Huge in France

[Rolf Lundgren]

Found this on Netflix this weekend. It's a show about comedian Gad Elmaleh, dubbed the "Seinfeld of France", coming to Los Angeles to reconnect with his teenage son. However the son wants nothing to do with him and favours his surrogate step-dad who is teaching him the ways of becoming a male model. And his shallow and spiteful ex-wife does her best to persuade Gad to stay out of their lives and go back to France.

It's a wonderful show, reminiscent at times of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and has very high concept episodes which make it easy to watch. A number of them focus on the trials and tribulations of his son getting pec implants. It's constantly amusing rather than laugh out loud funny although the cast are all very strong, particularly the guy who plays Jason Alan Ross, the ex-model/actor whose taken Gad's father figure role. All of the characters are heavily flawed and who you root for changes with each episode as they each reveal more of their pettiness and petulant sides as the show progresses.

There's some of the usual fish-out-of-water stuff with Gad having to get used to nobody knowing who he is and more worryingly, not finding him funny but it's a clever and revealing programme that leaves a mark.

[Armin Meiwes]

Oh yeah that guy is frigging MASSIVE in the French speaking world isn't he (think he's actually Moroccan or something rather than French tho isn't he?), I remember hearing his interview on WTF and he seemed a fairly interesting fellow. Will check it out.