"There are two kinds of deputies: The psychopaths and the idiots."
— Samy, unknowingly talking to the deputy he'll be working for in a few minutes.
Parlement (French for Parliament) is a political satire on the institutions of the The European Union, especially on the titular European Parliament. It is a European (German-Belgian-French) co-production and, reflecting this, is released in an original version featuring all of these countries' national languages, and many more. This is obviously Truth in Television, as the EU has 24 official languages... most of which are represented in the Parliament's daily business.
The series successfully walks the line of making fun of the stupid stuff that happens at the Parliament without making it seem like every cent spent on it is a complete waste of taxpayer money. Instead, most characters in the series seem genuinely well-intentioned: They are pursuing what they think is the best for the people of Europe, but sometimes their capability for thought is somewhat lacking, sometimes their methods are extremely ruthless. And then there is the final boss: The slow and incomprehensible grinding of EU bureaucracy.
This show provides examples of:
- Ambiguously Gay: The plot of a whole episode in the second season revolves around Rose trying to figure out whether Eamon would be interested in a potential advance by Guido. Cloudcuckoolander Torsten is also along for the ride, but is instead trying to find out whether Eamon is an alien.
- The Chessmaster: What Ingeborg and Eamon are and what Samy tries to be, with very little success in the first season and with a bit more success in the second.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Samy is completely clueless as to how things work in the Parliament at first, but he cottons on throughout the first season.
- Determinator: Samy. He starts out completely on the backfoot about the whole finning thing in season one, but successfully pushes it through the Parliament anyway. And once he discovers that that was only the first step and that he has to convince the European Commission and the Council as well, he just keeps going.
- Dirty Old Man: The Portuguese deputy in the second season. Valentine gets him in bord with her Blue Deal plans by making him think she will sleep with him, and when she calls a team meeting for the Parliament's team in the toilet during the trilogue negotiations, he seems to expect her to act on that promise and is disappointed to find everyone else there as well.
- Eagleland: An interesting flavour comes up during Rose's interviews for a job at Facebook: The American interviewers seem very happy about everything, but this is actually only skin-deep and very superficial joviality. Somewhat reflecting of the perception many Europeans have of Americans.
- Evil Brit: Rose's boss in the first season has some features, though she is too stupid and unimportant to be a villain.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Samy gets one of these when he explains that Guido can't be a lobbyist. After all, he talked to him inside the Parliament, in the lobby. Oh...
- Germanic Depressives: Torsten in the second season. Ingeborg has left and he does not really have a job anymore, so he decides to take a gap year... inside the parliament. Understandably, this leads to him being a bit frustrated at being the only one who doesn't have anything to do.
- Hiding Behind the Language Barrier: Lots of it, by everyone, from everyone. Especially by the French and the Germans, though.
- Human Outside, Alien Inside: Torsten suspects this of Eamon due to his all-knowing and completely stoical demeanor.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: What Samy can end up becoming in his less glorious moments.
- Latin Lover: Samy's girlfriend Lydia in the second season is from Spain, and she is definitely very attractive.
- Master-Apprentice Chain: Samy gets rid of the third link in his chain, Valentine's intern, by dumping him on some completely insane Belgian.
- New Media Are Evil: Not really new media especially, as ME Ps are also shown to be taking every opportunity to get into a printed headline or a radio broadcast as well, but the series does also show them as being immensely preoccupied with whatever is currently happening on Twitter.
- Parental Substitute: Eamon to Samy, and Samy to Michel. And then Martin Kraft to Michel once he becomes President of the Parliament.
- Power Dynamics Kink: Samy seems to be into a fantasy with his boss Valentine and acts it out with his girlfriend Lydia... late at night in Valentine's office. The next day, Valentine complains that her chair is squeaking when it wasn't before, but Samy insists that nothing is wrong.
- Rambunctious Italian: Guido appears to be this... to some clients, and when it's in his interests in order to get them to his side.
- Self-Deprecation: Being British, Rose is pretty good at this. Quote her to Samy after he just sat down beside her in the Fisheries Committee on his first day at the Parliament: "You probably don't want to sit here - this is the freak section."
- Shaped Like Itself: Torsten's introduction. "I work for Ingeborg." "Who's Ingeborg?" "My boss."
- Uncomfortable Elevator Moment: Most of the series takes place in huge office buildings, so yes, many uncomfortable elevator moments do occur. However, since this is the EU, the Ode to Joy is always playing in the background.
- Wearing A Flagon Your Head: The Brits do this in the very beginning of season one while celebrating Brexit.
