Why to watch Call My Agent

The French 6-part series Call My Agent (Season 1), or if you prefer the French title, Dix Pour Cent (10 Percent, the agent's cut from all contracts, at least in France) is a really good comic drama about a small but powerful Paris agency representing major French film starts, with the amusing kick that each episode involves a star (or 2) playing himself/herself, often against type. (This works better in France, to be honest, as we had never heard of any of the "stars" in Season One.) The pace is good, the dialog is crisp and funny (even in subtitles), the lead actors make a good and credible ensemble. Most of all this series gets at the role of the agent, coddling the fragile egos of the artists and fighting like dogs w/ tempestuous producers and directors. The show feels realistic, only slightly exaggerated for comic effect, and, to boot, it also builds in a good office drama as the team fights on various fronts (and with one another) to secure the future of the agency and to play out various office and family romances and traumas. In some ways it's like a comic version of Mad Men, in contemporary setting and with less chauvinism and more sexual openness and acceptance (particular re homosexuality). All told, a really good series that we will follow into Season 2.