This is a series like no other: a story that feels good, featuring a group of “benevolent” friends and – extremely rare – men who have good looks, far from the cliché of the slightly stupid, sluggish guy. or downright macho that we often see on screen in Quebec.
Series Beautiful flower, showing starting Thursday, May 16 on Crave, is one of a kind. We want to hug the characters because they are so human, both strong and vulnerable, and most of the time “authentic”, true.
“It’s destabilizing with its happiness and sweetness,” summarizes Nicola Morel, co-author of Beautiful flower with his partner, Sarah-Maude Beauchesne. The couple took on the challenge of showcasing a “positive” masculinity, more representative of the generation of thirty- and forty-somethings than the “toxic” (or vaguely idiotic) guys who abound in public spaces.
After becoming interested in feminism (particularly in novels Slush heart And Window shopping and the blog The forks), the author, screenwriter and actress Sarah-Maude Beauchesne wanted to show healthy men. She can’t wait to see the reactions to Beautiful flower in this difficult time for male-female relations. “The men are not doing well. There is a resurgence of masculinists on social networks. Teenagers see them as role models,” she says.
In his entourage — and that of the members of the team of Beautiful flower —, men who are comfortable in their skin are nevertheless the majority. “I recognize a lot of my friends in this. Finally, we see people who look like us,” says Jeanne Leblanc, director of the 10 22-minute episodes.
Simply life
The series chronicles the ups and downs of five high school friends as they enter their forties. As a couple or separated, they have succeeded professionally, but they face daily obstacles. Illness of a partner, romantic difficulties, strained relationships with a teenager: “It’s just life, in its disarming authenticity,” says co-producer Julia Langlois, of Trio Orange.
Nicolas (Guillaume Laurin) takes refuge in Sherbrooke, his hometown, after a separation which distances him from his partner’s boy (Charlotte Aubin), to whom he is deeply attached. He finds comfort with his brother Maxime (Maxime de Cotret) and his friends Yann (Marc-André Grondin), Minh (Jean Bùi) and Alex (Guillaume Cyr).
The guys and their partners, Raphaëlle (Sarah-Maude Beauchesne), Claudie (Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse), Marie (Marilyn Castonguay), Sabrina (Nathalie Doummar) and Mia (Florence Blain Mbaye), face the challenges with a mixture of maturity and vulnerability. The series explores friendship, feminism, fatherhood, grief and even gender fluidity. All this in a natural way, without big waves.
The tone, the visual style and the subject are reminiscent of the cult series Life, lifewhich followed a group of thirty-something friends from Plateau Mont-Royal, in 2001 and 2002. The beautiful gang of Beautiful flower arouses the same feeling of fullness. Their kindness does us good. We love them. They are not perfect, but perhaps that is why we become attached to these extraordinarily ordinary characters.
Producer Julia Langlois also talks about the series Ted Lasso, recounting the adventures of an American football coach who takes charge of a soccer team in London: “It makes you want to be nice to people. »
A young audience
The series adopts a point of view rarely shown on screen: that of a main male character, a father-in-law to boot, who considers his ex-partner’s child as his own son. He fights to remain present with the toddler when she leaves him.
“That’s what attracted us from the start,” explains Sophie Parizeau, general director of fiction at Bell Media.
The men of Beautiful flower express their emotions. They are crying. One of the characters, Maxime, although married (his partner is pregnant with a child who probably has Down syndrome), is attracted to a bisexual colleague. Guys of this generation, like the host Jay Du Temple, can wear nail polish or a pearl necklace without complexes, notes Sophie Parizeau. She is “hopeful” that the series will appeal to Crave’s relatively young (18-49 year old) audience.