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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Fiasco

Pierre Niney in Fiasco.

The hit French series Call My Agent focused on the behind-the-scenes horrors of show business—egotistical directors, two-faced agents, and impossibly narcissistic movie stars. Fiasco, a new French series on Netflix, is set in the same milieu, but is, if anything, more savage. Told as a mockumentary, Fiasco chronicles a naïve first-time director’s effort to shoot a historical drama. From the moment he nervously whispers “action,” everything that can go wrong on a set does go wrong—horribly and hilariously. The mockumentary genre has mostly faded away since its heyday of The Office and Arrested Development. With Fiasco, the French gift for sophistication and withering scorn makes it all seem new again. —Alessandra Stanley

Photo courtesy of Netflix