The Revolution on Netflix: the new phenomenon not to be missed?...

The revolution, a new French Netflix series to watch on October 16, has unveiled its first minutes.

Awaited with curiosity by many, this historic adventure could turn out to be disappointing, as this opening suggests a production certainly polished, but terribly influenced. After the disasters Marseille and Heart plan, the rather unconvincing Osmosis, Family Business or Vampires, and the most successful Marianne, the French series Netflix welcome to their group The revolution.

Available online on Friday October 16, this saga in several episodes, created and written by Aurélien Molas (An island) takes place, as its title suggests, just before the French Revolution. But this true fact is here colored by highly fanciful elements, which make this production at the historical starting point. a fantastic series. Ultimately, the scenario indeed follows the ravages of a virus called Blue Blood, which infects the Nobility, and results in his fury against the people.

At the heart of this troubled time, a man leads the investigation: Doctor Joseph Guillotin, future inventor of the painless beheading machine (played by Amir El Kacem).

A doctor who knows death well: he will make it his instrument

Wanting to reinterpret the French Revolution in this year 2020 marked by many protest movements (which we also found in Joker, the box of 2019) appears to be a relevant business, especially with a virus at its heart.

Unfortunately, the first three minutes of this promising production recently unveiled are confusing and not convincing enough. However, the images are beautiful, the atmosphere bathed in snow appears worked, and the heads of noble trenches are there from the foregrounds, placed in the foreground on the pediment of an imposing residence.

It is not the pistol combat, with lyrical and carried away music in the background, and some slow motion, which prevents one from hanging onto the universe. Nor the two protagonists, whose clothes leave no doubt as to their social origin: a fleeing noble, and a sort of vigilante (Amélia Lacquemant) perched on a horse covered in blood. Nor the decapitation, not irrelevant, which concludes this beginning.

No, it is the way in which this sequence is conducted and constructed, which evokes many current series. The way the scene is written and filmed is tasteless and impersonal : we could move the sequence to any other context, it would remain the same, without feeling the least bit embarrassed.

And extremely explanatory and significant details weigh down the picture. The machete drawn by the vigilante (a priori from the people) immediately makes one think of The Walking Dead, or other current series. The voiceover evokes, at the end, the presence of living dead in this world …

The noble spectator, not sure what to see

This is just one of the details of this opening sequence that appear staggered. Likewise, we thus see inscriptions drawn on the walls of the house: “Neither king nor master”. With looks like tags, written in today’s script. Without being royalist or traditionalist, one can argue that here, such elements are a little too anachronistic, too offbeat … and the cap that covers the entire top of the heroine’s head is not from the most old fashion.

This series in a fantastic rereading of historical facts therefore appears, in this introduction, all the same very standardized. Her scenario is narrated by a narrator, in the manner of The Haunting of Bly Manor. She advances, in voiceover: ” it’s the nightmare of a child lost in the mess of the world “. Of course, a nightmare is not intended to appear realistic. But we want to be able to immerse ourselves in it without unwittingly funny or too offbeat elements pulling us out.

On October 16, we will be able to know if, after these first three minutes appearing quite smooth, The revolution asserts itself as a failed attempt, a nice entertainment or an unexpected success produced in France by Netflix.