Réunions is a sunny family comedy about trying to make a go of a failing hotel after the death of the father who ran it. The comedy is broad, almost slapstick sometimes, the scenery is beautiful and so are the people. The French language is a treat. The series is streaming on Acorn TV.
The hook in Réunions is that the father left his failing hotel to two sons who didn’t know the other existed. The families were a multi-racial mix of characters who didn’t see eye-to-eye on much of anything, but decided to work together to save the hotel they inherited.
Jérémy (Loup-Denis Elion) and his family lived in Paris when they got the news. They were flat broke, behind on the mortgage, and about to be homeless. Chloé (Laëtitia Milot) was the mother of 3 children. Laëtitia Milot led the series in many ways and was possibly the most level headed and business savvy of the bunch.
Chloé’s ex, Dom (Nicolas Chupin), lived with them and helped with the two teenagers, who were his children. At least he was supposed to help. If he did anything, it was hard to see. The teens were Vanessa (Marie de Dinechin) and Maxime (Matteo Perez). The youngest child, Enzo (Mathis Larobe), was Jérémy’s son.
The other family belonged to Antoine (Nicolas Bridet), who already lived on the island. Antoine was the manager of a different hotel. When he learned he had a brother and a chance to run the family hotel with him, he took it. His wife was Victoire (Sara Martins). His kids were Lucie (Olenka Ilunga) and Frédéric (Gilles Agelou).
It was a rocky road to blending two such different families. It was a hard slog to bring the hotel to a point to bringing in money rather than losing it. In six episodes, the two families work through this drama and comedy in various ways. The two men learned a lot about their father and their two mothers.
The first episode didn’t impress me at all. I thought the series got better as the episodes passed. The characters developed in interesting ways.
Because there are teens involved, there are issues with school, friends, sex, screen time and more. There were sex jokes and lighthearted sexual antics but no heavy sex scenes.
The series was mostly a comedy of errors. Thematically, it revolves around family, parenting, and love. If you’re looking for something light and want to practice your French, this is just the thing.
Here’s the trailer.
If you give this series a try, I’d love to hear what you thought of it.