Pamela Rose, the series: Are Kad and O. too old for this bullshit? (critical)
The series adaptation of the adventures of Bullit and Riper does not find the comic force of the first film.
When Riper learns that he will not be Bullit’s best man at his wedding to Rita, an argument breaks out between them during an official presentation. Threatened with being fired for having tarnished the image of the FBI, they decide to return to the field to restore their image. Responsible for solving the murder of a YouTuber, to the great dismay of agent Jessica Carson who wanted the investigation, they accidentally cause the death of their suspect while trying to arrest him. They think the investigation is resolved but a second murder is discovered.
20 years later But who killed Pamela Rose?a sequel and an audio film version, Kad Merad And Olivier Baroux are playing Bullit and Riper again, this time in series, for Canal +. This comedy also hosted by Shirine Boutella, Lionel Abelanski, Mélanie Doutey, Claudia Tagbo, Ophélia Kolb and Panayotis Pascot starts this evening on the encrypted channel. Here is our verdict.
But who killed Pamela Rose? can be (re)watched on Première Max
Two films and an audio investigation in 2020 were not enough: Richard Bullit (Kad Merad) and Douglas Riper (Olivier Baroux) return with Pamela Rose, the series, a TV version of the tribulations of the two most stupid agents of the FBI. In order to escape a sanction from the disciplinary committee, the duo returns to the field to try to stop a serial killer who is killing YouTubers (or rather “youtobers”, as Bullit and Riper say, a running gag of astonishing effectiveness over the length). A little too sure of themselves, they cause the accidental death of a suspect…
The success of But who killed Pamela Rose? lay in its ability to divert the most salient codes of Twin Peaks, X-Files Or Starsky and Hutch, and to situate these references in a surreal Franco-American landscape. Twenty years later, the series no longer knows very well what it is making fun of. The absurd universe runs on empty without clear pastiche to nourish it and the floodgates are recycled on an assembly line. The scenario invited a parody of paranoid thrillers or noir thrillers, but Pamela Rose, the series refuses to do so. It is then mainly a matter of filling in between two gags, with quite painful subplots (Bullit’s future Mexican father-in-law is a drug trafficker; a blackmailer is aware of their “dumpling”…) and sprinkle it all with a speech about online harassment. Nine episodes to get to this point, it almost seems like a joke, right?
Kad Merad tells us about the creation of But Who Killed Pamela Rose?
