despicable, yet the writers maintain an intriguing level of ambiguity about their anti-heroine. The character, played by Laure Calamy, is not the cynical taker you’d expect. She’s bubbly, impulsive, and a little flashy, with her sparkly bomber jackets and tall tales about rock stars. It’s hard to believe this breathless fount of enthusiasm has a calculating bone in her body—which is her secret weapon because she definitely does. The show asks us to consider the possibility that her scam is as much about her pathological need for belonging as it is about the money, that she’s more to be pitied than censured. For her victims, that may be too big an ask. —Lisa Henricksson