Alexandra Ehle: Quirky Never Looked So Good

Eureka – two more Alexandra Ehle episodes!

The gang from the police morgue is back and excitement runs high as Ludivine (Sophie Le Tellier) and Louis’ (Quentin Baillot) wedding approaches. But there’s a snake in the garden – the new director, Sonia Ricoeur (Valerie Dashwood) wants to fire Alexandra and is hunting for intel that can be used as ammunition. Alexandra (Julie Depardieu) confers with her new boyfriend, a shrink who happens to be her assistant Theo’s dad (Andre Manoukian). Who walks in but her shaggy ex… (Thomas Vandenberghe).

If you’re a fan of Alexandra Ehle (Film and Picture) and Captain Marleau (France Televisions) then you’re familiar with the featherweight comic writing of Elsa Marpeau, creator of both. Her female characters are so confident, so unaware of their oddities that the dialogue soars with whimsy. No mean girls here. Just salt-of-the-earth gals with childlike enthusiasm who want to be about the jobs they’re good at. And they don’t give a flip about how they come off. And even better, they’re funny – but never at anyone’s expense, unless it’s a bad guy. IMHO, only female writers can write about women in such a state of freedom. Check out the first scene of Alexandra Ehle episode 9, in which Alexandra and Ludivine (Sophie Le Tellier) are in a cooking class receiving instruction on how to prepare a veal head for poaching. They’re a little too chatty, so the instructor tries to shame them by asking them to start carving up the head. Hardly a punishment for these two – he’s a little shocked by how well they do it!

The two shows have their differences but there are commonalities: an embrace of the absurd and a sense of celebratory joy. Whoever thought crime shows could be so much fun? There’s an unmistakable feel to Marpeau’s writing – it’s fast-paced, farcical with larger-than-life characters… it’s like you just got dropped in the middle of a very crazy circus. In a Marpeau script, the mountain is always meeting Mohammed. The subject may be ghoulish or grim, but her tone keeps it light. The result is effervescent, perfect for the dog days of summer!