Zorro: what is the new series with Jean Dujardin worth? [critique]

The masked rider reinvents himself in the guise of Jean Dujardin, in a comic and epic version modeled on the spirit of Michel Hazanavicius' OSS 117 with the same Dujardin. The guarantee of getting a good Zorro?

Jean Dujardin under the mask of Zorrothe idea has been on people's minds for a while. The fault, or thanks, to season 2 of Plane tree which saw the arrival of the actor with the famous black moustache. Eric Judor's prophecy almost becomes reality with this new serial version of the adventures of the masked vigilante.

Benjamin Charbit (Gagarin) and Noah Debré (Parliament) have chosen to remove all the pulp paraphernalia at the risk of making the purists scream. Their Zorro seems to be an epigone of Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, but in a cordobes hat, helped by the personality and ironic acting of his headliner.

Like what Michel Hazanavicius and Jean-François Halin did with the spyOSS 117This Zorro is therefore a pure recreation, a clever reinvention. The duo of authors make him a tired vigilante who has put away his mask for twenty years, but whom the nocturnal cavalcades have filled with pride and arrogance. His accession to the seat of mayor of Los Angeles and the irruption of a corrupt notable in the city will force him to return to service.

Summoning both Halin and Monty Python, Zorro Dujardin's version assumes the references, shows the same absurd humor as in the saga OSS 117, sometimes even tends towards vaudeville…

The whole thing doesn't always keep up the pace: the fiction gets overwhelmed by the bawdiness and the mechanics sometimes go round in circles in a story dominated by the love triangle that unites Don Diego, his wife and the masked vigilante. But, once the reading grid is accepted, this new serialized iteration demonstrates all the sense of the epic that one could expect from it. It even enriches the commonly accepted vision of the cunning fox, notably in his fight against his double, not necessarily without fear or reproach.

The same goes for other iconic characters, Sergeant Garcia at the forefront, eternally obsessed with his adversary. Here he turns into a washed-up profiler who has become depressed by the hunt for the enemy. Played by a Grégory Gadebois above the fray, he almost eclipses the figure of the hero.

The first three episodes of Zorro September 6 Paramount+ (available in France on Canal+). The series will be broadcast later on France Télévisions.