After “Irresponsable” and “Vingt-five”, OCS offers a new generational sitcom at the end of the year with “HashtagBoomer”, in which four roommate friends struggle to manage their existential crises, but also those of their parents.
Hassan, Dany, Margot and Raoul are four in their thirties who manage their lives but also their parents on a daily basis. The digital revolution has sometimes turned the tables, and kids often have to explain life to the Boomers …
Hassan must learn to manage his future fatherhood without reproducing the parental model. Dany, in search of his origins, will have to leave his mother to emancipate himself. Raoul must tame both his femininity and his virility, to find balance in his relationship with his mother icon. Margot, meanwhile, faced with her father’s depression, can no longer run away from her own problem: she has never experienced an orgasm.
Dating sites, fake news, followers, selfies, Uber, Facetime… are all obstacles for some and assets for others to achieve their ends.
HashtagBoomer, every Thursday at 8:40 p.m. on OCS Max
First fiction of the company Mesdames Productions, founded by Maïtena Biraben and Alexandra Cruq, HashtagBoomer is also the first creation of Constance Maillet, director of music videos and institutional films, who writes and directs the 8 episodes of 26 minutes.
The idea for the series was born on her sofa, during four-way discussions with her best friend and actress Manon Azem and their respective companions at the time. “We saw each other several times a week, and we realized that we always talked about our parents. We then wondered why we needed to talk about it so much, and we deduced that they were very present in our lives because they are dumped“, explains the director.
She then meets Maïtena Biraben by chance in a hairdressing salon when she has to shoot a commercial video there. The current passes, and she decides to submit her project for a series to the two producers, who are just embarking on fiction. To their surprise, OCS accepts, and the series goes to filming in April 2021.
“We had absolutely not realized that all the producers in Paris wanted to do a series at OCS“, laughs Maïtena Biraben. The channel, which selects series projects from a simple synopsis, leaves them complete freedom, until the finalization of the texts and the choice of casting just a few weeks before the start. of the shoot.
In return for this artistic freedom: a minimum production economy and budgetary constraints that require going to the essentials during manufacture. “On an OCS shoot, you have few takes, so you have to deliver all the time, be good immediately for an actor“, adds Alexandra Cruq.
A baptism of fire haloed by the benevolent presence of the director Olivier Marchal (Les Rivières pourpres) in the role of Hassan’s father (Bellamine Abdelmalek), but also … of Amanda Lear, who plays the biological mother that Raoul (Jules Sagot) despairs of knowing.
“This is the first name that came to us as soon as we imagined the series with Manon. We thought it would be super funny to have Amanda Lear in this role.“, explains Constance Maillet. The actress, who plays her own role, willingly lent herself to the game.”He’s a real character, it was fantastic to have him!”
An “acid and benevolent” sitcom
“What matters in the end is that we make good use of this freedom provided by the channel ” continues the producer. “It allowed us to reveal a writing and a singular way of filming, talents, and scenes that we are not used to seeing in French series.. See young people smoking firecrackers, struggling to find work, constantly scrolling on the networks … This is real life!“
The sitcom tackles many contemporary topics lightly. Hassan is torn between the two cultures of his divorced parents; the character of Raoul, played by Jules Sagot (Le Bureau des Légendes) explores the frontiers of masculinity; the sexuality of seniors is illustrated through Dany’s mother (Manon Azem), herself ready to experiment to discover who she really is; finally, the character of Margot, played by Allison Chassagne (Derby Girl) questions the taboo around orgasm.
The series was originally supposed to be titled “OK Boomer,” in reference to a popular phrase used by millennials to deride judgments perceived as backward or condescending by the baby boomer generation (and …
