Toutouyoutou on OCS: an extraordinary series about women’s emancipation in the 80s

When 80s aerobics meets aerospace and industrial espionage, it gives Toutouyoutou, a new original creation from OCS, which will air on the channel on Thursday, September 8 at 9pm. Created by Maxime Donzel and Géraldine de Margerie, the brains behind the humorous lozenge Arte Tutotal, the series, consisting of 10 26-minute episodes, takes us directly to the golden age of the Toulouse region, the cradle of aeronautics. Veronica and Davina’s age.

The series follows Karine (Claire Dumas), a mother of many, who sees her life turned upside down by the arrival of her new neighbor, Jane (Alexia Barlier), who has come straight from the United States. He brings a wind of modernity that will disrupt the lives of Karine and her friends.

But behind her smile and her fluorescent leotard, Jane seems very interested in Project 37, the secret file headed by Didier, Carine’s husband. What if Jane wasn’t who she claimed to be?

For Maxim Donzel, talking about the arrival of American culture in France in the 80s was the starting point for creating Toutouyoutou. “This is the time when we are dealing with a real paradigm shift.”

“The 1980s were a liberal turning point“, he explained at the press conference held at the Series Mania festival. “We wanted to show the clash between post-Giscard France, which was brown and cream, and America, which was colored.“

And if at first glance aerobics and industrial espionage is not the most obvious scenario combination, for its creator it was a way to get closer to reality. “Spies are often not where you expect them to be.“

“When you think about it, James Bond is not a very good spy because we can guess his profession by his attitude. A spy disguised as an aerobics instructor, on the other hand, is a very good idea.“

Maxim Donzel admitted that he researched the history of spies before writing the series. And he discovered that industrial espionage is much more advanced than we might think. “Spies position themselves in places where they are not expected and where they can create strong bonds with people. That’s why I thought it was very relevant to talk about espionage in the context of aerobics.”

But aside from talking about the 80s, the two creators had in mind above all to make a feminine and feminist series. Thus, Toutouyoutou follows the fortunes of four women who will see their lives turned upside down by the arrival of a new neighbor straight from the United States.

This lonely and independent woman, a thousand miles away from the people she used to rub shoulders with, gradually encourages them to reclaim their lives and above all, free themselves from the shackles of the society of the time.

With Toutouyoutou, Maxime Donzel also intended to tell the story of these ordinary women who lived before the pioneers. “In the 80s, there were the first female pilots and the first engineers“- he explained.

“But I kept thinking about those who couldn’t go to school because they were born a year early. I told myself that these women were no less than heroes. This is where I got the idea for Karine’s character. I wanted to talk about the women who we closed the door to, but still managed to achieve an extraordinary fate..”

Idea shared Claire Dumas, his translator. “It was interesting to approach it from the perspective of someone who missed the mark. This woman was helping her husband prepare for his studies. He could have done his job as well as she did. And yet, at the age of 40, he realizes that he really missed something.”

Following the fate of these four atypical women, Maxime Donzel and Géraldine de Marger offer a strange and original series with deadpan humor. If the first episodes struggle to captivate us, we will nevertheless be very quickly engrossed in this distinctive espionage plot against the backdrop of the 80s. A true alien, Toutouyoutou is a series that can be consumed without moderation.

Catch Toutouyoutou Season 1 this Thursday, September 8 at 9pm on OCS Max. Episode 10 is now available in its entirety on OCS on demand.