When the episodes ofIn Memoriam were released on Thursdays, this grim thriller climbed to first place among the most popular series on the Crave platform. Form an ocean to another. English and French combined.
So, Canadian Crave subscribers in Calgary or Halifax also saw this psychological thriller from here clinging to the top of the charts ahead of prestigious HBO titles like Hacks, The Jinx Or The Sympathizer. It just goes to show that original and daring TV made in Quebec works well. And to quote Véronique Cloutier on her radio show back home on Rouge FM: that’s up to the rest of us!
“It is my greatest pride to have critical success and success with the public. I checked an item off my bucket list. If my career as a screenwriter ended today, I would be happy and I could die in peace,” the creator ofIn MemoriamPierre-Marc Drouin (Reasonable doubt).
Pierre-Marc Drouin, who developed In Memoriam with Jean-Philippe Baril Guérard, before recruiting Pascale Renaud-Hébert, even ordered a large neon signIn Memoriam, which he hung on the wall of his personal gym at home. Halfway between Succession And Squid Game, In Memoriam has long held the working title ofBlack animals.
Now, for those latecomers who have yet to watch the eighth and final episode ofIn Memoriamthe whistleblower alert resonates here like the terrifying nursery rhyme that invaded the rococo mansion of Léry’s family in the third episode.
Fall, fall, little leaf, the wind will blow soon! It’s good ?
The heirs of the sadistic businessman Paul-Émile de Léry (Bruno Marcil) who managed to transcend and accept their childhood wounds took part of the 84 million loot. Drug addict Judith de Léry (Catherine Brunet) realized that she accidentally killed her mother Mathilde (Catherine Bérubé) while targeting her manic father, and no one reproached her.
IMAGE PROVIDED BY BELL MEDIA
Mani Soleymanlou and Evelyne Brochu in a scene fromIn Memoriam
Lawyer Lucile de Léry (Evelyne Brochu) removed her shell and finally showed her vulnerability, notably to her friend Victor (Mani Soleymanlou). As for Julien de Léry, he admitted to having been at the origin of his mother’s arrest at the gas station, in addition to assuming the consequences of the fraud he committed in Switzerland.
And why was coach Andrew (Thomas Antony Olajide) able to participate in the six stages of this torture tournament – physical and mental – painstakingly concocted by Paul-Émile de Léry? Because the patriarch of Léry knew that Andrew’s presence would tear apart his two gay sons, who each attended him in turn.
Two gay brothers in a series, without them becoming the central point of the plot, that’s already rare. Two gay brothers who sleep with the same guy are enough to arouse jealousy and madness.
Cardiologist Mathieu de Léry (Éric Bruneau) is the one who lost everything in In Memoriam. Money, love, his brother and two sisters. In Memoriam could have been called From father to psychopath so Mathieu reproduced the violence, manipulation and cruelty he saw in his father.
It was Mathieu who strangled the family dog, an act for which Lucile was savagely beaten with a leash by Paul-Émile. It was also Mathieu who was blamed for Mathilde’s arrest, while it was Julien who opened the trap.
Over the course of eight episodes, Mathieu drugged his sister Judith with dextroamphetamine, he orchestrated the assassination of his fentanyl dealer friend Arnaud (Robin L’Houmeau), he beat his lover, and yet, it’s not him who I hated the most in the series.
It was Judith who got on my nerves the most. From afar. I know, she was carrying a heavy trauma, she was not fundamentally bad, blah, blah, blah, but sweet Jesus that her crying fits, her constant distress and her trips to Arnaud’s motel room m They had kids. It’s her that I would have crowned at the bottom of the balcony, it seems. Not Farah (Nour Belkhiria).
The first three episodes ofIn Memoriam contained chilling scenes such as that of the dogs to be slaughtered or that of the compromising letters that the competitors had to read aloud.
The fourth and fifth episodes, which take place in crisis management mode, slowed down the pace and were less suffocating. In the sixth episode, that of orange juice, we reconnect with the tense and anxiety-provoking aspect of the series and it was a pure delight in all its perversity.
Grow, grow, little bud, the sun will return soon.
I levitate
With Rue Duplessis, by Jean-Philippe Pleau
A novel ? A story ? A try ? This touching and frontal book incorporates all these elements on 328 pages that are sometimes very harsh, but of admirable honesty. The author, sociologist and host at Radio-Canada (Think out loud) recounts his childhood spent in Drummondville in great financial, cultural and intellectual poverty, then his rise in the bourgeois world, of which he has not yet mastered all the codes. Ass between two chairs, as he says himself. It’s raw, heartbreaking, relentless and moving. Like the work of Annie Ernaux or that of Édouard Louis, which the author cites extensively. A true book.
I avoid it
The braided quilt on TV
Is it the influence of 1990s fashion that refuses to clear the floor? Or a leftover reggae band? Still, this spring we are witnessing the big return of the braided hair quilt, which is worn over a shaved coconut. We currently see it on Gino’s head at If we still loved each otheras well as that of Ricky from Survivor Quebec. The desired effect is surely that of a Viking, but, in the end, we realize that the result is more reminiscent of Émilie Laurin from Watatatow.