Our selection of 3 comedies to watch on streaming platforms

The new face of Zorro

Zoro
Paramount+ (also accessible via MyCanal and Prime Video subscriptions) and soon on France Télévisions, season 1 (8 x 40 min).

“Bernardo, the night has found its hero! » Twenty years after hanging up his mask, Don Diego, exhilarated, returns to service. Or rather, Zorro, his intrepid double. At the origin of this renewed vitality, a remark from his father, Don Alejandro de la Vega, who reluctantly gave up his mayor’s chair to him in the year 1821. “Los Angeles needs a defender of his caliber, and I’m afraid you’re not that person,” he whispers to his fifty-year-old offspring. In the foundations of his hacienda, Diego, preceded by his enthusiastic valet, exults.

Thus begins this adaptation of the adventures of Zorro, a character created by the American novelist Johnston McCulley in 1919 and appeared on French screens in January 1965 in the guise of Guy Williams.

A reference immediately cited by Jean Dujardin, who embodies the rider with infectious joy. This role, “an actor’s dream” for him, finally became a reality.

From the pen of screenwriters Benjamin Charbit and Noé Debré, this contemporary version pushes the comedy line. Vaudeville-esque, the series seduces with its careful production and its well-spoken lines. “We have advanced on a crest: going as far as possible from what the character of Zorro had to teach us about our time and restoring it in its grandeur and its values. He is a solar hero, far from superheroes,” explains Benjamin Charbit. The reinvention of certain figures also arouses interest. Goodbye to the clumsy Sergeant Garcia, hello to the calm Cristobal (Grégory Gadebois).

But the best part of this production is its different reading levels. The youngest will be carried away by the pirouettes, sword in hand, of a mocking hero, the older ones will undoubtedly be captivated by the psychology of Diego-Zorro. In conflict with his father (André Dussollier) and deceived by his wife (Audrey Dana) with his double, “Diego is first of all unfaithful to himself,” notes the actress. Enough to give yet another connotation to the myth.

From home to stage

The Fabulous Mrs. Maisel
M6+, season 1 to 4 (8 to 10 episodes of 45 min to 1 h 15), Prime Video, season 5 (9 episodes of 50 min to 1 h 15).

The funniest of the two is her. But Miriam doesn’t realize it yet, busy supporting her husband Joël. This businessman by day dreamed of being a stand-up star in New York by night. When he leaves her for his secretary, Miriam, known as Midge, almost naturally climbs onto the boards of a café in Greenwich Village. Here is Midge (Rachel Brosnahan) carried away by the desire to do battle in this masculine and competitive universe. And the viewers with her.

Painting of the well-off housewife discovering freedom (from her husband, her children, her loved ones, her Jewish community), this series enchants with its frantic little music, its costumes and the sweet eccentricities of ‘a woman who asserts herself at the end of the 1950s. The secondary characters, her agent Susie Myerson (Alex Borstein) or her parents (Marin Hinkle and Tony Shalhoub) add salt and spice.

Although multi-awarded, this gem that appeared on screens in 2017 went relatively unnoticed by those who did not have a Prime Video subscription at the time.

Sicilian childhood

The mafia only kills in the summer
Arte.tv, season 1 (12 x approximately 52 min).

Salvatore is 10 years old. In the Palermo of 1979, he leads an ordinary life, within his family. “Palermo is a beautiful city. There is always sunshine. Even if we say that there is the mafia, we don’t see it. Just don’t think about it,” says the little boy. But while he goes through his first romantic turmoil, bickers with his sister, witnesses his parents’ financial difficulties, the abuses end up affecting them.

A story based on Salvatore’s ingenuous outlook and childhood memories carried by the voice of Pierfrancesco Diliberto, who adapted his film for television. Between romantic passion and archive images, this saga in two seasons (the first, from 2016, has just arrived on arte.tv) carries away, while denouncing the control of the mafia in Sicily.