THE reboots [nouvelle version d’un film ou d’une série, NDLR] are definitely on the rise on the small screen. The release of Cat’s Eyesthis Monday evening on TF1, confirms this again. Does this name mean anything to you? If you grew up in the 1980s, this is normal: before being adapted into a series by TF1, Cat’s Eye is above all a manga created by the Japanese Tsukasa Hōjō.
40 years ago or almost
In France, it is mainly thanks to the cartoon Signé Cat’s Eyesbroadcast from 1985 on the show Amuse 3 on FR3, that the Club Dorothée generation got to know the three heroines of the work. The most nostalgic still remember its heady theme song, honoring the Chamade sisters, “girls of today, children of form”.
Created by Michel Catz and directed by Alexandre Laurent (The Fighters, The Charity Bazaar), the TF1 adaptation takes young and old alike back into the adventures of Tamara, Alexia and Cylia. Always with the same initial plot: three sisters whose father mysteriously disappeared in the fire of an art gallery team up to steal his works and hope to find him. But this time, Cat’s Eyes sets the scene in the Paris of our time. No more high heels, hello realistic bodysuits. Above all, the series is interested inorigin story of the three sisters. In short: the way they became burglars.
Pure TF1 product
To play the three protagonists, TF1 called on regulars of its fiction: the actresses Camille Lou (The Fighters, I promise you, The Charity Bazaar), Claire Romain (Here it all begins) and Constance Labbé (Balthazar, Black slope).
In the role of Quentin Chapuis, the police officer on the trail of the trio, we will find the rapper MB14, spotted in The Voice. Carole Bouquet, Élodie Fontan, Gilbert Melki… Well-known names complete the gallery of characters.
Action, comedy and mystery await viewers during the series’ eight 52-minute episodes. A pure TF1 product, which makes the effort to slip references to manga from the 1980s into a contemporary universe. Another strong point of the series: its aesthetic and its mythical settings, which take us from the Eiffel Tower to the Château de Versailles.
The first channel bets big
With this “modern and captivating” version of a “franchise anchored in popular culture”, in the words of Anne Didier, the artistic director of French fiction at TF1, the channel has indeed seen the big picture. And put his hand in his wallet: 25 million euros for the eight episodes, three times more than for his other series broadcast in prime time.
To capitalize on this project, which took years to see the light of day, the first channel has also joined forces with Prime Video. Once it has been broadcast on TF1, it will join the catalog of Amazon’s streaming platform. It remains to be seen whether Cat’s Eyes“the big event of the season” according to Xavier Gandon, director of the TF1 group’s TV and digital channels, will experience the same success as the works that inspired it.
