The show is about the fictional ASK (Samuel Kerr Agency) and the four agents who are the senior partners of the firm. There is Andrea (Camille Cottin) who is fierce and fabulous and will move mountains for her clients in the name of great French cinema. In contrast there is Mathias (Thibault de Montalembert) who is the sleazy, corporate one, and cares more about generating revenue and having the biggest stars on his roster. Gabriel (Gregory Montel) is the "nicest agent in Paris," a sweet man who genuinely cares about all of his clients and gets into a lot of scrapes as he tries to please everyone. And finally, there's the grande dame, Arlette (Liliane Rovere) who was there when Samuel Kerr originally founded the agency and calmly watches on while everyone loses their minds around her.
Below the four lions of the agency, we also have their assistants, Noemi (Laure Calemy) and Herve (Nicolas Maury), the receptionist, Sofia (Stefi Celma), and the newest member of the agency, Camille (Fanny Sidney), who is a big mystery when she arrives and spends a lot of the first season getting into hilarious trouble and hiding away her secrets until everything gets far too shambolic. These four characters may not be the official stars of the show, but by the end of the four seasons, they are the ones who have definitely seen the most growth, becoming more confident, self-assured people who finally know what they want from their careers and have the support of the folks at the top to reach for their dreams.
However, the key gimmick of the show is its guest cast. This is where it reminded me of the BBC show, Extras, that featured a famous actor in each episode. Given my appallingly poor knowledge of French cinema, it took me about three episodes before I realized that the people playing the famous actors represented by these agents, were the actual famous actors themselves. These actors are remarkably well-known in France (and as the seasons go on, you can tell the show must have gotten popular, because the guest stars started to be internationally famous folk like Jean Dujardin and Monica Belluci, people that even my feeble brain could recognize). Like in Extras, the actors get to play insanely heightened versions of themselves, people who take their craft too seriously or are fed up with the grind and just want to retire and have to be coaxed back into their careers. It's clear they are all having a blast, and while I won't spoil the surprise, if you stick with this show through Season 4, you'll find a guest appearance from a Hollywood A-lister.
Each season only consists of six episodes, which means that they are tightly scripted and nutty as can be. Most of the plots escalate into a raucous French farce, but there are also resonant emotional beats that make you deeply invested in these characters and their futures. This is such a witty and barbed but loving satire of the French film industry, and in later seasons, it also takes on issues like #MeToo and the things that women in the industry have had to put up with for far too long. You get a delicate balance of a new story with new guest actors each episode, but then the overarching shenanigans with the series regulars who are going in and out of relationships, having personal and professional revelations, and a neverending series of tangled complications that must be resolved. The only reason it took me so long to binge this show is because each episode is so dense. They often ended on a cliffhanger that left me wanting to press Play Next Episode, but I also needed my brain to recover from the wild ride.
Call My Agent is sublime storytelling and impeccable TV. Also, it's all set in France, mostly Paris, which means that as soon as the pandemic is over, I'm booking a trip to go eat some croissants while I aimlessly wander along the Seine. This show is both intellectually and aesthetically stimulating, and you should be watching it immediately. Think of it as the perfect dose of entertainment to inoculate yourself against the pandemic doldrums while you're waiting to inoculate yourself against actual Covid!
(Was that a labored metaphor? Yes. Have I been bingeing things in lockdown for a year now? Also yes. FORGIVE ME.)
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