An Agatha Christie-style story, where the suspects are no more than four years old and where we hear the children without ever seeing them.
This is the strange, but devilishly intriguing object that Télé-Québec will offer us from Monday, January 6 at 7:30 p.m.
Director Pascal L’Heureux, who was behind the first five seasons of Discussions with my parentsin addition to having co-directed the last five Bye Byehas an image that describes the mood of this new dramatic comedy quite well: as if Harry Potter met The godfather by Francis Ford Coppola.
If only to find the exquisite Catherine Chabot, our Alix of To candidatesthis fiction – for adults! – worth the detour.
The Melody in question is a daycare teacher, played by Alice Morel-Michaud, very convincing recently in Indefensibleas a mother accused of murdering her children.
Cast from head to toe, poor Mélodie was probably pushed from the top of the stairs, while she was going down to the basement to get snacks and a power outage plunged her into darkness.
Who pushed Mélodie? This is what we will seek to find out during the 10 episodes of this series.
The idea germinated in the twisted and completely twisted minds of actors Marc Auger Gosselin and Simon Larouche, graduates of the Conservatoire d’art Dramatique de Québec and for whom this is their first series as authors.
Although fictional, the series did not come out of nowhere, but was inspired by a real-life event. Father of a daughter, Marc Auger Gosselin talks about a surreal parents’ meeting, to which he himself was invited three years ago at his child’s daycare.
“It turned sour: the educator was crying, the director told us that in 15 years, she had never seen such an intense and violent group. The parents were freaking out!” says the author, who called his friend Simon the next day to lay the foundations for this new series.
Louise (Chantal Fontaine), the director of L’Académie des ratons, is a treacherous and authoritarian woman. (Télé-Québec)
The duo submitted it to Trio Orange, which is returning to Télé-Québec after the extraordinary series Do you hear me?born eight years ago at this production company.
It is precisely with a heated parents’ meeting that begins Who pushed Mélodie? A fairly direct introduction for Catherine and Francis (Catherine Chabot and Jean-Simon Leduc), whose daughter has only just entered L’Académie des ratons, this daycare in an upscale neighborhood.
As these parents want their children to keep their place more than anything, they are all a little too motivated.
More than just a thriller, Who pushed Mélodie? explores the different facets of the relationships that parents have with CPEs, from the endless waiting lists, which push some parents to go very far to obtain a place, to the refusal of the authority to which sometimes lend each other their children.
Chantal Fontaine plays Louise, the director of the establishment, a perfidious and authoritarian woman, who believes herself to be a little too powerful for the position she occupies.
Jacques L’Heureux, who reunites with his former colleague from Virginiaplays Louise’s brother and handyman.
The tastiest character in my opinion is that of Marie-France Thompson (Annick Bergeron), a ministry inspector who looks like Columbo, who smokes and nonchalantly stubs out her cigarette butts at the entrance to the daycare.
Quite a direct start for Francis and Catherine (Jean-Simon Leduc and Catherine Chabot), whose daughter has only just entered the Académie des ratons. (Télé-Québec)
The director, who hates her to confess, provides her with a room which has all the appearance of a gloomy storage room, where frightening dolls and dismembered mannequins are piled up.
Besides a quilt here and there or toys thrown, you will never see the children. And it’s not just to have less discipline to do on the film set.
“We wanted to emphasize the fact that it is the parents who are the real children in this story,” producer Mélissa Tétu explains to me.
You will also see a lot of children’s drawings, so many clues or false leads to lead us to the culprit(s).
Added to Philippe Brault’s musical score, the small amplified noises, from the creaking of the floor to the flowing fountain, add to the slightly murky atmosphere of the whole.
This is a singular work, coupled with a beautiful madness, which does not take itself seriously. You will be able to see the episodes first on the Télé-Québec app, one week before their broadcast.
To respond to this column, write to us at [email protected]. Some responses may be published in our Opinions section.
