A Very Secret Service

Not since Mel Brooks...Peter Sellers or even Allo Allo have I seen anything as well scripted and directed as good as this show...top of its class....i recommend you give it a look for yourself...brilliant...

It's a shame that this excellent production has no review yet on IMDb, so i decided to go first :-)

"A very secret service" caught me by surprise. The stage are the early 1960s, relatively short after the end of WW2 and in the middle of the cold war. It's a mix of "The Office" and "Dr. Strangelove".

There is plenty of twisted, sarcastic and dark humour (at times very British). They shoot quotable one-liners like machine guns at you. I laughed my *** off many times (hint: the eastern German bathrobe).

With all the silliness they managed to create a coherent story line as well as a bunch of characters you really care about.

They mostly also use very nicely and somewhat easy to understand french, so it's good for those wanting to learn french. I'm Swiss, so i can relate well to what's going on.

Now bring on the second season, or i will get very grumpy!!

The first - the performance of Hugo Becker . The second- lovely humor in different and seductive nuances. Not the last - the cliches and stereotypes, wise used for the perfect atmosphere and for the resurrection of a lot of memories about films of same genre. Short - just a delight.

Season One: A Very Secret Service is a sophisticated French satire about the Cold War, colonialism and racism. The series is especially meaningful - and humorous - to those with some understanding of post-War history.

The main character Andre Merlaux struggles to make sense of the bureaucracy surrounding intelligence operations and, whether skillfully or by chance, protects the French Republic from its enemies more than once. Once Merlaux gets the hang of the whole spy thing then the rules change again.

Au Service de la France is a laugh. It pokes holes in the the world, France and the era (yes, everyone did smoke in the 1960s, even on airplanes!). The series also none too subtly delivers a none too positive message on the role of Western powers in establishment of the post War global structure. So, yes, it's kind of a political show!

Season 1 - This is the best of the two seasons. You're introduced to the show's dry humour and wit. Similar to several period shows like Downton Abbey or Mad Men, the show uses real life incidents as a background. Near the end of a season, a conspiracy-like sub-plot will emerge but will leave several questions on your mind. Season 1 - 10/10

Season 2 - A few episodes seem rather slow but the show does something incredible - it upgrades several female characters and gives them a third dimension. Especially, Marie-Jo (played by the graceful Marie-Julie Baup) is perhaps the best Season 2 character. This season can also be called the "Season of Breakups" as every main character deals with heartbreak. The sub-plot that began in Season 1 becomes the main plot of Season 2 and this takes all the agents to Moscow, Berlin and finally, Algeria. Season 2 - 8/10 (if a few episodes were faster, I would have given this a 10 too)