Iris: the adorable reloue from Canal + not to be missed (review)

Amazing Doria Tillier, author, director and actress of this funny and endearing social comedy.

“Sorry, but why don't you want to give your grandmother's lasagna recipe?” Iris never runs out of questions. Iris is never short of reflections. Iris doesn't hold her tongue in her pocket. Iris is not very comfortable in society. Iris has difficulty understanding others. Iris is a misfit…and she knows it. She's like that, Iris, a little rough around the edges, objectively very annoying… but so endearing.

Doria Tillier imagined this permanently out of step teacher, author of inadequate children's books in her spare time, in her first creation for Canal +. An original series – to be seen now in full on the MyCanal platform – that she co-wrote and co-directed and which inevitably recalls the Fleabag of Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Her Iris is a bit like her, a clumsy thirty-something in search of meaning, who is not bothered by conventions, or even empathy or even any need to belong. Even her boyfriend finds her unbearable and Iris readily admits that – more or less unconsciously – she is doing everything to make him leave her…

Yes Iris is very annoying, almost misanthropic at times. To the point of becoming adorable. Above all, she is very, very funny. The series is seen as a romantic-lunar farce where scathing dialogues and verbal jousts of delightful absurdity follow one another. Doria Tillier surrounded herself with fantastic supporting roles (Denis Podalydès, Pascale Arbillot, Jeanne Balibar Or Anaïde Rozam) and a François Morel surprising as a clairvoyant mentor, who takes turns from scene to scene like perfect sparring–partners to allow Iris to express all his sweet madness.

We feel that Doria Tillier looked into his own frustrations to draw the contours of his non-conformist heroine and her absolute need for sincerity in human relationships. Iris the reloue, who makes contradiction an art of living, would almost be an existentialist figure that we gradually learn to know, to appreciate, over the six episodes that the series lasts. Almost too little. Yes, we would have liked to spend more time with Iris.

Irisin six episodes, to watch on Canal +.