''A Very Secret Service'' () is a French

comedy-drama Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...

series Series may refer to: People with the name * Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series * George Series (1920–1995), English physicist Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Series, the ordered sets used i ...

created by and produced by Gilles de Verdière.

Premise

In 1960, young André Merlaux eagerly accepts a cryptic summons to take a position as a trainee officer with the French Secret Services (based on the

Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or ...

). He will be watched over by the operations director Moïse, and reluctantly mentored by senior colleagues Moulinier (in charge of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

n affairs), Jacquard (

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

), and Calot (

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, the Workers Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were a ...

). It is the height of the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

and the position of France as a

Great Power A great power is a sovereign state that is recognized as having the ability and expertise to exert its influence on a global scale. Great powers characteristically possess military and economic strength, as well as diplomatic and soft power ...

is in crisis, faced with independence challenges from the colonies of

French West Africa French West Africa (, ) was a federation of eight French colonial empires#Second French colonial empire, French colonial territories in West Africa: Colonial Mauritania, Mauritania, French Senegal, Senegal, French Sudan (now Mali), French Guin ...

, above all the fight over the independence of Algeria. French society is changing at home as well, with a rising

counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Ho ...

exemplified by growing

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

and New Wave cinema.

Cast and characters

Main cast

* Hugo Becker as André Merlaux * as Colonel Maurice Mercaillon * Christophe Kourotchkine as Georges Préjean "Moïse" * Mathilde Warnier as Sophie Mercaillon * as Jacky Jacquard * Bruno Paviot as Roger Moulinier * as Jean-René Calot * Marie-Julie Baup as Marie-Jo Cotin

Secondary characters

* Joséphine de La Baume as Miss Clayborn * Antoine Gouy as Henri Lechiot / Hervé Gomez / Schmid * as Father Jean * Julie Farenc as Nathalie * as Moktar * Stéphanie Fatout as Irène Mercaillon * Axelle Simon as Marthe * as Planton, reception desk employee

Development

Principal photography for the first series took place between October 2014 and February 2015 in

Île-de-France The Île-de-France (; ; ) is the most populous of the eighteen regions of France, with an official estimated population of 12,271,794 residents on 1 January 2023. Centered on the capital Paris, it is located in the north-central part of the cou ...

and

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

. The series recalls '' OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies'' in style and tone, although it is slightly more serious (writer Halin was also credited for the screenplay of all three OSS 117 films, and one of the three '' Les Guignols'' authors). The show uses historical events as background or foreground for its action, similar to ''

Mad Men ''Mad Men'' is an American historical drama, period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. It ran on cable network AMC (TV channel), AMC from July 19, 2007, to May 17, 2015, with seven seasons ...

'' (such as the

Algerian war of independence The Algerian War (also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence) ''; '' (and sometimes in Algeria as the ''War of 1 November'') was an armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (Algeri ...

and the first French nuclear test, Gerboise Bleue). Arte's president of fiction, Olivier Wotling, confirmed a second season to ''

Le Figaro () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It was named after Figaro, a character in several plays by polymath Pierre Beaumarchais, Beaumarchais (1732–1799): ''Le Barbier de Séville'', ''The Guilty Mother, La Mère coupable'', ...

''s TV Magazine on July 3, 2016. In a March 2019 interview with the French language outlet PureMédias, Hugo Becker expressed doubt regarding the likelihood of a third season, stating that the series had reached "the end of the arc," and adding that while "there might be material... the story is complete and I think that's fine." As an aside, however, several characters (including Moulinier, Jacquard, and Calot) as well as the SDECE office sets from the television show are vividly featured in '' OSS 117: From Africa with Love'' (2021), indirectly creating a shared universe between the two franchises.

Episodes

Season 1 (2015)

Season 2 (2018)

Release

It was commissioned by

Arte Arte (, , ; ' ('), sometimes stylised in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European Union, European public service Television channel, channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based Europea ...

, where it premiered in 2015, and was later distributed worldwide by

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

on 1 July 2016. The second season appeared on Netflix in August 2018. The show was removed from Netflix in November 2022.

Reception

Steve Greene of IndieWire wrote that despite a "certain level of absurdity", the show was a "pretty well-calibrated balance between homage and parody".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Very Secret Service 2015 French television series debuts Television shows set in Paris Television series set in 1960 French-language television shows Netflix television dramas French spy films French spy comedy films French comedy-drama television series 2010s French drama television series 2010s French comedy television series French spy television series Television shows set in Algeria Television shows set in Moscow Television shows set in Berlin Algerian War fiction