You’re The Boss – The series opens in an interview/documentary style with Raphael Valande (Pierre Niney) and several cast/crew members being questioned about the controversies surrounding Raphael’s latest work. According to what they are saying, along with several skits and newsreels, it appears that Raphael’s, ‘A Woman of Resistance’ was a true nightmare. Not just on set but it looks like the work sparked all kinds of debates on hot-button issues around the world. Even Raphael’s grandmother Huguette Valande (Marie-Christine Barrault) doesn’t have a lot of nice things to say about Raphael or his work. The bashing of Raphael and his work finally comes to an end by revealing that he is actually being interviewed from jail. He also claims that the work was doomed from the very beginning by a plant and he promises to uncover the identity.
The story starts a year in the past with the documentary crew’s first day on the set of ‘A Woman of Resistance.’ They are introduced to Jean ‘Slice’ Torrosian (Pascal Demolon), who shows them around the set. During this time, they catch an awkward conversation between Raphael and lead actress, Ingrid Flaumenbaum (Leslie Medina). As awkward as the encounter is, it shines some light on the theme of the film as well as suggesting Raphael may have a crush on Ingrid.
During an interview, the film’s chief financer, Nora Zelmati, admits that the producer is nutty and now washed up but she couldn’t resist Raphael’s beautifully written script. It also didn’t hurt that they managed to snag Robin Jacomet (Vincent Cassel) as the leading male. Ingrid also admits to being especially excited about this project because it would be the first time she performed her own stunts.
The filming begins with a battle scene where Robin crawls and climbs his way through a trench in search of Huguette. Things appear to be going rather well until Robin emerges from the trench and exacerbates an old knee injury by banging into a coffee table. This leads to a slightly heated argument between Raphael and Robin about the crew’s excessive use of smoke. Robin wins out and they end up doing away with the smoke completely. The absence of the smoke not only retracts from the authenticity of the battle scene but it exposes wires. Raphael is about to decide to add just a bit of smoke when Robin tells him that going back on the decision will hurt his reputation with the crew.
The encounter startles Raphael so badly that he has a panic attack. While outside trying to collect himself, he’s surprised by Tom (Francis Civil), asking if he’s had the time to look at his reel. Tom is soon revealed to be Raphael’s best friend who’s always aspired to be a famous actor. Tom attempts to make Raphael feel better but only makes matters much worse.
Things only continue to go downhill when Raphael returns to the set to find that his family has shown up. An interview with Slice reveals that Raphael’s family didn’t support his decision to be a director/writer. His grandmother has no interest in having her life story filmed and never sanctioned the work. When Raphael takes the time to show them around the set, Huguette and his sister can’t stop ragging on the set for looking nothing like their farm. His brother is more focused on how he could have spent the funding for the movie on the farm.
While trying to rush them off the set, Raphael learns that they’ve only shown up for Josephine Berneuil (Geraldine Nakache), the girl from the nearby farm that Huguette wants to do her stunts. It’s clear that Raphael has a problem with this but he doesn’t get much time to voice his opinion than to the unexpected arrival of Ingrid. Ingrid’s arrival only makes things more embarrassing for Raphael when Huggette reveals that Raphael has a poster of her hanging above his bed. Josephine’s arrival certainly doesn’t help matters and when Ingrid learns that Josephine will be playing her stunt double, she accuses Raphael of being misogynist. Much to Raphael’s surprise, Slice supports his decision and tells Ingrid Raphael’s decision is final.
After backing his decision, Slice attempts to build Raphael’s confidence further by making him repeat the mantra, ‘I am the boss!’ It’s only seconds later when Slice leads him to the cafeteria to deliver his welcome/introduction speech that he didn’t have time to unveil earlier. This only leads to him embarrassing himself and looking like a misogynist. Although he has already sufficiently embarrassed himself, Magalie (Louise Coldefy) attempts to come to his aid.
Shortly after his cafeteria meltdown, Ingrid asks to speak with Raphael alone where she asks him if he’s acting like a jerk on purpose. He starts to defend himself but decides to claim that he is asking like a jerk on purpose to help her better adapt to playing his grandmother. When he asks if she’s ever spoken to his grandmother, she realizes that every time she has tried, she was brushed off rather rudely. When it appears that she believes him, he launches into a tangent about the summer of 2016 when Christian Bale mistook him for someone named David during a road trip. Much to his surprise, Ingrid takes advantage of his encouragement to be meaner when Tatiana interrupts them.
Much later that evening, Slice learns from the intern Gabrielle that someone filmed Raphael’s cafeteria diatribe and is threatening to post it online if they don’t give him 50,000 Euros. As soon as Slice decides to not share the blackmail with Raphael, he bursts into the office with a copy of the video. Magalie is called into the office shortly where strategize as to how to proceed. Her first question is if Raphael has done something bad enough to upset someone. Much to everyone’s surprise, Gabrielle mentions seeing Tatiana really upset after Ingrid verbally accosted her earlier.
The first order of business on the set the following morning is filming a huge motorcycle stunt scene. After Tatiana takes a few minutes to apprise every one of their roles, Raphael approaches her with apologies. She claims it isn’t a big deal. The episode ends with what looks like is going to lead to a huge mishap on set.
Fiasco Review
I must admit that the concept of this series was extremely intriguing. Unfortunately, I don’t feel that the cast and crew were able to capitalize on it. The first episode was completely awful but it certainly wasn’t great. It could be that the episode was originally acted in French and dubbed in English. That kind of makes it hard to judge the acting. Some of the scenes where Raphael sticks his foot in his mouth weren’t entirely bad, although plenty of them were infantile. I’d have to give the episode a 4.6 just based on the creativity of the premises.
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