“A Very Secret Service” – An Office Comedy About Silly French Agents

"We have a license to thrill..."

As far as I can recall, most French comedies tends to lean on the physical side with heightened gestures and facial expressions, which makes the simple dialogues come across as funny. A Very Secret Service (or Au Service de la France) is no exception: an oddball 22-minute office comedy about a green agent, Andre Merlaux (Hugo Becker), adapting into his workplace in the French Secret Service that is mired with seniority, bureaucracy, blatant sexism, and xenophobes. Well, it’s the 60s after all.
 
Oh there are field missions too, mostly in the French-colonized Algeria where some shady terrorism stuff happens but they’re merely diversion from the situation back home. After an unusual recruitment process that only involves his underwear, Merlaux became a trainee officer relegated to desk work but eventually - like most employees - must deal with office politics, and to complicate matter, he’s fallen for a sweet girl, Sophie (Mathilde Warnier), a tailor whom he later found out is  related to someone in his office.
 
Andre and Sophie is an utterly adorable couple, though sometimes I find it hard to believe that someone as handsome as Becker can be so innocent (and, quite possibly, a virgin?), but perhaps that’s the result of being raised by a priest and living in a church.
 
In his new job, he meets a ragtag of eccentric characters like Jacquard (Karim Barras) and Moulinier (Bruno Paviot), two partner-in-crimes buffoons who loves to take advantage of the company’s severance during field work by getting“entertained” a lot by the ladies; the alluring Miss Clayburn (Josephine de La Baume) is the agency’s top agent, the quintessential Jane Bond, but because of her sex are disliked by her colleagues; Moise (Christophe Kourochkine) is his direct supervisor, seemingly the sanest person of the bunch; and, last, is the scary-looking boss simply known as The Colonel (Wilfred Benaiche) who has a mysterious past with Andre’s late father.

"The name's Merlaux... Andre Merlaux."

This Jean-Francois Halin-created show is highly amusing and I personally like it because of the charming leads, the setting, and the excellent opening credit with a score that sounds like it was really made back in the days. It’s hilarious, but I feel at times some scenes need some oomphs to make it funnier, instead the jokes—which can be funny—became flat due to uninspired editing. It’s no fault of the actors, for sure. Most memorable—and funniest—scene includes the blasé responses by the French agents after one CIA agent report them about the promiscuous lifestyle of one suspect. It’s a French thing…
 
I don’t remember much about the details of the main plot; there’s a storyline late in the season about a mole in the agency that causes intrigue and suspicions but, for me, all that take a backseat to the characters, and the ridiculousness of their behaviour. If it’s comedy you want, then it’s comedy you get.
 
Watch all 10 episodes of A Very Secret Service on Netflix.