With such a great and punchy title, Dumas couldn’t be a bad series. This romantic-poetic name evokes at the same time the fiery Three Musketeers, the sultry Queen Margot, the soaring disc The course of days and my puns are of a higher caliber.
I mean, it would have been weird if I wrote in this column: Dumas is rotten! My legendary self-mockery has its limits, though.
And thank God for the TV series Dumaswhich starts on Monday, September 9 at 8 p.m. on Radio-Canada, is more intelligent and refined than I am. There will therefore be no possible confusion between my abundant work and that, even more abundant, of the screenwriter Luc Dionne.
From now on, when you read on a website: Dumasit’s great art, you will understand that the compliment refers to Luc Dionne or the singer Dumas. If you see: Dumas can absolutely do better, hello, it’s definitely me.
Enough of useless pity, the faithful of District 31 will find in Dumas the richness of the police and criminal universe that Luc Dionne has skillfully depicted since Omertain 1996. Dumasit is in fact the gruff Jean Dumas (Gildor Roy), boss and founder of the private security firm Intelco, who made him a multimillionaire.
Jean Dumas works at Intelco with his criminalist son Anthony (Jason Roy Léveillée), who has the same pig-headed personality as his father, as well as former sex crimes detective sergeant Sophie Lacoste (Marie-Lyne Joncas) and the enigmatic Éric Bonin (Vincent Leclerc), an ex-cop about whom we know almost nothing. In Luc Dionne’s coded language, this means that this character is hiding big skeletons in his closet.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY RADIO-CANADA
Sylvain Marcel and Jason Roy Léveillée in Dumas
To add to the domestic drama, Jean Dumas’s ex-wife, the intense Stéphanie Guérin (Isabel Richer), still owns 40% of Intelco’s stock and is making sure her “retirement fund” doesn’t lose value. Intelco employees hate her, and our chic Stéphanie’s new boyfriend quickly appears on the Montreal police radar, whoops.
The first episode of Dumas sets the scene well and it ends, after an unexpected shootout, with a hard-hitting twist, which makes you want to devour the rest, right away.
Luc Dionne has always been a good dialogue writer and his latest texts once again prove his talent for slipping a few jokes into more serious scenes, although the tone of Dumas turns out to be darker than that of District 31which incorporated more teasing.
For example, we quickly understand that the hero Jean Dumas, grumpy and abrupt, will not resemble the doting and scrappy grandpa Daniel Chiasson, the good commander of District 31.
Jean Dumas is constantly bickering with his older brother Anthony (Jason Roy Léveillée), who is thinking of leaving for the rival agency Investcan, known for accepting mandates linked to notorious criminals. A drug addict and alcoholic, Jean Dumas’ youngest daughter, played by Jade Charbonneau, comes back into the picture after two years without giving any news.
In short, Jean Dumas has no “break” either at the office or at home – which is magnificent in the camera of director Stéphan Beaudoin (Classified Secret), by the way
Firms like those depicted in Dumas – or like the Garda or Sirco agencies in real life – accept contracts about money laundering, espionage or embezzlement.
This is why the first plot of Dumas seems simple enough in this range of exciting possibilities. A young star hockey player (Anthony Bouchard) is suspected of assaulting a young woman (Sarah Anne Parent), a story that several other series have explored recently, including STATProducer Fabienne Larouche assures that the outcome will surprise us.
In the second episode, Intelco investigators go looking for a woman who has been missing for two weeks, leaving no note or clue, nothing at all. Could the spouse (Guillaume Baillargeon) be hiding the truth from Jean Dumas’ team? It feels like we’re in the novel Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.
The distribution of Dumas also brings together Sylvain Marcel (a detective sergeant from the Montreal police) and Catherine-Anne Toupin (a highly motivated Investcan employee).
As 5e Rank, Witches Or Alerts, Dumas will air from September to April for a total of 24 episodes. It is well acted, well directed and well written. However, the pace of the first two episodes could have been accelerated, as they often repeat the same information.
Still, with a name like Dumasa universal guarantee of quality, this series could not be bad. And it is not, the honor of the Dumas is safe.
I levitate
With the third season ofIndustry on Crave
As a columnist, I devoured all eight episodes of the third season of this great HBO miniseries set in a gigantic investment bank in London. This third chapter, the best so far, shows us, of course, young, ambitious, carnal, drugged brokers, but also talks about high-level political shenanigans and the dangers of green and virtuous companies. Sometimes, we feel like we’re in Successionsometimes we navigate the waters of Girlswe never get bored. Crave offers the first three episodes, which will immediately make your investment profitable.
I avoid it
Marc Dupré’s GMC ad
Cowboy hat screwed on his head, guitar in hand, Marc Dupré sings mud, mud, mud, mud, mud while a red GMC Sierra Graphite truck rolls in… mud. That’s all. There’s no irony or hidden message. In a second ad from the same manufacturer, Marc Dupré pushes the note on “I tow trailers”, while a red GMC Sierra Graphite truck pulls a… trailer. It doesn’t smell like a Cannes Lions Festival award here, even if the voice is right and the performer is very likeable.