Family Business ~ A Bite-Sized Review

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🇫🇷 FAMILY BUSINESS 🇫🇷

Family Business (2019-2021) is a French comedy Netflix Original series. 3 seasons of 6 episodes 27-39 min. In French with some Hebrew, Arabic, and Spanish with subtitles and dubbing available. Cert 15 UK.

Premise:

“Learning that cannabis will be legalized, Joseph, a failed entrepreneur, decides to transform, with the help of his family and friends, the kosher butcher shop of his father and open the first marijuana coffeeshop in France.“ IMDb

Cast:

Jonathan Cohen as Joseph Hazan

Gérard Darmon as Gérard Hazan

Julia Platon as Aure Hazan

Liliane Rovère as Ludmila, the grandmother

Olivier Rosemberg as Olivier

Ali Marhyar as Ali Benkikir

Louise Coldefy as Clémentine Cendron

Oussama Kheddam as Youseff Benkikir

Enrico Macias as himself

Lina El Arabi as Aida Benkikir

Bite-Sized Review:

Family Business has a great basic concept behind it and this, combined with great characters, make for a very funny TV show.

Not all the jokes land but those that do absolutely stick it! I would say that this is often very near to the knuckle but, honestly, it is way past that joint (pun fully intended)! Some of the play on words does not translate well but that is unavoidable, malheureusement.

As to be expected (this is a French show, after all) there is a lot of farce and situations which are believable despite being totally over the top. You can almost imagine the writers coming up with ridiculous scenarios involving their poor characters and saying, “Yes! Let’s go for it!” (but in French). I loved that this is such an inclusive show with its characters and storyline.

For me, above all the silly (in a good way, mostly) situations it was the characters that made this such a good show to watch. The family dynamics, relationships (“it’s complicated”) and interactions lead to some of not only the funniest but also genuinely emotional scenes.

I loved so many of the characters but Olivier and his completely crazy, inappropriately outspoken girlfriend and “hairdresser”, Clémentine (no filter, none) were my favourites, along with the chocolatier “gangster” Youssef and Grandma.

Some of the locations in this show made me want to grab my passport and fly out of the country as they are stunning. This show is blessed with great camerawork, special effects and music. The costuming was great and added so much to the overall show (including hilarity).

Family Business does show drug use, has a fair bit of violence, a considerable amount of strong language and a bit of nudity. so if these are not your “thing” or if you are easily offended it may not be for you. I think this show has real heart. I laughed and sniggered a LOT while watching (along with squealing out “Oh, no!” quite a lot) and I thoroughly enjoyed watching it. I do miss the characters. Recommended.

Reel2ReelTalk rating (max 5 ⭐️)

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Trailer: