Cult: 2Be3… or not to be? (critical)

The birth of the first French boy band, between industry caricature and fiery success story. Nostalgic entertainment to watch on Prime Video.

Nostalgia, when you hold us… You really have to have grown up in the 1990s, to know that the sitcom Pour être libre really existed on TF1 (and that it attracted 2.7 million viewers on average!) to believe the madness told in season 2 of Culte.

Less relevant and tasty than season 1 – devoted to Loft Story, in which Anaïde Rozam burst onto the screen as a reality TV producer – this new dive into the era tackles the era of boy bands. More precisely, to the first of them in France. When Filip, Adel and Frank made a place for themselves in the Zeniths of France, starting from their town of Longjumeau.

The trajectory is known. And Yaël Langmann doesn’t try to beat around the bush. She wrote (and directed) a pure success story: that of three friends who started from nothing, became the biggest stars of the year 1996-1997. Without bothering with anything superfluous, she ticks all the boxes of the genre and nourishes her dialogues with totem lines. To the point that everything sounds like a caricature – especially when it comes to exploring the mechanics of the music industry of the time, with these label bosses who smoke cigarette after cigarette while pouring filth on their artists, with the ambition (not even hidden) of wringing out every last cent from them before throwing them back into the street. The character of the boss, played by Grégory Montel, is so rude that it almost becomes funny. Yaël Langmann accepts this and officially describes it as “a summary of the great label bosses of the time.”

Grotesque? Or deliberately outraged? We don’t know if it really happened like that in the record company offices. Frank, Adel, but also Valérie Bourdin (Filip’s widow), participated in the writing, and we just ask to believe them when they recount the sad and very real clichés which marked their rise. It’s actually quite amusing to watch, as long as we accept the trip doped with gloss and vinyl material, which takes us back to the good old days of the Hit Machine (with Charlie and Lulu incarnated) and the clownish choreographies of “Partir une jour”. The aesthetic choices are strong. And it sure brings back some good memories.

But we would have liked the series to go further, to dare to examine the industrial phenomenon and the commodification of the male body in this surreal musical-commercial era. If the first season of Cult succeeded in showing how French TV had come to terms with trash TV, without remorse or scruples, the second is content to show sweaty abs to furtively evoke it. Barely mentioned, the total denigration of the artistic, sacrificed on the altar of an excessively marketed variety. Basically, this season 2 is like an old Eurodance hit: dated, flashy… but sincerely endearing, and rhythmic enough for us to get carried away.

Cult: 2Be3, watch on Prime Video, in 6 episodes, from October 24.