Arte surprises Séries Mania with a hard-hitting action series (review)

Screenwriter Thomas Bidegain moves to the small screen and signs a funny and shattering Marxist kung-fu series.

It's a genre where we didn't expect it! The very serious Arte launches into the action series which beats up a lot. A kung-fu series itself, with its hyper-choreographed fights and a super cool heroine. Kill Billtrained in martial arts by an old blind and wise master…

It is Thomas Bidegainscreenwriter for the two Césars and regular collaborator of Jacques Audiard (we owe him a prophet And Of rust and boneas well as The Aries Family) who set up this slightly crazy story where a former soldier, used by the army for special missions, finds herself deserting in the great east of France. Now employed in a factory, she will befriend a Marxist worker and philosopher, who will teach her the class struggle, while the young woman attacks all the villains who stand in her way.

Yes, Machine is a fighting series, but since we're on Arte, it's a social and intellectual fighting series! Between two impressive action sequences (and they are numerous and spectacularly well staged by Fred Grivois), JoeyStarr rehabilitates Karl Marx against modern trade unionism with CGT sauce. The concept is astonishing and constantly navigates on a tightrope, without ever really taking itself too seriously, like this naughty cartoon played by a Guillaume Labbé awesome and unrecognizable.

A punchy series in the literal sense, like a hyper-physical manifestation of workers' struggles, embodied by a surprising Margot Bancilhon. Sacred last year in Lille for the noir thriller Of Grace, the actress completely changes register. Rasta tuft on her head, she sends high kicks with a contagious frenzy. We are never really far from the absurd, but Thomas Bidegain And Fred Grivois always manage to keep this Machine on the right track. A Machine well oiled.

Machine will be seen in France on Arte on Thursday April 11 and 18 (and from April 4 on arte.tv).