Should we roar with The Lionesses on Netflix? (critical)
Around Rebecca Marder and a host of colorful supporting roles, Jonathan Cohen in the lead, the new French series on the platform attempts the big gap between crazy comedy and social thriller. Without flinching.
How can we dynamite an old news item that marked France in 1989, to turn it into a crazy thriller, firmly anchored in 2026?
New French creation for Netflix, The Lionesses is released today on the platform and replays the famous Amazon Gang affair… in its own way.
An adaptation that prefers energy, irreverence and a taste for disorder to realistic reconstruction. The Lionesses, however, takes up the main lines of the original crime: five women from a city in the south of France decide to unite to rob banks. Out of breath, strangled by a system that puts their heads a little more underwater every day, they choose not to let it happen any longer. One of them works in a small local agency and understands that it will not be very difficult to embezzle the money from the distributor. Made into men, the five friends on the brink of the abyss embark on a commando mission which will lead them into a criminal spiral as crazy as it is irreversible.
The real criminal case serves here as fuel for a much freer, almost playful fiction. The painting is not intended to be naturalistic. It comes in a patchwork of truculent characters, flamboyant colors, euphoric dialogues and delightful twists, throughout an all-out thriller, which transforms the old legal chronicle into a comedy of tense robbers. The Lionesses fully embrace its extravagances – and sometimes push the cursor very far thanks to the demented Zoé Marchal and the priceless François Damiens, brilliant evil corrupt mayor in love with a rooster – while keeping a close eye on what is happening behind the masks: insecurity, anger, the desire to fight the injustices of a society that has never given them any favors.
The series constantly navigates between crude farce and pure emotion. She constantly walks the divide between scathing comedy and social thriller. A balancing act. On a thread. But he never breaks up. Because led by the amazing Rebecca Marder, the band of robbers turns into a supercharged crew. And around them, the supporting roles give it their all: Jonathan Cohen, equal to himself as a grotesque bank boss, and above all the scathing performance of Olivier Rosenberg as the mafia godfather of his Provençal city. Director and co-creator of the series (with Carine Prévot), the Family Business alum sets the tone and imposes his very Spring Breakers touch.
The eight episodes unfold at a frenetic pace. A funny rereading of the Gang of the Amazons which shows that we can also transform an old news item into joyful pop and modern chaos.
The Lionesses, season 1, currently available on Netflix
