What if? What if “they” made Entourage for middle-aged, upper-middle-class Parisian cinéphiles instead of, you know, “Turtle”? Well, they did, and they have, and it’s called dix pour cent (“10 percent”), or Call My Agent! as Netflix has it, and I gave the first season a qualified thumb’s up last April.
Why the “qualified”? Although Call My Agent! has a lot of fun ridiculing the vanity and self-absorption of “stars”, it exposes the myth only to affirm it. These wacky egomaniacs really are stars! When the going gets tough, they summon their inner panache and come through like champions, turning disaster into triumph time and time again. Like Entourage, the sudden reversals of fortune that make up the show always seem to reverse in a good way, though Call My Agent! fortunately lacks the sort of “Ferraris for everyone!” finales that were endemic to Entourage.
Netflix just gave us the second season of 10%—six fifty-minute episodes, more or less—which I would give a second thumb’s up, with similar kvetchs, cavils, and quibbles. The season starts quite well, when the “ASK” agency, where all our pals work, gets some good news and some bad news. The good news is that ASK, seemingly on the verge of dissolution last year, has a savior in the form of mega-rich dude Hicham Janowski (Assaad Bouab). Hicham is of Polish descent but raised if not born in la grande nation. As a matter of fact, he and Andréa (Camille Cottin), the big-nosed, big-hearted (most of the time), tight-assed (in the good way) lesbian who both endures and provides much of the travails at ASK, well, they both grew up in the same provincial ville! Like a lot of people with more money than they know what to do with, Hitcham thinks it might be fun to get involved in le monde du cinéma. ASK isn’t just solvent, it’s loaded!
Yes, that’s the good news, but here’s the bad news. Hicham is a playa in the big world, not the cozy Parisian one, and in the big world they play by Reagan/Thatcher rules. You thought you were going to spend your days having long lunches with old clients? No way, Mesdames et messieurs! Get out there and get me some big names! Don’t ask, steal! It’s kill or be killed around here! Eat or be eaten!
Unfortunately, this disruption of ASK’s boulevardier lifestyle lasts all of twenty-three minutes, before Andréa lands a huge name (utterly unknown to me, of course, but I’m pretty sure it’s Fabrice Luchini), and after that it’s back to normal, with lots of comic relief from the sweet gay guy, whose name I’ve been unable to determine, who says lots of cute things and never embarrasses us by having a sex life.
I guess I must be a serious hard ass when I’m accusing the French of being sentimental, but some of the plot twists here seem to be stolen right out of Modern Family. Maybe the French are just watching too much American TV, but whatever the cause, the results are disappointing. I’m a sucker for the characters, Andréa in particular, whom I somehow identify with even though I don’t have a big nose and don’t pick up hot young chicks at swinging all-night bibars. But the plots aren’t giving my guys enough to do.
Part of the problem is the use of “screen legends” like Luchini and Juliette Binoche, who sadly look to me like rather tired middle-aged people—not nearly as old as I am, of course, but still getting up there. If you didn’t know who Martin Scorsese is, would you be excited at seeing him on Entourage? Is it exciting to see Will Ferrell, Mel Gibson, and John Lithgow in Daddy’s Home 2 even though you do know who they are? You see my point.
Season 2 of Call My Agent! does end with a promising “hook” for next season: The gang (some of them, at least) are going to New York! Noo Yawk v. Gay Paree? Talk about some culture shock! Sounds promising. Let’s hope they don’t weasel out and keep everyone home.
Afterwords
My fear is that the gang won’t actually go to New York. I mean, a French show with everyone speaking English? Unless we’re presented with some sort of “reverse Hollywood” fantasy New York where all the “natives” speak French with stagy “American” accents, whatever that would sound like. Which would be a lot of fun, but it’s difficult to imagine that the show’s producers would try it.
