“Don’t tell me it’s not true,” says Camille Chamoux’s character in Terminal, sitcom co-written and directed by Jamel Debbouze this Monday on Canal+. Anyone who lived through the late 1990s normally has the “ref” in mind. The wink obviously refers to the cult line of the character of Jamel in the crazy comedy Hhosted on Netflix since 2019.
This time, the group of comedians leaves the corridors of the hospital where Professor Strauss, a crazy surgeon known for killing his patients, worked, and arrives with a new team in an airport terminal where absurd jokes are flying. Four reasons to enjoy (or not) this 12-episode comedy in the form of Proust’s madeleine of humor.
The return of the shock duo
More than twenty years later, Jamel Debbouze and Ramzy Bedia have not aged a bit, or almost. Stars of the hospital sitcom, the infernal duo – who lost their third sidekick Eric Judor along the way – have swapped their costumes of switchboard operator and stretcher bearer for that of head of security, for the first, and of incompetent airline pilot, for the second. We are not too disoriented in this new setting. The public re-tastes the ingredients that made the success of H : the surrealist situational comedy and the characteristic phrasing of the pair with Jamel who exaggerates his pronunciation difficulties (“I am diçu”) and errors of expression (“the hands behind the arms”). Nearly three decades later, we happily find the two comedians in their brainless loser costume.
A line-up of stand-up stars
The phenomenal success of H created stars. Eric, Ramzy and Jamel, who could barely pay for their gas before filming in the Canal+ series, finished the fourth season behind the wheel of luxury cars. The fiery duo from the 1990s has now reached the quarter-century mark and is passing the baton to the new guard of stand-uppers. Well-known faces from the comedy scene and cinema arrive in the clique of breles: Tristan Lopin, cabin manager, Brahim Bouhlel (from Valid), as steward, Camille Chamoux (The flame), as a flight attendant, and Doully, as the boss of the airline Flywingz. The team of actors and authors feels a little less testosterone than at the time of H and it shows on the screen. The female characters gain complexity and the jokes free themselves from their misogynistic overtones.
An old-fashioned sitcom
Nerdy or the return of cool? Terminalas H, takes up the historical codes of the Anglo-Saxon sitcom: a unique setting, episodes of around twenty minutes and filming in front of an audience whose laughter can be captured. A somewhat outdated process in France which refers more to the low-end programs of the 1990s from AB Productions (Helene and the boys, First kisses…) only quality works. Conversely, the United States has made the sitcom a genre of excellence with great works like Seinfeld, Friends, The Office or, more recently, Parks and Recreation And The Good Place. A few moments of grace later, Terminal makes the aftertaste of anachronism given by the audience’s laughter disappear. Like its predecessor, great freedom was offered to actors exhilarated by the atmosphere behind closed doors.
Surrealist floodgates
The jokes of H have remained, for some, in the annals. The mythical imitation of the elephant by Professor Strauss is, for example, unforgettable. Certain situations offered by Terminal have real potential. “The texts were written straight but left room for improvisation by the actors, fueled by the enthusiasm of the audience,” explains co-authors Jamel Debbouze and Mohamed Hamidi. And the magic still works. The best of the madness of the 1990s blows through this sitcom.