Call My Agent

If you ask most people how they are, they’re likely to tell you what season of The Crown they’re in. Just a short while back it was Babylon Berlin, Fauda and The Queens Gambit. The Flight Attendant might actually describe a mental state as does Bridgerton whose heartthrob star Rege Jean-Page has become not only it but ID. Of course, shows like The Sopranos, The Wire and Curb Your Enthusiasm were wildly popular but they didn’t become tantamount to affective states of mind--and surrogates for social life. For some  these new series have been like crossing the event horizon of a black hole. There’s no turning back. Before long they’ve been sucked into an oblivion in which the personality is totally extinguished and replaced with Netflix generated avatars. Know that fin de siècle building where Call My Agent takes place. There are undoubtedly Francophiles who've begun to believe they live there. In fact, there are some severe cases in which the program has become a cult which requires them to be deprogrammed from the programming. Call My Agent is a particularly pernicious example since the script is so good that you feel that Juliette Binoche, Isabelle Adjani and Monica Bellucci, three of the actresses who make cameo appearances have taken the words right out of your mouth. Cable news networks like CNN have also jumped into the fray.You may not have had anyone over to the house for a year but who needs them when you have Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell and Anderson Cooper as regular dinner guests.

Read "The Findings" by Francis Levy, Evergreen Review