“Clem”, with Lucie Lucas, Agustin Galiana, and Thomas Chomel, returns this Monday to TF1 for an unprecedented 12 season which welcomes Héléna Noguerra and François-David Cardonnel. Is Jérôme’s return, after several years of absence, a good idea?
With the recent stoppage of Alice Nevers, of Research Section (which will soon be entitled to its final double episode), or of Profiling, Clem, on the air since 2010, is part, with Camping Paradis and Joséphine, angel guardian, of the few successful long-term series of TF1 to still resist.
Despite declining audiences, the family drama carried by Lucie Lucas and Agustin Galiana continues to make good scores on young people and women responsible for purchases under 50, prime targets of advertisers.
This is why Clem returns without much surprise this Monday, March 28 at 9:10 p.m. for a season 12 which goes back more than ever to the fundamentals by perfectly combining comedy and more dramatic and tense plots.
And welcomes Héléna Noguerra, seen last week in The Replacement, and François-David Cardonnel, ex-adventurer of Koh-Lanta who has since become an actor, in the skin of recurring characters who will turn these six new episodes upside down.
But after 12 seasons, does Clem mayonnaise still take so much? Or has the series, like others before it, reached the limits of what it can tell without tiring?
Ch. Lartige/TF1/Merlin
The return of an iconic character
Last year, after darker seasons 9 and 10 centered on the heroine’s coma, her quest for the truth to find out who was responsible for Caro’s death (Victoria Abril), and even environmental issues, Clem had already made a return to its basic DNA by bringing together the entire Boissier-Brimont tribe around Valentin (Thomas Chomel), who became a father at 17. Giving us a nice nod to the beginnings of the series and Clémentine’s teenage pregnancy.
The series continues this back-to-basics logic in season 12 by betting on both pure comedy sequences and drama with the arrival of a surprise guest and new threats for Clem and Val.
Appearing for the last time in season 7 in the guise of its original interpreter, Benoît Michel, Jérôme Thévenet, the ex-husband of the heroine, is indeed making a comeback in the series. He is now embodied by François-David Cardonnel, already seen on TF1 in The Bazaar of Charity and La Traque, and returns to resume his place as father with Emma (Elina Solomon).
And if the pre-teen, who is going through a real crisis and cannot find her place in the new blended family formed by her mother and Mathieu (Loup-Denis Elion), is delighted to find her father, Clem will quickly understand that the return in France by Jérôme is not necessarily good news. Then will follow between the two former a battle for the custody of Emma which could well explode the family and have serious consequences.
Fans should be won over by this red thread imbued with drama and strong stakes, which finally gives importance to the character of Emma and reintroduces an emblematic character from the series. But we can’t help, at the same time, from having the impression that Jérôme is no longer really Jérôme.
Because beyond the fact that François-David Cardonnel is getting closer physically to Julien (Mathieu Spinosi), he portrays a very different version of the character, an expert in the double game, who no longer has much to do with the one that we had left on his farm in season 7.
Ch. Lartige/TF1/Merlin
A new chapter for Valentin
In parallel with this main plot, the TF1 series continues to delight us with the character of Marie-France (Carole Richert), who embarks on a new career that is surprising to say the least and sees her friendship with Nathalie (Cristiana Reali) develop. even more. A delight. But also with Salomé (Joséphine Berry), whose personal life and professional life will intertwine in a problematic and touching way.
But it is above all Valentin who experiences the most important development. While having to juggle his role as father to Jules, Clem’s son enters adulthood and begins his post-baccalaureate studies in a prestigious design school where competition is raging.
And as her love affair with Izia (Lily Nambininsoa) picks up again, Val catches the eye of Iris Khan, a charismatic and renowned art teacher who seems to see her potential. And who will come dangerously close to him.
While his mother is going through a very complicated period, Valentin is therefore faced with a new ordeal because of Iris, interpreted to perfection by Helena Noguerra, who joins the series for this twelfth season. And Thomas Chomel, at the heart of the news at the moment with also Parallèles on Disney +, continues to prove that he is one of the main assets of Clem since the reboot operated in 2019.
Will he become the hero of his own spin-off the day Clem stops? The future will tell. After twelve years on the air, the TF1 series in any case still clearly has things to tell, as these new episodes demonstrate.
And if this season 12 is less successful when it transports us to high school, with its little too caricatural plagues, or when it is interested in Adrian and Amélie, whose plot is unfortunately below this year, we find once again this big family with happiness. Especially since Lucie Lucas continues to carry Clem brilliantly.