The first episode of Happiness, which TVA will relay on Wednesday at 9:30 p.m., buttocks hard. In the genre: super stripper, courtesy of François Avard (The Bougons), who co-signs this satirical comedy with Daniel Gagnon (The parents, Madame Lebrun).
The texts of this half hour bite into all the delicate topical subjects. The bleaching of Quebec history, the overprotection of children, the hypersensitivity of activists, gender identities, the intimidation suffered by the LGBTQ + community, trans people, mental illness, in short, everything that Pénélope McQuade talks about in his radio-Canadian microphone.
The opening scene of the Happiness, where the French high school teacher François Plante (Michel Charette) explodes in front of his class, is part of the best episode of Grumpy. At the end of the line and medicated to the bone, Professor Plante overturns his desk and lashes out against the “most stupid generation” that the Earth has borne, populated by small fragile beings who eat Tide Pods and who are raised by “parents of marde”.
Obviously, the students film this performance and upload it to YouTube, making the overwhelmed teacher a web star.
There is something deeply satisfying about hearing this string of elements that are not at all politically correct. We feel guilty to laugh about it because, precisely, these words a) go against the current ambient rectitude and b) are often said very low rather than loud and clear.
The two screenwriters of Happiness then present us a couple with volcanic potential. There’s stepmother Carole (Louise Bombardier), who posts anti-Muslims on Facebook, as well as her boyfriend, Jocelyn (Guillaume Cyr), a conspiratorial conspirator whose schedule is to express his wacky ideas on internet forums.
When her grandson Étienne (Sam-Éloi Girard), a 22-year-old college sabbatical student, reminds her that the Muslims have done nothing to her, her grandmother Carole loses her temper: “Well no, no. They just rushed by plane on our buildings and cut the throats of the world who don’t believe their silliness, ”she replies.
This is the squeaky tone of the first episode of Happiness, produced by Fabienne Larouche and Michel Trudeau, who spares no one. The best friend of our antihero, the psychologist Stéphane (Patrice Dubois), comes out with an excellent one on the psychologists, which is very Avard, time 2005: “If the shrinks were useful for something, it would be a long time that I would have been. figured out. ”
Alas, this irreverence fades in the three episodes that follow. From social criticism of the educational environment, Happiness turns into a sitcom – quite predictable – about the installation of a family of city dwellers in rural areas.
Because after his viral boondoggle, prof François resigns and buys a farmhouse in Saint-Bernard-du-Lac, where he hopes to find peace and quiet to write his first novel. As in The fair of misfortunes, a classic 1986 film starring Tom Hanks, the house turns out to be a real rat infested “tome”. An ATV-snowmobile trail divides the terrain in two. A huge wind turbine is being built in the yard, and it is literally raining insecticide.
Add here some: the countryside stinks, there are truck noises, there is no WiFi or cellular network, and repeat these observations in each episode.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, PRESS ARCHIVES
François Avard co-wrote Happiness with Daniel Gagnon.
Happiness, who will face Guys Radio-Canada, is not a bad series. But it is not the talkative and maverick François Avard that we expected. It is a wiser, less vulgar François Avard, who co-wrote Happiness. I expected to laugh more yellow.
For me, the revelation of Happiness is the actress Monika Pilon, who plays the real estate agent Karoll-Ann Lapoynte-St-Jacques. Don’t underestimate Karoll-Ann with her clawed nails and bad French. She’s smarter than she lets her appear.
The farmer’s market in the fourth episode evokes the time when Tita Bougon (Louison Danis) made local jam with two strawberries and 14 cups of sugar. We can feel here that François Avard has spoiled himself with the “gentlemen-farmers” who are fond of 100% vegan meat and apples grown in freedom in unfenced orchards. It should be noted that the hen who yodels like Guylaine Tanguay is super comical.
François’ wife, the ex-nurse Mélanie (Sandrine Bisson), is the less well-defined character, I think. We lack the context to better understand it.
As for Étienne, François and Mélanie’s son, he spends his time – when he unearths the network – watching videos of a comedian who only talks about her vagina. Do you ring a bell? “We’re going to say it to each other, a guy who makes vagina jokes, it’s easy and vulgar. But coming from a girl, I find it daring, ”remarked a character from the Happiness.
This is Avard.
A neighbor of the Plante family, installed in the countryside for barely two months, confided to them her total incompetence in manual work. “I didn’t know anything about nothing in anything. Must say that I was leaving from afar. I was a cultural columnist on the radio, ”slips this neighbor.
That too is Avard. And we would take more.