Season 1
What does it take to catch a killer?
Synopsis
The Serpent (2021), Season 1 is a BBC crime drama you can watch online on iFILM — eight episodes built from the real hunt for Charles Sobhraj, who in the mid-1970s preyed on Western travellers along the Hippie Trail through Thailand, India and Nepal.
The season runs on two opposing tracks. On one is Sobhraj (Tahar Rahim), a smooth Bangkok gem dealer, and his partner Marie-Andrée Leclerc, pulled into someone else's crimes by love. On the other is Dutch diplomat Herman Knippenberg, who starts with one missing couple and slowly grasps how far the killings reach. The storytelling jumps deliberately through time — Paris, Kathmandu, the Bangkok apartment no guest leaves. By the end it's less a whodunit than a draining battle of wills between a stubborn bureaucrat and a man who kept slipping past Interpol across three continents.
Writers Richard Warlow and Toby Finlay keep the facts dry and refuse to glamourise the killer. The season's real strength is its jittery seventies mood and Rahim's performance. Stream The Serpent Season 1 online on iFILM.
8 episodes
S1·E1Episode 1
Bangkok, 1975. Dutch diplomat Herman Knippenberg investigates the disappearance of a young couple who were last seen alive at the apartment of gem dealer Charles Sobhraj.
S1·E2Episode 2
Marie-Andrée Leclerc leaves her life behind for the love of Charles Sobhraj but discovers the chilling cost. Herman vows to investigate the murders of the Dutch couple.
S1·E3Episode 3
Young Frenchman Dominique Renelleau tries to escape Charles Sobhraj’s terrifying lair. As he listens to Nadine and Remi’s testimony, Herman realises the scale of Charles’s crimes.
S1·E4Episode 4
Charles embarks on a terrifying trail of destruction in Nepal, while Nadine helps Herman gather the final evidence he needs for the police to act.
S1·E5Episode 5
Herman and Charles engage in an exhausting battle of wits as Herman continues to pile pressure on the Thai police to prosecute the suspects, while Charles perfects his escape plan.
S1·E6Episode 6
The fallout from Gautier’s escape threatens Herman’s diplomatic career. Charles attempts to set up business in France, a place that holds powerful memories for him.
S1·E7Episode 7
Charles and Marie-Andrée arrive in Paris and attempt to set up a new life. Meanwhile, Herman makes a dangerous gamble in his investigation which finally brings a breakthrough.
S1·E8Episode 8
The net begins to close around Charles and Marie-Andrée in India, but the final chapter of Herman’s pursuit of Sobhraj stretches long into the future.
1 seasons
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