The candidate | The best Mrs. Poteau in Dufferin!

There are series finales that trigger howls of rage, like Reasonable doubt Or Innocence Project this week, and there are series finales that put a huge smile on our face, like that of The candidate on Radio-Canada.

It’s difficult to find fans for this zero-tight political comedy. The tenth and final episode, relayed Tuesday evening, tied up all the dangling strings and filled our hearts as viewers.

Finally, deputies Salima (Ines Talbi) and Benjamin (Olivier Gervais-Courchesne) of the PPDQ have “officialized” their relationship, which promises to be stormy and not dull, like their temperaments. The “big wooded area”, about which the characters talked a lot, a lot, has been decontaminated. And parliamentary recruit Alix Mongeau (Catherine Chabot, the revelation) found a nice house as well as love in Dufferin, the “place where fun goes to die”, to quote the first impressions of our favorite pole candidate.

But what this final hour of The candidate demonstrated best, it’s the entire journey – and not just the two and a half hour drive between Dufferin and Longueuil – by this 30-year-old nail technician. In his head, in his heart and in his career.

Ignorant, airy and quite selfish, the neophyte Alix began her political life backwards, gas at the bottom, bad faith in the carpet. She hated her ugly constituency populated by inbred tatas.

She prides herself on the socio-economic issues of her adopted region as well as her latest golden manicure. And she jumped into her wrecked car as soon as her work in Parliament ended.

Then, as in any “fish out of the bowl” type show, Alix changed (so that love could arrive and so that passion would deliver her). The letter that her old high school friend Benjamin gave her, the night of her election, predicted it: Alix would end up loving her job as an MP.

This “little cry” without filter was like a “butter of sunshine” in this gray television winter. This resourceful, bright and committed single mother offered a magnificent playground to actress Catherine Chabot, formidable in the tanned and made-up skin of Alix Mongeau, whose “funny” phone ringtone will stay in our heads for a long time.

We must once again salute the masterful work of screenwriter Isabelle Langlois, who has produced a contemporary, intelligent, relevant and very funny series. Only Isabelle Langlois can make a case of corruption and waste in a lost hole in the middle of “nowhere” amusing.

In addition to the three deputies of the first trio, The candidate presented a host of “endearing” characters, including the two Mailloux brothers, the eco-friendly Jean-Robert (Louis Champagne) and the capitalist Raymond (Roger Léger), who live on two opposite planets.

I would have paid a lot to attend the Mailloux family dinner in the company of the snobbish Hermance (Éric Bernier), the dynamic Marjolaine (Isabelle Vincent), his mechanic son Melville (Guillaume Laurin) as well as his friend Alix, always available to stick a foot in your mouth – well made-up and “contoured”.

The family reunions on Judes’ side (Patrick Emmanuel Abellard) were just as electric and tense due to the intransigence of the in-laws (Mireille Météllus and Maka Kotto), whom the very resourceful Kathy (Geneviève Alarie) put in their place . Well sent.

In Isabelle Langlois’ series, the women are never beige. Let us think of the political attaché Béatrice (Valérie Tellos), who drinks coffee, cereals and socially conscious art, the talkative hairdresser Léo (Noé Lira) as well as the real estate broker France Beaudry (Geneviève Brouillette), who lost her false bourgeois influence at the same time as her brokerage contract with the Maillouxes.

Even the teenager Lou (Lily-Rose Loyer), 14 years old, daughter of Alix and Judes, had more character than a text from the New Yorker. You have to do it.

If it was necessary to retouch certain plots of The candidateI would probably have reduced the intensity of the dump and depollution component, which tested the limits of my faith, as experienced by the very militant Hermance.

I loved the verbal jousting and the pecking between Alix, Salima and Benjamin. Modern and spicy, the lines came out of the mouths of the protagonists like cannonballs.

The final of The candidate moved back the timeline to October 4, where Alix was babbling in front of the cameras, patting her hair ponytail and speaking in English in stringy letters. In June, at the end of parliamentary work, it was a committed and solid politician who granted a review interview to tenacious journalist Vincent Tardif-Corriveau (Alex Godbout).

The second season of The candidate, which will never see the light of day, would have revolved around the revitalization of the old Dufferin textile factory, where the Mailloux wanted to build their new industrial district. Lack of money and complicated filming, this sequel project was abandoned.

It’s a shame, because there were three years left in the mandate of Alix Mongeau, alias Alixiviat. Like in an uncomfortable conversation she had with her ex, it’s unfortunately time to say bye bro, bye dude, to our Alix. And congratulations on your beautiful electoral program.