Lupin Part 4: bigger, flashier, still worth it

Three years after Part 3, Lupin is back. All eight episodes of Part 4 landed on Netflix on Friday 23 October, and by Sunday the French series was already the most-watched non-English show on the platform. The question for anyone deciding how to spend their weekend is simpler: is it still good?

The setupA thief who wanted out

The story picks up four years after the end of Part 3. Assane Diop is in prison, and for him, Lupin is finished. He plans to serve out his sentence and keep a promise to his son: to go and meet their family in Senegal.

Then a message signed “Lupin” announces simultaneous heists at several museums. Security is tightened, and the thefts go ahead anyway. Assane insists he had nothing to do with it, but every clue points straight back at him. To prove his innocence and unmask the copycat, he has to escape and put on the Lupin costume one more time.

What worksOmar Sy is still the whole show

Omar Sy now runs the series alongside director Louis Leterrier as co-showrunner, and his performance is still the main reason to watch. The Guardian, which gave Part 4 four stars out of five, singled him out, and almost every review agrees.

The smartest idea this season is the frame-up itself. For three parts, the way people underestimated Assane was his greatest weapon. Now the reputation he built works against him: he is the obvious suspect, and nobody believes him. Critics at FandomWire and The Guardian both pointed to that reversal as the season's best move.

The action has also grown. Collider called the opening heists thrilling and said the season pushes the stunts further than before, and But Why Tho? scored it 9 out of 10, calling it a return worth the wait.

What doesn'tWhen the gadgets do the thinking

The same growth is where the complaints start. The early magic of Lupin was watching a man pull off impossible things with a disguise, a bit of nerve and a plan you only understood at the end. Part 4 leans on technology and big set pieces instead. FandomWire felt the tech sometimes does too much of the plotting, and The Guardian noted the show drifting toward something closer to a superhero blockbuster.

Viewers have been blunter. Some fans say the heists now feel like spectacle rather than clever planning, and at least one compared Assane to Spider-Man.

The splitCritics vs fans

That gap shows up in the scores. On Rotten Tomatoes, Part 4 holds a 100% critics' score from its first five reviews, the same as Part 3. Its audience score is far lower: around 20% from 50-plus ratings as of 28 October. Those numbers will move as more people finish the season, but the divide is real.

The numbersNo. 1, already

Whatever fans say online, they are watching. Netflix's official Top 10 for the week of 19 to 25 October put Part 4 at No. 1 among non-English TV shows, with 6.4 million views. It only had three days in that week to get there. Netflix hasn't announced a Part 5.

Our verdictBinge it

This isn't the cleverest Lupin. If what you loved was the sleight of hand of Part 1, some of Part 4 will feel too loud. But it's the biggest the show has been, the frame-up gives Assane something real to fight for, and Omar Sy still owns every scene he's in. Eight episodes, one weekend. Go in for the ride, not the logic.