J.P. Devine Movie Review: ‘Call My Agent’

France’s, and now America’s hugely popular “Call My Agent” show is back.

The entire original cast, with a few newcomers, has managed to slip through the toxic cloud of pandemic debris, political mud and universal lockdowns to give us emotional nourishment.

The long awaited season 4 of “Call My Agent” has finally arrived on Netflix.

For its millions of fans here and abroad, it couldn’t have come at a better time.

The A team, Andrea, (Camille Cottin) the ageless Arlette, (Liliane Rovére) the kinetic and ill shaven Gabriel, (Grégory Montel) and the duplicitous and sexually unbalanced Mathias, (Thibault de Montalembert) seem to have carried on their frantic pursuit of success without us.

While we sat here impatiently waiting for them to return, the once powerful agency ASK (Agence Samuel Kerr, now deceased), has suffered the age-related upheavals and breakdowns of French movie land and arrived safely.

All the assistants seem to have avoided the ravages of political and pandemic damage. Their Paris is still Gene Kelly’s Paris, and has emerged without a wrinkle or limp.

The debonair Assaad Bouab is still around on the edges, but is less important … at least in the first two segments.

The fluttery Hervé (Nicolas Maury), Noémie (Laure Calamy) and Mathias’ “secret” daughter Camille (Fanny Sidney) haven’t abandoned us.

I don’t know how survival works in the fantasy 10% world (the cut agents take) of Paris, but as the father of a real life Hollywood agent, I hope it lasts.

The first three seasons flowed and bubbled, pleased and soothed, along with tiny personal problems confronted and solved by the end of each segment. That has changed. Here is the new normal. There are only six segments for us to enjoy this trip out.

The producers delightfully filled the screens with universally recognizable French stars like Juliette Binoche, Isabelle Adjani, Monica Bellucci, and Isabelle Huppert, who were fitted into the agents’ days like surprise birthday gifts, and we devoured them.

This final season takes us much deeper into the characters. A shadowy, smoky and mysterious “Elise” appears from that evil rival agency StarMedia, carrying a hidden dagger and eyeing several backs.

And each of our favorite characters, like Mathias who departed ASK, dragging his mistress Noemi with him, to become a producer, find themselves victims of thinly veiled duplicity.

And then there is Andréa’s partner Colette (the amazing Ophélia Kolb) who in chapter two, feeling discarded, really upsets the wine and cheese cart with a confession.

Yes. It’s a soap opera, but with Gallic scents, farcical turns and twists. Unlike our afternoon soaps, it gives us superior performers and writing, and recognizable European stars.

Where else can you dial in to watch Isabelle Huppert and Monica Bellucci, the delicious Juliette Binoche, the amazing tiny Line Renaud, and this season’s surprise, an unexpected Sigourney Weaver … where has she been? We find out.

And the cream on top, at least for this reviewer, is the incredible Jean Reno (“The Professional,” “Da 5 Bloods”) who brings a hilarious Santa Claus to the mix.

J.P. Devine of Waterville is a former stage and screen actor.

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