At the end of the 1972 film The Candidate, Robert Redford’s Bill McKay runs a dark horse campaign for Senate against a longtime incumbent. When he wins, the last line of the movie is telling; he asks his campaign manager “What do we do now?” That’s the theme of the second season of the French comedy Represent.
REPRESENT SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: A picture of Élysée Palace, where France’s outgoing president addresses the nation, admitting that he didn’t have the best two terms in office.
The Gist: Stéphane Blé (Jean-Pascal Zadi), a youth counselor who lived in Paris’ public housing projects, is about to take over the presidency after a shocking win in the election. He has no real agenda aside from “Eat well, for free,” the slogan he ran on during the election.
When he and his new staff — all from the projects — walk into Élysée Palace, they are greeted by Alice (Vimala Pons), the new head of security; she tells Stéphane about the myriad death threats they’ve received, from just about every group they could think of. The number has been so overwhelming, that two of her predecessors quit under the strain. While they talk, a package comes in with a banana inside it; it’s stuffed with a bullet and a note that is blatantly racist and threatening. Stéphane, feeling that being “from the hood” is all the protection he needs, brushes it off.
Yasmine (Souad Arsane), Stéphane’s chief of staff, tells him he has to pick a prime minister, one who will help him during the parliamentary elections in a few months. He chooses Corinne Douanier (Marina Foïs), his very left-wing opponent in the general election; she insists on being called “Prime Ministress” and wants to push through her extreme environmental reforms.
Before they go to Corinne, though, Stéphane goes back home to try to convince his wife Marion (Fadily Camara) to move in to Élysée Palace with him. She never agreed to live the life of a political wife, and doesn’t seem to be interested. Somehow, though, she’s eventually convinced by , of all people, William Crozon (Eric Judor), Stéphane’s exiled campaign manager who desperately wants to get back in his the new president’s good graces.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? As we said before Season 1, Represent (Original title: En Place) feels like Veep meets Spin City meets the uniqueness of French politics.
Our Take: It seemed inevitable that Represent, created by Zadi and François Uzan, would move on from a campaign to the implications of how France’s first Black president is going to have a rough go of it in office. Stéphane, though, takes the notion a number of steps further, as he doesn’t want to stray from the roots of his neighborhood, even though he’s now living in the massive Élysée Palace. His inauguration suit? A white jogging outfit with matching bucket hat. He dons the necklace that’s the symbol of the presidency as if it’s just another piece of bling. He wants his friends to be a part of his staff, even though they’re not really qualified to work in government.
It’s going to make for a season that will be full of mishaps, like when his friend and “co-head of security” Mo (Jean-Claude Muaka) mistakenly identifies an ambassador as a threat, with disastrous results. But there’s also some serious matters, such as the fact that much of France can’t seem to accept a Black president, and we see in the first episode that the threats against Stéphane are real.
The other part of the story is how Marion deals with being the country’s First Lady. She didn’t want any of this; she just wanted to stay in the projects and go to her hairstylist job like she did before. It seems like her and Stéphane’s quest to get pregnant via IVF is on hold. So, will she really make the difference she wants to make or will she chafe in a role she never wanted? And how will that affect things with Stéphane?
In general, though, Represent continues to be a sharp and funny exploration of the political environment in France, one that gets turned on its head by Stéphane’s election.
Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode.
Parting Shot: Mo tells Stéphane about his mistake with the ambassador, who’s currently tied up in the basement of the palace.
Sleeper Star: We’ll give this once again to Fadily Camara as Marion, because she still seems to be the only person in Stéphane’s life who has her head screwed on straight.
Most Pilot-y Line: In a meeting with the outgoing president, Stéphane is excited to get the “code”, until he finds out that it’s the Wifi password.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Represent‘s second season explores the “now what?” part of Stéphane’s unlikely run for President, and his fumbling attempts to change the office for the better should make for a funny scenario.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
The post Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Represent’ Season 2 On Netflix, Where Stephane Takes Over As France’s Most Unlikely President Ever appeared first on Decider.
