This Monday evening, after the new episode of “Cat's Eyes”, TF1 launches the broadcast of “Escort Boys”, a hot new series with Guillaume Labbé and Simon Ehrlacher. Is it worth a look? Our review.
What is it about?
In the Camargue, four boys, driven by their respective struggles and delicious turmoil, will find themselves, by chance, selling their bodies. Amateurs at first, but helped by the group's mischievous little sister, they will set up a unique Escort service in the region.
Each meeting will become a life lesson for them. Between family, lies and ever more surprising demands, they will have to learn to juggle to get back on track with the family estate and… finally get out of it?
Escort Boys from this Monday, December 2 from 10:10 p.m. on TF1. The season is already available on the Prime Video platform.
Who is it with?
It is Ruben Alves, who has already worked on Miss and La Cage Dorée, who takes care of the shots of Escort Boysa 6-episode series freely adapted from the Israeli fiction Milk & Honey.
The director also wrote the screenplays with the help of Yael Lebrati Attuil, Marc Syrigas (Les Beaux Gosses) and Hélène Le Gal (Les Reines du ring).
The four main roles were entrusted to Guillaume Labbé (I promise you, Les Yeux Grands Fertés), Simon Ehrlacher (an actor discovered in Plus belle la vie who is starring in Cat's Eyes), Corentin Fila (Mortel) and Thibaut Evrard (Paris Police 1900).
The little sister of one of the characters, and incidentally the madam of the quartet, is played by Marysole Fertard, whom TF1 viewers were able to see in Tomorrow belongs to us.
Rossy de Palma, Kelly Rutherford, Amanda Lear, Carole Bouquet, Pascale Arbillot and many others also make appearances as clients of our four friends.
Is it worth a look?
After La Cage Dorée and Miss, Ruben Alves this time tackles the thorny subject of escorts with Escort Boysa theme explored many times in series which takes on a very special dimension here.
Because in this series, it is not the women who sell their bodies, but rather four men who embark on this new adventure in order to get out of trouble.
For the occasion, Guillaume Labbé plays a failed actor who returns to his native Camargue following the death of his father. There, he discovers that his father had serious money problems, and that he risks losing custody of his 17-year-old little sister if he does not manage to pay off the debts.
It is then that he discovers that one of his father's employees, played by Simon Ehrlacher, is making passes and that his little sister knew about it. He will then temporarily agree to become an escort with his three best friends, who are also in trouble.
Over the course of the episodes, and their encounters, the four boys will learn a lot about themselves and their sexuality.
Despite the beginnings which could suggest a fairly light series, Escort Boys very quickly manages to surprise us by tackling many important and touching subjects, sometimes to the point of bringing a little tear to our eyes.
If fiction addresses the issue of female sexuality, breaking the clichés conveyed by adult films, it also highlights male sexuality through the issues and taboos that surround the subject.
And if we could have feared that the female characters would only be foils for our four heroes, this is not the case. Ruben Alves achieves the feat of making these guests characters in their own right, with a story and above all a strong message.
Between the powerful woman who needs a man at her side to be accepted by her male peers, the business woman who sees escorts as objects of pleasure or the husband who hires one of the friends to restore confidence to his wife with cancer, each of them has a powerful and important story that manages to move away from clichés.
As for the casting, the four actors succeed without difficulty in bringing these complex characters to life. Guillaume Labbé brilliantly plays a wounded man who has difficulty turning the page, and for whom becoming an escort will prove to be a liberation.
For his part, Simon Ehrlacher, who gets his first major role here, proves that he has talent to spare, and manages to touch us despite his role as a man with a heart of stone.
Corentin Fila and Thibaut Evrard are obviously not left out, just like the young Marysole Fertard, perfect as a young woman who became an adult too early and hides many wounds under her surly shell.
In short, despite its appearance as a frivolous and light series, Escort Boys deals with deep subjects and brilliantly manages to mix drama and comedy. This is the nice surprise of this end of year.
