Les beaux malaises...."
Les Beaux Malaises
In English is a French-Canadian Cringe Comedy / Sitcom and the brainchild of the humorist Martin Matte and his "family". While mostly a comedy, more serious or heartfelt themes show up. Situations range from home life, Martin's relationship with his mother, to hanging out with his friends or interacting with his fans.
Other notable characters include Julie Desjardins (played by Julie Le Breton), Martin's "girlfriend", his young son Leo (played by Charles William Ross), their 8-year old daughter Florence (played by Émilie Bierre), his mother Monique (played by Michèle Deslauriers), his mentally disabled brother Marc-André (played by Fabien Cloutier) and his two best friends Jean-François and Patrick (played by Martin Perizzolo and Patrice Robitaille respectively).
The series aired starting in January 2014 to March 2017 and spanned 3 seasons of 10 episodes each. In 2021 a new series was started, Les Beaux Malaises 2.0, featuring once again 10 episodes.
You can watch the series (in French only) here.
Les Beaux Malaises provides examples of:
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Monique is scatterbrained and has zero filter, this unfortunately includes revealing things about her sex life. This trope seems to be hereditary, as Martin is similarly embarrassing when with his children.
- As Himself: Martin Matte plays Martin Matte.
- Dramedy: Certain episodes veer into this more than others, but the series is first and foremost comedic.
- I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: Narrowly averted when Patrick handles his father's old double-barrel shotgun and waves it around and almost shoots Jean-François in the face.
- Imagine Spot: Frequently used by Martin to illustrate "alternate" scenarios that could have happened, usually after an aside glance.
- Jerkass: Martin is this big time, as part of his wider "character" as humorist of an arrogant and obnoxious jackass.
- Mistaken for Pedophile: Charles Tremblay in the soccer episode of season 2 is suspected to be one by Martin and his friends due to his enthusiasm in getting involved with his son's soccer games and driving 3 children to a soccer tournament 2 hours away. As an hilarious twist, he admits towards the end of the episode that he himself suspected Martin might have been a pedophile and was reluctant to leave him alone with the children on their way to the soccer tournament.
- Parental Sexuality Squick: Monique is a bit too open about her sex life (amongst other things), much to her son's despair.
- Too Much Information: All too often, too much is said, usually about Patrick or Monique's sex life.
- Unexpectedly Dark Episode: The soccer episode of season 2 features the possibility of Leo being kidnapped by a pedophile and murdered, and an Imagine Spot where Martin and Julie shout at each other afterwards as they're clearly traumatized by the death of their son and their relationship falls apart. The scene is very much Played for Drama, but thankfully it's all a big misunderstanding, Leo is fine and the suspected pedophile is a perfectly decent father.
- Women Are Wiser: Downplayed. Julie and Vero (Patrick's girlfriend) are slightly more down-to-earth but both have their flaws and occasional antics.
