DFrom the pregeneric sequence of the first episode broadcast tonight on TF1, the tone is set. We find there Morgane Alvaro, whose big comeback it is, in the middle of a shopping session in a shopping mall, way Pretty Woman of course, as the musical accompaniment of the scene tells us without finesse. Except that the noisy heroine of the first channel, identification obliges, runs the shops flanked by her children. The opportunity in a few seconds not only to offer us a small panorama of Audrey Fleurot’s flashy dressing room, but above all to gently replant the decor, flashy fluorescent trend, HPI, the only series to be able to pride itself on having exploded the hearings last year, bringing together nearly 10 million faithful in front of the screen. Unheard of in this post-Netflix TV era!
So, as viewers must get their money’s worth, there’s no question of disappointing them. “My brain works well; and me; I’m running behind”, says Morgane who, thanks to her high intellectual – and comic – potential, watched by her enamored boss Karadec, will solve, false nails in her nose, mystery after mystery. Enough to give a good “taser” to our dreary Thursday evenings!
Season 2 is off to a flying start. Even if it means pushing the potachery sliders a little far with an Audrey Fleurot multiplying pouts, mimes and well-turned left (“Why are you pissed off? Were you nicked your hydroalcoholic gel?”) without being afraid of overbidding. For these eight new episodes, the screenwriters seem to have given it their all, offering their politically incorrect heroine a wide range of situations, from the most banal to the most absurd, to often get the best out of them: Morgane at the emergency police switchboard, Morgane at the farm, Morgane at the confessional, Morgane at the castle, Morgane at karaoke…
A little ripolin
Nothing to complain about: Audrey Fleurot largely deceives, makes her pen “talk”, pulls on her chewing gum, fights with a toilet brush… And navigates with more subtlety than it seems between the joker clown , Coluche style mounted on wedge heels, and the white clown unable to blend into the mold and sometimes overtaken by feelings with which this eternal teenager does not know how to compose.
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But difficult to offer the same recipe without a little ripolin. The work of the scriptwriters therefore seems to have concentrated more on the secondary characters, left a little abandoned in the first season. Just to expand them, already, to prevent them from being swept away by the tornado Morgane. But surely also to serve as a safeguard for this ubiquitous colorful character who could become exhausted – and exhaust the viewer at the same time. As such, Bruno Sanches (Gilles), ex-Liliane of Catherine (Canal +), finds something to feed his comic talent, when Morgane and her brawling tribe arrive at his home. Similarly, Marie Denarnaud sees the contours of Commissioner Hazan become more refined, to offer a more generous vision, and her gift for comedy is revealed in an incredible wild dance scene with Morgane.
The other good idea of the script, which has proven itself more than once in long-running series, is to cover the plot with a cloud, certainly expected, of rom com, playing with the emerging feelings between Morgane and Karadec. This association of carp and rabbit is gradually bearing fruit if it does not play the card of originality. Especially since this season 2 introduces a rival for Morgane into this nascent story!
Fleurot stronger than Marleau
“I’m not sure that we can speak of a rival, corrects Clotilde Hesme (The Returned, Lupin), who embodies this investigator from the IGPN who came to investigate the excesses of Karadec and his insolent sidekick. The stupid and wicked rivalry between women, today, we no longer believe in it. I prefer to see Roxane as a counterpoint to the character of Morgane. Roxane is almost as psychorigid as Morgane is sassy. “If the first intrigues seem to stick to this tall brunette with the piercing gaze a certain harshness, even a touch of Machiavellianism, Roxane will quickly force Morgane to put a brake on her exuberances, if she does not want to leave the door or, worse, talk the loss of his colleagues….
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“It went very well on set. With Audrey Fleurot, we shared the role of Elmire in the Tartuffe of Molière directed by Luc Bondy at the Odéon theatre”, says Clotilde Hesme, delighted to find in HPI a character who “sows pitfalls in Morgane’s journey without being a detestable character”.
However, there is no question of stealing the show from Audrey Fleurot – that would be very difficult. The secondary characters wisely slip away to let the exuberance of this “everyday heroine” express itself, as TF1 likes to define her, who says aloud what the others have not yet had time to think quietly. . The eight episodes are devoured with greed, guilty pleasure guaranteed, and give a hell of a shot of old to the Captain Marleau, the other big mouth of the French series, camped since 2015 by Corinne Masiero. Perhaps by simply accepting to take itself less seriously than its unclaimed model.