A merger as unexpected as it is eagerly awaited! The Season 2 finale left fans withHPI in turmoil after a first kiss between Adam Karadec (Mehdi Nebbou) and Morgane Alvaro (Audrey Fleurot). Almost a year after this explosive cliffhanger, TF1 unveils this Thursday at 9:10 p.m. the first two episodes of season 3 of the hit police comedy.
This is a double episode, a first in the history of the series: “This format allows us to have more time for the investigation, necessarily a little less incredible, and for everything we love, that is to say the daily life of the characters”, rejoices Audrey Fleurot, that 20 minutes met during a round table at the Séries Mania festival. After these first two epic seasons, HPI does it still have potential and for how long?
The start of season 3 takes place six months after the kiss exchanged at the end of season 2. “We wanted to shoot in the summer and the kiss takes place in the winter”, tells 20 minutes Alice Chegaray-Breugnot, co-creator and writing director of the series.
“Morgane in a somewhat surprising situation”
To hold on to the length, you have to amaze the spectators. “We wanted to surprise and to surprise ourselves too. We also had the impression that continuing right after what had happened at the end of season 2, it was not the most interesting part to tell. We finally wanted to find Morgane in a somewhat surprising situation to launch the season, ”continues screenwriter Julien Anscutter.
“We wanted it to question the spectator and for him to invent the story of what could have happened between them… How immensely upsetting it is to find her at the starting point, again a woman cleaning, we wanted to show how much of a tsunami it had been for her, ”adds Alice Chegaray-Breugnot.
And to add: “Morgane was beginning to be well established at the DIPJ (Inter-regional Directorates of the Judicial Police). This ellipse made it possible to discover the DIPJ without Morgane: what happens when they have lost her fantasy? »
“We are trying to create trouble for him”
“The starting DNA is a single mother who is struggling to make ends meet, and it’s important to keep that,” says Audrey Fleurot. At the start of each season, the challenge for the authors is to put Morgane back in a certain precarious situation – which is incompatible with a full-time position at the DIPJ.
“We are trying to create trouble for her all the time and to find the D systems that she will put in place to counter this”, summarizes Alice Chegaray-Breugnot. A “social anchoring” which “is really close to heart” to Audrey Fleurot.
At the start of the season, Morgane Alvaro is not in top form. “Morgan has problems. And as always, it does not always choose the best solutions to solve them, and therefore it will have more and more difficulty in solving them”, continues Alice Chegaray-Breugnot.
“She will have to share her salary with this new one”
“Morgan is pretty down. She’s coming out of a little six-month depression, but since she’s Morgane, she’s not going to react the same way as us. She slammed the door of the DIPJ and she became a poor housekeeper again. Each start of the season, she has a challenge, there, she must take her life in hand, ”underlines Audrey Fleurot.
In order to get out of the mess, Morgane Alvaro will quickly resume her post at the DIPJ. The problem? “She will have to share her salary with this new one,” warns Alice Chegaray-Breugnot.
To spice up the cop squad, HPI thus welcomes a new character, Brigadier Guichard. “It was really stressful to know how I was going to fit in, but everyone was adorable,” says his interpreter, Jérémy Lewin.
The latter embodies a young school cop, diligent, procedural at the antipodes of Morgane Alvaro. “We found it funny to have someone completely opposite to Morgane,” says Julien Anscutter. “Morgane will return to her job, and he stole her job… and she won’t like it,” promises Alice Chegaray-Breugnot.
“This love triangle is crunchy”
Season 3 of HIP plays with the expectations of the spectators. “When the characters get too close, our authors manage to find a way to make them move away… We constantly have to put obstacles in their way. Clair de lune only held on to that… We were waiting for them to get together. And when one looked at the other, the other looked away and vice versa. It was madly erotic. And then, once they got together, the series collapsed, ”examines Audrey Fleurot. “We are lucky to have two characters who are very handicapped in love. This allows us not to couple them, but to make variations on the theme,” laughs Alice Chegaray-Breugnot.
Season 3 of HIP thus fully plays the card of the love triangle between Morgane, Karadec and Roxane (Clotilde Hesme). Without revealing what exactly happened between Morgane and Karadec, Mehdi Nebbou analyzes about his character: “This man has an inner conflict. He is in love with Roxane, but this kiss with Morgane has created real trouble and guilt. “. For her part, Roxane is “in an uncomfortable position to feel that her man is in love with another woman and that he is also in denial”, he continues.
And Morgane in all this? “She is going to have several adventures. This allows us to play on the wire of Karadec’s jealousy. Which is always good comedy support: how will she make him jealous? reveals Audrey Fleurot. “Thanks to the authors, this love triangle is crisp in season 3”, congratulates Mehdi Nebbou.
“A team on an investigation with Daphne”
In order to always renew themselves, the authors also rely on new relationships between the characters. “We were able to do little duets that we hadn’t had the opportunity to do before. It’s complicated to be able to develop all the relationships between the characters, but, from season to season, we have the possibility of having a little more privileged moments between characters who hadn’t necessarily had the opportunity to share things together. For example, we are forming a team on an investigation with Daphne,” explains Audrey Fleurot.
“In the first two seasons, we laid the foundations for the relationships between the characters, and with that, we can start to qualify, to go and look for other things”, comments the interpreter of Daphne, Bérangère McNeese.
“Some investigations are darker”
The success of HIP is also based on surveys. In this season 3, Alice Chegaray-Breugnot promises “some investigations are darker”. “Crime is maybe a little tougher. There are going to be one or two intrigues in which we are still in somewhat rough things, which are also a reflection of our society, ”considers Marie Denarnaud, who plays commissioner Céline Hazan.
“With HPI, all genres are possible”
“What’s great about HPI, is that all genres are possible. In season 3, we still have an episode with vampires. The series is plastic enough to allow an episode like this to be made. This allows us to renew our form”, rejoices Audrey Fleurot.
After the remake of the cult scene of Pretty Woman in season 2, season 3 thus opens with a hilarious rap music video parody. An episode of HIP will also take place in the world of hip-hop, another will play with the codes of video games, a sequence with those of the film noir of the 1940s. . It’s part of the character, Morgane hasn’t done a lot of studies, but she has a very important knowledge of pop culture, ”says Alice Chegaray-Breugnot.
How many more seasons the series HPI will it have the potential to renew itself in this way? ” Twenty four ? Twenty five years ? I don’t know ! No, we will avoid! laughs Audrey Fleurot. And the star of HIP to conclude: “So far, I think each season is better than the last. The idea is to be able to continue like this. I always want to do an even better season, but also not to tire people and do the season too much. It’s all pretty abstract. What I do know is that I won’t leave her happily because I know I’ll be hard pressed to find a character that excites me so much. »