A Very Secret Service S1-S2

Brilliant program, hope they make a second series soon!

Nostalgia is the name of the game in this amusing series pocking fun at France and its secret service. French bureaucracy is notoriously labyrinthine, even in the secret service and the first episode of the series its amazingly funny, showing the poor, disoriented Andrè trying to find his way in his new office. Andrè's colleagues, in charge of Africa, Algeria and Eastern Europe are despicable, self-serving, arrogant men, the way French can do very well. His superior is an enigma and - apparently- his father is a priest... Female characters are also interesting and not bi-dimensionsional, even if there is an inevitable femme fatale. Each episode is a mere 30 minutes and develops independently, while carrying a main plot involving the higher hierarchy. Although nowadays it is impossible to watch a show without an agenda, this one is at least threading lightly and for sure it's funny.

In 1960, the French intelligence service takes on a new employee, one Andre Merlaux. Young, handsome, smart, and naive, Merlaux learns the business from the older men, some of whom do not go by the book. This is a very funny comedy that pokes fun at government organizations and the personal agendas of a CIA type, which is what they really service. In the end, the writers are comparing government officials with criminals, and they're coming out the same. What a shock. The best for me were the American agents telling the French ones that they had plenty on JFK. What? The French ask. "He has an eye for the ladies." The French just look at them. "He sleeps around." Same looks, indicating that the French view of marriage, even for politicians, is different. Hugo Becker, as Andre, is adorable, and he has a delightful love story with the young woman at the tailor's, Sophie (Mathile Warnier). Part of one episode is a salute to Godard's A Bout de Soufflé, known here as Breathless, a French New Wave film. Fortunately for me, who detests French New Wave, all we see is one frame of Jean Seberg. Andre, however, is terribly impressed because people talk like they're not in a movie. Totally worth seeing. You'll love the crazy characters and how blatant they are in their chicanery.

This Netflix Original production is a send-up of the French secret service, French bureaucracy, French colonialism and numerous other aspects of things stereotyped as French. It is brilliantly written, directed and acted. I find myself frequently laughing out loud. A show like this could quickly devolve into being played too broadly (think of "Get Smart") but this one doesn't. It maintains its edge by keeping a wry seriousness hand-in-hand with its lunacy. There are times when the show is even somewhat dark but it never loses its comic heart. There is only one season (2015) playing on Netflix streaming video at this time. I don't know if they made a second season, but I hope so! In French with English subtitles.