The story of Montrealer Julian Doucet – fictionalized to become The Lake, on Prime Video – is interesting. Friendly. Endearing, even. But is a television series the best vehicle to do him justice? We doubt it.
If you liked Schitt’s Creek, there is a good chance that The Lake is already on your television radar. Because even if their plots are very different, the two Canadian series have an obvious relationship, both in tone and in the themes addressed, namely family, community and LGBTQ issues.
This time, Prime Video invites us around a lake where a thirty-year-old (Jordan Gavaris) returns to spend time with his teenage daughter, whom he had – then gave up for adoption – before openly living his homosexuality. Over the course of a summer, he will revisit certain rivalries of the past, in particular with his half-sister (Julia Stiles).
Cut into eight episodes of 30 minutes each, The Lake radiates a certain benevolence, a contagious good mood that often reminds Schitt’s Creek. And if we don’t laugh regularly, we never really lose the smile, even when the series shows a few lengths in the middle.
Break of tone
That’s a pity all the same. And that’s also what leads us to believe that a feature film might have been a better format for this story. We could thus, possibly, have avoided this strange and sudden rupture of tone where The Lake borrows the codes of horror for the time of a particularly absurd (and boring) episode.
Nevertheless, we retain more of the strengths of the series than its weaknesses. Jordan Gavaris manages to carry the entire plot on his shoulders thanks to his charisma and his naturalness, while it is good to find Julia Stiles in a comic role.
In short, if a second season ends up appearing on the horizon, we will gladly agree to return to have a dip in this lake with frankly pleasant and inviting waters.