This series is worth pure gold galore. It is British and that means the actors are absolutely excellent, the settings and the production are extremely fine and rich. The details are not neglected and that is a real pleasure. The best part is of course the work on the language, the speech patterns, and you can imagine the pleasure they take when the two characters move to New York. The contrast between the extreme aristocratic tone and intonation, the fascinating politeness of Jeeves, the Valet, and the American secular and even gross way of speaking with no affectation is a bag of diamonds on the screen. The action takes place in the 20s or 30s with some kind of fuzziness as for the time period. We seem to still be in the prohibition era, and at the same time not to be in the post 1929 depression. So we could be in the 1920s. That corresponds to the period Francis Scott Fitzgerald preferred for his rich idle young American men and women coming to Europe to enjoy their idleness in pure carelessness. But here these young aristocrats are constantly taken up in innumerable intrigues that have to do with their century old rivalries and jealousies, or their innumerable love affairs and hormonal capers. The main character is not so much Wooster, the aristocrat, but Jeeves, his valet, because he is the one who constantly builds the intrigues, thickens and even sickens the plots, in many ways manipulates his "master" into doing things he would like to do but can't do because he is a valet, a servant, and that would be too risky for him. He is also some kind of guardian angel for his "master" saving him quite often from total perdition at the very last minute. He is the champion of all escape makers and escape planners. But this series goes a lot further than that. We cannot say that the social content is that rich and that we could speak of social criticism. It is a comedy and does not intend to become a social drama or a social epic. That humor is English and only the British can produce it. It is both so elaborate and so extreme that it is hilarious from beginning to end. You thus have all the themes you need to really be humorous from a pure English point of view. You have them all, and even more. Old spinsters, old bachelors, plumbers, bobbies, Anglican priests, twins, old aunts and old uncles being fooled by young nieces and nephews, all kinds of grotesque characters, the fools and the crazies of this world, even some good Africans and judges. You cannot miss the all man's club and the impersonation of so many characters that we just wonder at times if we are not back in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Disguises, transvestites, foolish capers, you name it you have it. The rhythm of these parades is so diabolical that you can hardly follow them, even if they are predictable at times to the very second. But they are too funny for you not to play the game. The only missing character is the desert island and the marooned person there under his coconut tree eating ladyfingers. That is a must for those who like British humor, slightly black, definitely grinding to a crazy downfall, certainly not to a halt. I just wonder if we could not say it is a classic.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID