Workingirls, a new Canal+ original comedy series, premieres on Thursday, April 19 at 10:20pm.
All 12 episodes of the first season are 13-15 minutes long.
Three episodes (= 42 minutes) will air in a row each Thursday at 10:20pm for 4 weeks, from April 19 to May 10.
This show was written by Eve-Sophie Santerre, Frank Bellocq and Béatrice Fournera (Groland).
It was directed by Sylvain Fusée (Les Guignols, Groland, Philibert - capitaine puceau).
I see why Canal+ is surprisingly choosing to air the show on Thursdays instead of Mondays (the usual night for Canal's créations originales) : it happens that season 8 of Desperate Housewives premieres on Thursday, April 12 at 9pm. Being a female-skewing series, it makes sense to pair it with WorkinGirls, another show centered exclusively on women. Nurse Jackie season 3 or Weeds season 6 (yep, we're one season behind) will probably take over the slot to accompany Desperate Housewives once WorkinGirls is done.
Described as trash and absurd, WorkinGirls features six female coworkers. From left to right on the picture above :
- Claude Perron (Bernie, Cortex) plays Karine, the bossy and tyrannic manager of the company.
- Laurence Arné (Moi, Michel G. : milliardaire, maitre du monde) plays Déborah, in HR. She is a pervert.
- Vanessa David (Sweet Valentine) plays Nathalie, a mother of five who just got back to work. She is Karine's assistant.
- Blanche Gardin (Inside Jamel Comedy Club) plays Helène, depressive.
- Alice Belaïdi (L'oiseau, Les Kaira) plays Sophie A and Clémence Faure plays Sophie B, two gossipy young operators.
Here's the first trailer :
And here's a translation :
Nathalie : You heard about Jérome Spick, from accounting ?
Déborah : This guy is my absolute record of sick leaves for runny noses.
Nathalie : He's dead.
Voice-over : What is the model enterprise from a woman's perspective ?
Karine : Something that shows that we're close... solidarity, listening, one big family, bullshit like that.
Voice-over : Each one of us, in our departments, has to have had insane co-workers or bosses : hysterical, crazy, psychorigid, depressive or nymphomaniac…
Déborah : Oh yes, I'm the naughty girl from HR, oh yes !
Voice-over … but rarely all at the same time.
Voice-over : If only they could stay at home. Original creation : WorkinGirls, exclusively on Canal+.
Hélène : You wanna see my pussy ?
As I said, the WorkinGirls crew worked on cult Canal+ comedy shows Les Guignols (1988- ?) and Groland (1992- ?).
Since its inception on August 29, 1988, Les Guignols has been the symbol of the Canal+ spirit (smart and irreverent), alongside Les Nuls (1987-1992), Nulle part ailleurs (1987-2001), Le Vrai Journal (1996-2006) and the unavoidable Grand Journal (2004- ?) and its rubrics : Le Petit Journal, La boite à questions, SAV des émissions and Bref. 23 years have passed and Les Guignols have become an institution, like Le Zapping (1989- ?), a well-edited montage of what was on TV the day before across all channels, they often try to make it humorous when possible. TV just wouldn't be the same without Les Guignols (on the air 5 days a week, 40 weeks a year, each episode lasts 8-9 minutes).
And since most people here probably have no idea what I'm talking about, here's a small extract (it's in english, it's safe). It features the American government : Bush and guys in suits looking like Sylvester Stallone (he can't kill on the field anymore so he kills at distance), aka the archetype of the US politician who loves war, profit no matter the (human) cost, and belittling french people. The WC you might see a glimpse of in the background is the World Company logo :
I'm putting that video because it's in english (and quite funny), don't go thinking all Les Guignols do is bashing on the United States. They actually rarely do that since Obama is in the Oval Office. No, 90% of the time, Les Guignols make fun of our politicians, and occasionally our sportsmen). Fun fact : recently, a Guignol sketch caused quite a stir in Spain, I let you see why. Because of that controversy, the Guignols writers insisted on that Spanish doping issue a whole lot more in the following days (Contador was convicted for doping last February (the reason for that Nadal sketch), and there have been persistent rumors about that in Spain in general, so, you know, there's room for suspicion and comedy). Apparently, the Spanish sport officials (and sportsmen) didn't get that it was from a comedy show doing that for a quarter of century (and always tackling on French sportsmen whenever there's reason to).
Groland is another Canal+ legend.
It's a weekly 30-minute comedy show featuring Jules-Edouard Moustic in a studio (left) and his crew of reporters on the field (the rest of the guys behind him), and a president (the last guy of the row). They report stories from the fictional country of Groland (kind of a Luxembourg-type of country, sort of a microstate). We don't exactly know where it is, but they tell us Groland has a border with every country in the world. They usually make fun of rural France with fake news. It's bold, insolent, and they get away with so much. It airs on Saturdays at 8:20pm, it's not encrypted (Les Guignols isn't encrypted either, obviously), there's a "unadvised for children under 10" logo for 5 minutes but that's it, whereas it would definitely get a R rating in the US. There's no equivalent I know of on American TV, except perhaps The Onion News Network (on IFC), but it's soft compared to Groland.
Now the sketch below is not graphic at all, don't worry, but it's hilarious. It's about how there's always old people annoying you, slowing you down : you think it's just a coincidence ? Well, think again (it's (quite poorly) subtitled in english) :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tov-a1YsZaM
Isn't it amazing ? Yeah, I know. Like Les Guignols, Groland is a TV landmark, a Canal+ trademark and a cultural phenomenon. I know guys who have Groland stickers on their cars. Here are the flag of Groland and the kind of sticker you might see on some cars in France (admire the very whiny red band, going along with the jug (and the blue is very bright, too, but I think those slight color differences with the actual French flag were to avoid legal trouble)) :
Long live Groland !
Furthermore, Luther premieres in April on Canal+. Season 1 (6 episodes) and season 2 (4 episodes) will air from April 23 to May 21, with 2 episodes each Monday at 9. Monday nights are usually the Création Originale nights, but there are exceptions, and it's always with british series : Spooks and Wire in the Blood were on Mondays, Jekyll and Meadowlands were on Mondays, too, more recently Camelot (UK/US co-production) was on Mondays as well, etc. Skins is the exception (Thursdays at 10:20pm). Merlin is on Fridays but it's on Canal+ Family, not the prime Canal+ channel.
N.B : Sorry, this WorkinGirls stuff was meant to be a part of a thread including news about english-speaking television like Borgia 2 and the Pigalle la nuit remake by the creator of Dexter (because, believe it or not, I actually don't want to pollute SpoilerTV with articles that 96.78% of the people around here don't care about at all). But I expanded this a little bit (translation of the trailer, delving into two Canal+ comedy monuments that the WorkinGirls crew worked on, etc) and it felt like too much to put into one of the previous Canal+ thread I opened this past week. Well, at least the title is in english (sorry if it mislead innocent wanderers), the Guignols/Groland videos I posted are in english (or subtitled) and I mention the première date of Luther. Anyway, if you read what's above, or any other of my recent threads (including that one), please leave a comment. I'm very needy, and It took me an hour writing that, putting words in italic, finding the images (and giving them an appropriate size), videos, finding what the six main actresses & crew had previously done, etc (+ another hour going through Youtube watching Guignols/Groland sketches, but that was just for fun :)).
