Les Combattantes on TF1: How much is a series of events with Audrey Fleros, Julie de Bona, Sofia Esaid and Camille Lou?

September 1914. For several weeks, the battle has been raging. In a small village in the east of France, a few kilometers from the German zone, four women find themselves in the heart of horror.

Marguerite, a mysterious and feisty Parisian prostitute suspected of espionage; Caroline, the wife of a car factory owner who went to the front. She sees herself at the helm of the family business, a colossal and unprecedented challenge for a woman at the turn of the century; Agnes, requisitioned by the superior of the nunnery and converted into a military hospital. Overwhelmed by the influx of wounded, Agnes suffers more and questions her life choices; and Susan, a young feminist nurse on the run after an abortion gone wrong…

From September 19 every Monday at 21:10 on TF1. Watched 4 episodes out of 8.

The brainchild of Charity Market’s creative team – namely producer Iris Boucher (Quad Drama) and director Alexandre Laurent – Les Combattantes sees the return as an anthology of American horror history – starring three actresses. – The series that was a hit with new characters on TF1 in 2019.

With Audrey Fleroux, Julie de Bonas and Camille Lus lending their qualities to the harlot Marguerite, mother superior Agnes and fugitive nurse Susanna, Sophia Esaide (La Promesse) joins the adventure and completes this quartet of fighters who go. Through a poignant and tragic moment in French history as Bourgeois Caroline Dewitt.

But the series’ five-star cast also includes Sandrine Bonner, who plays Caroline’s mother-in-law, Cheki Kariou, Laurent Guerra in a surprise role, Tom Libby, Yannick Koirat, Grégoire Collin, Maxine Dunnet-Favel (Skam France), Vincent Rotier, Florence Loiret-Kyle, Eden Ducurant (for Sarah) and Mikael Mittelstadt, it all starts here One of the revelations on TF1.

Although historical murals are growing along the Channel and across the Atlantic, The Crown, La Chronique des Bridgerton, Hotel Portofino or Downton Abbey, which continue to appear on the big screen, TF1 has managed to restore its letters of nobility. The great costume saga genre in France in 2019 with Le Bazar de la charité, co-sponsored by Netflix.

Buoyed by this success, La Une continues the momentum and offers, with the same team and still in partnership with Netflix (which will offer the series in a few months), Les Combattantes, which once again tells the stories of women who fight against each other. Against the backdrop of a powerful historical event. And after the disastrous fire that destroyed a charity market in Paris in 1897, there’s a bit of World War I, narrated by screenwriters Cecil Lorne and Camille Trainor.

Les Combattantes takes place in 1914, during the “War of Movement”, i.e. after the Battle of the Marne and in front of the trenches. Visually stunning, this eight-episode mini-series immediately impresses with its sets, costumes and the striking realism of the war and hospital scenes that unfold episode after episode.

Through the stories of Marguerite, Mother Agnes, Suzanne and Caroline, who are all in their own way haunted by the horrors of war, the two authors of Les Combattantes, with the help of Alexandre Laurent, manage to put women back in their place. History, because it is clearly the great forgotten of the First World War. It’s a very good idea when you know that almost all of the fiction going back to “Der des Ders” focuses on the male point of view.

If the historical aspect that grows with the episodes is clearly fascinating, we also really like the soap side of the series (in the noble sense of the term), which like a charity market enriches the history of all four. Heroines with a heavy dose of buried secrets just waiting to emerge. And with the main antagonists – the campy Grégoire Colin, Vincent Rotier, Yannick Koirat or Laurent Guerra – who threaten their security, balance and future.

Viewers disappointed to see the actors get so little exposure to the charity market will also be pleased to learn that they interact more in Les Combattantes. Indeed, two couples emerge quite quickly: Julie de Bona and Camille Lu, who are drawn to the setting of a convent converted into a makeshift military hospital, and Audrey Fleurot and Sophia Esaide, whose characters are somewhat connected (but we will say. No more).

In terms of casting, TF1’s new big-budget historical mural does not disappoint, as the four “fighters” of the series are brilliantly played by Audrey Fleuro, Camille Lou, Julie de Bona and Sofia Esaid. Although Sandrine Bonner, Gregoire Collin, Yannick Koirat, Tom Libby and Maxence Dunnett-Favell are also quick to come out of the game and add sparks to their scores.

The only downside: Les Combattantes starts out less strong and less intense than Le Bazar (which opened with a famous fire and impressive and suffocating sequences) and takes longer to establish the foundations of its plot and its characters. So that we get the impression that the story starts only from the 2nd episode. Which, unfortunately, may discourage some viewers.

Perhaps less epic and romantic, in any case, of the four episodes that we were able to watch, Les Combattantes remains a quality fiction that clearly shows the indispensable role of women during the First World War, or in caring for the soldiers. or maintaining the economy in the absence of men who have gone to the front. And who manages to draw characters that we immediately relate to (more so than in the charity market), heroines with secondary roles that all have their own meaning.

It is clear, the special breath of the series, which combines historical narrative and very soapy intrigue, will continue until the end and will hold us until the last episode, which we hope will be the climax. But as it stands, TF1’s new fiction is a very nice surprise that promises to delight viewers and is part of a TV season (Aim for the Heart, Out of Season and the Mountain Blooms, La Maison d’en face) overall high. level.