OCS – ON DEMAND – SERIES
In this world of dead-end seasons and abrupt cancellations, the survival of Toutouyoutoua vintage fantasy developed under the OCS Signature label, now owned by the Canal+ group, is almost a miracle. The series, whose second season is currently being broadcast, is indeed one of those far-fetched concepts that hold up thanks to the grace of an original tone, the seduction of a small world reproduced at little cost, but with a certain acuity − here, the orange-brown France of the 1980s −, or even the charm of its actors.
Read the review of season 1 (in 2022): Article reserved for our subscribers Toning Gym and Aeronautical Espionage in 1980s France
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In its first season, Toutouyoutou propelled Jane (Alexia Barlier), a statuesque American who had just been divorced, to Blagnac (Haute-Garonne), a suburb of Toulouse and the French capital of aeronautics. Having come to extract some industrial secrets on behalf of the United States government, Jane had gained the trust of the locals by setting up a toning gym class, around which a core of friends had gathered. Unmasked at the end of the season, she was preparing to return home, but the relationships she had established with the members of the gym would lead her to get involved in a few additional missions.
While it is still largely a question of espionage, with the Cold War and nuclear proliferation as a backdrop, this season “Two” mainly deepens its observation of France under Mitterrand, galvanized by a few industrial successes, but steeped in social conformism. Individual trajectories flourish, including that of Jane, who we discover a little more vulnerable, as if humanized by contact with her friends from Blagnac and her ex-husband, Tom (Janis Abrikh), who arrived from across the Atlantic to monitor her in her activities but also to confide in her a painful secret.
Neat writing
Energized by the wind of freedom that Jane blows on Blagnac, her students in the gym class try to take advantage of this strange era, which encourages women to become independent without necessarily giving them the means to do so, and especially without involving men, who pay dearly here. Each journey tells of an emancipation, from the father, the husband, the boss, or even the lover.
The process could be tedious, it is lightened by careful writing and, without completely renewing its formula, the series continues to line up good ideas – the television show that Naïma (Souad Arsane) wants to sell to a recently opened FR3 channel, the break-up hit recorded by Mapi (Sophie Cattani) to cure a heartache… Not to mention the cracks of Karine (Claire Dumas, excellent), a former housewife with jogging pants and greasy hair who became a secretary to avoid dying of boredom, and whose jumping jacks and the butterfly kicks are all calls for help.
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