A celebrity: Guy Nadon (Innocence Project, Black Lake, Black Series, O’), Caroline Néron (STAT, District 31, The Goddess of Fire Flies), Claude Legault (About Antoine, Runaway, Cerebrum), Charles-Aubey Houde (The weapons, Innocence Project, The diver).
The first episode of The collection opens with a shooting perpetrated at a summer family party, between swimming pool and barbecue, in 2007, to the cheerful tune of Don’t worry about lifeby Joël Denis.
In this striking irony, the viewer understands how Kevin, then a teenager, quickly became involved with the underworld world in which his family was immersed with ease, including his imprisoned father and his uncle, Stéphane, a skilled money launderer under the guise of a lucrative golf club.
Sent to the latter’s boarding house for the summer, supposedly to ensure his protection, Kevin witnesses the not-so-gentle negotiation methods of his uncle, who does not intend to laugh with those who owe him money. Slowly but surely, Kevin is introduced to the not at all magical workings of drug trafficking and busting. Now, having become an adult and about to welcome his first baby, the boy can’t take it anymore and aspires to change his life.
This new vintage from the acclaimed director Podz (The House, 19-2, Midnight, evening), apparently inspired by real events, risks raising some sensitive hearts (blood is mopped up as if it were water damage). But this foray into the heart of organized crime, from the angle of the biological family, is rare in Quebec stories. Luc Dionne made a powerful demonstration of this with Silence almost 30 years ago, but The collection focuses more on the blood ties of the protagonists. The intersections between Kevin’s youth and adulthood are also skillfully established, Podz knowing how to play with image and temporality like few others.
The collection will also perhaps be the last series in which we will be able to appreciate the talent of the great actor Guy Nadon, the latter intending to retire soon.
