TVA will certainly not deprive itself of a second season of its satirical comedy Happinesswhich brings 1,589,000 viewers to its small farmhouse in Saint-Bernard-du-Lac, Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m.
Posted yesterday at 8:15 a.m.
It’s huge as a success, really. It prances almost as much as District 31 at Radio-Canada by the same producers Fabienne Larouche and Michel Trudeau from Aetios. The renewal of the popular Happiness won’t be long, I’m told.
The level of humor Happiness varies a lot from episode to episode. True. But in our ultra cautious media universe, which tries to curb the slightest controversy at its source, the two authors François Avard and Daniel Gagnon pulverize the adage that we can “no longer say anything” on TV. Only for that, it is successful.
And the two screenwriters spoil themselves in drooling replies, soaked in acid cynicism.
The fifth episode of Happiness, which focused on foreign agricultural workers, contained pearls of scathing social criticism. This was the best, so far (along with the first).
You should have seen the mayor (Jacques Girard) of the municipality congratulating himself on the arrival of this cheap labour, which he then sold like cattle at auction. Mexican workers from Guatemala? I want four clean and six honest!
“Our Guatemalan friends are doing us the honor of coming to harvest what they came to sow in the spring,” enthused the mayor as the sparse crowd swayed on Guantanamera.
Obviously, one should not read the texts of the Happiness in the first degree. François Avard and Daniel Gagnon here scorch the employers of these workers of the earth and all those who think they are doing them a huge service by exploiting them.
The sixth episode of the comedy, centered on the influencer Naomie Dupré-Choquette (Léa Girard Nadeau), took an unexpected turn. No, the young content creator was not ridiculed for 30 minutes, even though she taught her psychologist friend a good life lesson. showerbag Stephane (Patrice Dubois). The scriptwriters often use this character of the shrink, but lucid, to convey messages about therapy.
“I’m a psychologist, I’m in a very good position to know that you can’t really change,” swung Stéphane to his best friend François (Michel Charette) between two sips of scotch.
Any cellar can become a psychologist, continued our good shrink, full of aces. “I earn my living by keeping my mouth shut when there are so many people who open it for nothing. What the world wants to hear is from the world who listens to them,” remarked Stéphane, in a 100% Avardian text, hard-hitting, moderately subtle, with a big grain of truth.
Happiness shoots at hyper-varied targets such as the media, the Kafkaesque government bureaucracy, the rotten education system, the hypersensitivity of the young, the closed-mindedness of the old, everyone tastes it, left, right, center .
This line, put in the mouth of a very jaded former physical education teacher, perfectly encapsulates the irreverent spirit of this comedy which says things that are not said: “Run, cursed lazy! I was told not to call the students sissies anymore. It doesn’t seem like it’s being said anymore. Run, big obese christie “, then bellowed the authoritarian teacher, little in tune with his time, let’s say.
The last two episodes, which poured into conspiracy and paranormal phenomena, were weak. On the other hand, they brought back the formidable real estate agent Karoll-Ann Lapoynte-St-Jacques (Monika Pilon), who gave a lightning lesson in ecology.
“The environment is a fad, it will pass. It excites children who want to lecture us. But when they will be caught with real adult constraints, they will not care like everyone else, ”philosophized the beautiful Karoll-Ann.
In this dialogue tinged with bad faith, we heard the François Avard who goes against the current of the dominant discourse. This is where he excels. Not in the predictable “green acres” style gags.
Several recurring comic elements spice up the half-hours of the Happiness, including the vulgar comedian (voice of Mélanie Ghanimé) who only talks about her vagina and her “snatch”, to the great pleasure of Etienne (Sam-Éloi Girard). There is also the poor teacher Daniel (François Chénier), forced to disguise himself to teach history in a less traumatic way to young people. His clown Rigolocaust, who played down the Holocaust, was hilarious.
Wednesday evening, the farmhouse of François and Mélanie (Sandrine Bisson) will host the shooting of an electric car advertisement. It seems that the middle of the TV passes a bad quarter of an hour there. Can’t wait to see this and recognize crowned heads of our showbiz.
Finish the 1res times
Véronique Cloutier is rarely linked to a TV show over a long period. The host left TV kids after four years in 2014 and announced on Tuesday that the current season of 1res times – the fifth – will be the very last.
PHOTO FROM THE SHOW’S FACEBOOK PAGE
Véronique Cloutier at the helm of 1res times
You will see the ultimate episode of 1res times Thursday, April 7 at 8 p.m., where Véronique Cloutier will sit on the guest’s sofa, while her friend Joël Legendre will take charge of the show. This special episode was recorded last Friday in studio 42. This winter, 1res times riveted 832,000 couch potatoes in front of their screen.
Véro fans won’t be bored for long, as the Queen of Radio-Canada has already chosen her next “major variety show” project, which will take off in January 2023. foreigner or a creation of Louis Morissette’s KOTV box? It was not possible to find out. As long as it’s not the return of Your beautiful programit should be fine.