Savages

I loved the fact that, for once, there was a majority of Maghrebi actors and actresses in the roles of the series and that they were not playing "racaille de la cité". It was a window into the "other" France which is no more homogenous at all than the actual country - as the series revealed, some of the people descended from the Maghreb were religious, some totally secular, some openly in out-of-wedlock relationships and others more traditional. I do sense a political message in this from the writers and producers. We have an unplanned pregnancy, a gay couple, a teen girl having an affair, the religious, the virtuous, the evil. It shows a microcosm of France itself. It's saying that these people are as French as the French (whatever that is), which is the prevailing orthodoxy. France did not go down the British route of multiculturalism.

We have a story, as the plot outline tells us, of a Maghrebi being elected to the presidency. There are those who would wish to stop him in both conventional and abominable ways.

It's a tale of derring do and during its recounting there are some holes in the plot which we can, however, forgive.

The speech at the end of the series contains noble sentiments and some hard truths rarely mentioned in TV drama. I have to say that it was slightly mawkish but still somewhat moving.

SBS did a good job on the subtitles, as usual. I watched this all in the space of twenty four hours. Six episodes was absolutely right. If it had been stretched to the normal eight it would have been too long.

I recommend this.

The director says she combines the effectiveness of an "American-style" story with "the tragic Russian". Imagine that this tension is due to our Western Mediterranean origins, France as a projection of Algeria, just as America is from the West. As soon as the universal has a country (a geography), in the name of each and every one of us, the president carries the tension between the traumatic past, the somatic present in its multiple current violence and the cathartic hope. The President embodies (a body) the hope (projection) that his election (will) then offers (at the time) the mandate for a resolution between the two twin forces (relationships) that are freedom and determinism. And French universality, like American universality when they know how to be put into action and narrated, is important for the future of this planet. When it is done as it is in this television series, the tragic spectacle pushes judgments to be expressed in our soul, which then accepts each of the components of a society as its own activity. State of consciousness, states of Awareness. Meet in a scripted and serialized present, History as all the times, and the stories that come now. In this dramaturgy represented here, the show does not show a society, a planet still at the stage of love. Nor is it specifically represented suffering or some good reasons to be offended, to denounce, to criticize, to judge, to explain, the usual springs of often boring French-style fiction. No, here it is the sharing of an uncompromising meditation to encourage our sharpened faculties through the mediation of movement images. That an actor in adversity leads this ancestor from the south to cross the water for a land; to finally find himself in the fire of a renewed consciousness in the universal air; it is an autumn festival of balance and moderation. And that it is in the midst of the tumults of an era, it is well done! As for what it is about, current events are reported in the news. But a director's art will show you something else. Because to break the automatism of thinking, you need the shock, the coma, the deaths of the old dead-end roads for hope to become love. Thank you for your attention and good viewing.

That's the pure French political genre series. I think this kind of stuff could have been made long ago. It is inspired by BARON NOIR, HOUSE OF CARDS, ENGRENAGES...with action and thriller elements added to the whole. But as I told above, it is too simplistic, too foreseeable of certain points. It could have been better on many things. It's social political thriller in the pure French manner. Many will prefer BARON NOIR, but the latest lasked action and thrills. Mainly destined to Arabic descent audiences. Caucasian French born? Hmmmm.

The Marion Character is completely unnecessary. Her role is done after the assassination attempt, so go home. No agency would ever have allowed her to play the role she does. The story would have been stronger without her meddling in family affairs, she is just sitting in her car letting Fouad do the actual work. And why is her name mentioned first? I'd say Fouad and Jasmine are the actual key players.

All the rest: loved it! The relationships between the members of these two families are displayed in a gripping manner and I must say that I really liked all the characters and the way the actors make them come alive. The struggle between the French life and the Algerian way of living is tense and I think the makers of this serie nailed it.