''Osmosis'' is a French

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

streaming television Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as TV shows, as streaming media delivered over the Internet. Streaming television stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air a ...

series created by Audrey Fouché. The first season, consisting of eight episodes, was released on 29 March 2019 on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

. The series stars

Hugo Becker Hugo Becker (born Jean Otto Eric Hugo Becker, 13 February 1863, died 30 July 1941) was a prominent German cellist, cello teacher, and composer. He studied at a young age with Alfredo Piatti, and later Friedrich Grützmacher in Dresden. Biograp ...

Agathe Bonitzer Agathe Bonitzer (born 24 April 1989) is a French actress. She has appeared in more than twenty films since 1996. Career In August 2018, it was announced that Bonitzer would star in the Netflix science fiction series ''Osmosis''. The series prem ...

, Stéphane Pitti, Gaël Kamilindi, Suzanne Rault-Balet, Luna Silva, Manoel Dupont and Yuming Hey. On 17 January 2020, Netflix cancelled the series after one season.

Synopsis

Set in near-future Paris, the science-fiction drama sees a new dating app called Osmosis developed that can decode true love, digging deep into its users' brain data to find a perfect match with 100% accuracy. But is there a price to pay when letting an algorithm decide whom you will love, using technology that can access the innermost recesses of your mind and your best-kept secrets?

Cast and characters

Main

as Paul Vanhove, CEO of Osmosis and first tester of the implant. *

as Esther Vanhove, Paul's sister and technical genius creator of Osmosis * Stéphane Pitti as Lucas Apert * Gaël Kamilindi as Gabriel * Suzanne Rault-Balet as Swann * Luna Silva as Ana Stern * Manoel Dupont as Niels Larsen * Yuming Hey as Billie Tual

Recurring

* Vincent Renaudet as Martin, the AI of Osmosis * Lena Laprès as Claire Salomon * Philypa Phoenix as Joséphine Vanhove, Paul's wife. * Lionel Lingelser as Léopold Goulard * Fabien Ducommun as Antoine Fouché * Waly Dia as Simon *

Aurélia Petit Aurélia Petit (18 April 1971) is a French actress. In the year 1984, Petit began her theater career. For a year, she went to theater school with the famous Niels Arestrup. Since 1993, she has been seen in French television shows and movies. In ...

as Louise Vanhove * Christiane Conil as Cécile Larsen * Laure-Lucile Simon as Eloan Spivack * Dimitri Storoge as Mathieu Christo * Pierre Hancisse as Samuel Kahn * Sarah-Jane Sauvegrain as Romy * Camille-François Nicol as Tom * Jeremy Lewin as Romeo * Jimmy Labeeu as Ilyes

Production

Development

On 11 May 2017, it was announced that

had given the production a series order for a first season consisting of eight episodes. The series is created by Audrey Fouché, who is credited as an executive producer. ''Osmosis'' is based on an idea from a former project of the same title created by Louis Chiche, William Chiche and Gabriel Chiche and produced by Telfrance and

Arte Arte (; (), sometimes stylized in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European public service channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping ARTE, plu ...

in 2015. In February 2019, it was announced that the series would premiere on 29 March 2019. The production company reportedly spent a budget of 8 million euros for the first season, with each episode costing €1 million. On 1 April 2019, it was confirmed that Audrey Fouché departed the series as a showrunner after the first season. On 17 January 2020, Netflix cancelled the series after one season.

Casting

In August 2018, it was announced that Hugo Becker, Agathe Bonitzer, Stephane Pitti, Gael Kamilindi and Suzanne Rault-Balet had been cast in the series. In February 2019, it was announced that Luna Silva, Manoel Dupont and Yuming Hey were added to the cast.

Filming

Principal photography for the first season took place on location in Paris in 2018.

Episodes

Release

On 28 February 2019, the official trailer for the series was released.

Premiere

On 24 March 2019, the series held its official premiere with the screening of the first two episodes at the Series Mania International Festival in

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the N ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

Reception

The first season received positive reviews upon its release. The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported a 100% approval rating with an average rating of 6/10 based on 5 reviews. Noah Berlatsky from ''

The Verge ''The Verge'' is an American technology news website operated by Vox Media, publishing news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts. The website launched on November 1, 2011, and uses Vox Media ...

'' mentioned in a positive review of the first two episodes of the series, that "Technology in ''Osmosis'' doesn't create a dystopia or a utopia in itself. It's just a tool, and different people project different dreams and fears onto it, for better and worse" and that this "level of nuance and awareness makes ''Osmosis'' start out thoughtful and refreshing." Greg Wheeler from The Review Geek recommended the first season in their review of the series by stating that "''Osmosis'' is a really thrilling sci-fi trip, one asking some big questions around love and relationships while delivering a well written story full of twists and turns along the way." Devin Townsend from ''The Breeze'' complimented the first season in his review by adding that the series is "thought-provoking and edges on the air of irony. It relies on the audience's knowledge of the challenging world of dating and how cynical the human race is becoming with their choice of an "other half"." In a positive review of the series, Jon O'Brien from '' i-D'' wrote that, "''Osmosis'' delivers a more optimistic proclamation. Humankind and machines can in fact live in relative harmony, and without the fear of murderous robot dogs, head-exploding video games or hashtag-powered genocides. And should disaster strike, it's more likely to be us pesky humans to blame." Emma Stefansky from

Thrillist Thrillist is an online media website covering food, drink, travel and entertainment. The company was founded in 2004 and is based in New York City, United States. In October 2016, Thrillist merged with internet brands '' The Dodo'', NowThis Ne ...

praised the series, stating that "''Osmosis'' joins the ranks of shows like the German time-travel thriller ''

Dark Darkness, the direct opposite of lightness, is defined as a lack of illumination, an absence of visible light, or a surface that absorbs light, such as black or brown. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low lu ...

'', the Danish zombie eco-pocalypse '' The Rain'', and the South Korean medieval drama ''

Kingdom Kingdom commonly refers to: * A monarchy ruled by a king or queen * Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy Kingdom may also refer to: Arts and media Television * ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...

'', creating a subgenre within Netflix of remarkably good foreign-language genre television" and further adding that it "is the kind of show you can just sit and absorb." Laurie Clarke of

Techworld International Data Group (IDG, Inc.) is a market intelligence and demand generation company focused on the technology industry. IDG, Inc.’s mission is centered around supporting the technology industry through research, data, marketing technol ...

gave the series a positive recommendation saying that its "handling of a technologically entwined future is much more subtle than the at-times hamfisted approach of ''

Black Mirror ''Black Mirror'' is a British anthology television series created by Charlie Brooker. Individual episodes explore a diversity of genres, but most are set in near-future dystopias with science fiction technology—a type of speculative fiction ...

'' and it breathes some much-needed humanity back into tech-centric fictions."

References

External links

* * {{Netflix original ended series (2019–present) 2010s French drama television series 2010s LGBT-related drama television series 2010s science fiction television series 2019 French television series debuts 2019 French television series endings Dystopian television series Espionage television series French-language Netflix original programming French LGBT-related television shows French science fiction television series Hard science fiction LGBT-related web series Malware in fiction Nanotechnology in fiction Serial drama television series Television series about artificial intelligence Television series set in the future Television series set in the 21st century Television shows set in Paris French web series