Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Réunions’ On Acorn TV, A French Dramedy About A Man Who Inherits A Rundown Beach Resort

One of the things that TV has been expert in doing over the decades is its ability to create families out of almost nothing, and make them believable. People in a workplace, or kids coming into new families, etc. But one of our favorite ways is someone discovering family they didn’t know existed and getting to know them. This, along with some beautiful tropical scenery, is the theme of a new French dramedy on Acorn TV.

RÉUNIONS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: We see a pair of high-heeled boots pedaling a bike. Then we see someone else getting into a furry costume, at least from what we see of the feet.

The Gist: Jérémy Riviere (Loup-Denis Elion) and his girlfriend Chloé (Laëtitia Milot) are having trouble making ends meet in Roubaix. She’s a hair stylist, he’s unemployed and working odd jobs like handing out flyers in a panda suit. She just borrowed 4000 euros to help pay off the mortgage payments they’ve missed. But he gets word that the father he never knew just died, and has left him half of a resort on Reunion island. Jérémy also finds out that he has a half-brother he never knew.

The whole family flies to Reunion: Jérémy and Chloé, their son Enzo (Mathis Larobe), Chloé’s teenage kids Maxime (Matteo Perez) and Vanessa (Marie de Dinechin), and the teens’ dad Dom (Nicolas Chupin), who helps take care of all three kids. Chloé says she took care of the tickets. They get set up at a lavish resort, and they all meet Jérémy’s half-brother Antoine Bouville (Nicolas Bridet). First, Jérémy is surprised that his brother is white. Second, Antoine tells Jérémy that he just manages this lavish resort, and he takes Jérémy and Chloé to the somewhat rundown resort their father owned. The worst part of it isn’t the condition, or the indifferent employees; it’s that the resort is in a ton of debt.

Jérémy thinks he’ll have to refuse the inheritance and just go back to Roubaix and struggle more — and also figure out how to pay for everything Dom put on the bill, thinking he was in good with the owner. But Chloé, who borrowed another 4,000 euros to get them to the island, sees the potential in the resort and thinks they should stay, fix it up, and run it. Jérémy thinks it’s a crazy idea, and so does Antoine.

After Antoine’s wife Victorie (Sara Martins) encourages Antoine to have dinner with his brother and his family, she starts to doubt the plan, too. But Antoine thinks he can use his hospitality expertise to at least help them get things off the ground. At the very least, he thinks, he and Jérémy can get to know each other. So Jérémy and Chloé let the family know about their plans. Dom loves it; Enzo loves it; Max is excited because he likes Antoine’s daughter Lucie (Olenka Ilunga); Vanessa wants no part of it, to the point where she is looking to make her mom and boyfriend’s lives miserable.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? In tone, Réunions feels a lot like Newhart crossed with The Odd Couple, but with families in tow.

Our Take: Réunions, created by Isabelle Dubernet and Éric Führer, is a show that has a bit of an unbelievable vibe to it, mainly because it feels like a misunderstanding plot out of Seventies television. Wow, our troubles are over! We got an inheritance! Wait, what? My long-lost father ran this place into the ground? In the beginning, the plot feels so cliché that we wondered how the creators can create a six-episode season that’s more than just goofy plot contrivances.

But then everyone settles in, and we find out more about Jérémy and Chloé, as well as Antoine. He seems like he doesn’t care too much about his newfound brother or his unusual family. But then when his wife convinces him to connect a little deeper, he changes his stance, not just on Jérémy but on the hotel that he owns half of (at least that’s what we thought).

It shows the potential that Réunions will be about more than Jérémy and Chloé trying to run this resort, and even the various issues their blended family has with being on this island near Madagascar instead of at home in Roubaix. We wish we saw a little more of their lives in Roubaix before they went to Reunion, but that’s not usually how these shows go. And it also seems that we won’t be seeing a ton of interaction with locals or other things that go on in this Indian Ocean island that’s technically part of France.

But what we will see is Jérémy and Antoine getting to know each other, as well as Max and Lucie. Also, Antoine ends up taking a bigger risk on the resort than Victorie bargained for, which will affect how he gets along with his brother. Then there’s Dom, who is still very involved with the family, despite being Chloé’s ex. All of this will be what drives the drama and comedy of this show, and we hope that the cliché gives way to character-based story elements quickly.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Antoine tells Victorie that he’s quit his job to help Jérémy run the resort. Victorie angrily reminds her husband that he sold his shares and he won’t have any say in how the place is run.

Sleeper Star: We want to see where the cute teen romance between Max (Perez) and Lucie (Ilunga) goes; she seemed to like him, and he was relieved that they were not cousins by blood. So there’s potential for that storyline to be a good B-story.

Most Pilot-y Line: We’re not sure about the character of Dom. He seems to be there for comic relief, but he also seems to be incompetent as a caregiver. A little more of that backstory would be good.

Our Call: STREAM IT. While the start of Réunions leans a little on the silly, the performances are generally good and there’s real potential for a heartwarming story about two brothers who never knew each other existed to become real family.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Réunions On Acorn TV