Greek Salad: 5 Things To Know About Cédric Klapisch's Series.
In the highly competitive streaming platform industry, Prime Video intends to be a major player, thanks to original creations and enticing new releases. Among them, a series signed by Cédric Klapisch completes the cinematographic trilogy of L'Auberge espagnole. Here are 5 things to know about this new and unprecedented series titled Salade Grecque.
This is a first for the director Cédric Klapisch.
Ten years after the release of the movie Chinese Puzzle, fans of Cédric Klapisch will surely be delighted to find the cosmopolitan universe and the always accurate and funny perspective of the director on youth in the series Greek Salad on Prime Video. Cédric Klapisch is not totally new to TV fiction since he participated in the creation of the series Call My Agent! on France 2. But with this project, it's the first time he oversees a TV series from A to Z in collaboration with a whole team of screenwriters. Season 1, which consists of 8 episodes, is the continuation of Cédric Klapisch's film trilogy: L'Auberge espagnole (2002), Russian Dolls (2005), and Chinese Puzzle (2013). But don't worry if you haven't seen these movies! The series can be watched independently as it introduces new characters with a host of young talents. Through Xavier's children and their roommates, it paints an accurate and touching portrait of contemporary youth.
2- The series features Xavier and Wendy's children.
If you are a fan of Cédric Klapisch's trilogy featuring the character Xavier (first a student on Erasmus, then a young adult entering the workforce), you will discover this sequel with a delicious feeling of nostalgia.
Remember: in the first film, Xavier and Wendy meet at the age of 25 while both are Erasmus students in Barcelona. In the rest of the trilogy, they fall in love, have children, and then separate.
Xavier and Wendy's children have grown up since the last film by Cédric Klapisch released in 2013, and the series Salade Grecque focuses on these two young people today: Tom, 26 years old, and Mia, 22 years old.
Although we find Romain Duris in the role of Xavier and Kelly Reilly in that of Wendy, these familiar faces take a back seat to their grown-up children, Tom (Aliocha Schneider) and Mia (Megan Northam). As we told you earlier, it is not essential to have seen the three films to follow this new chapter of the story.
3- She tells a family story, but not only that.
The Greek Salad series is the story of a new generation in Xavier's family. It deals with family (blood or heart) and inheritance!
After their maternal grandfather's death, Tom and Mia must manage an unexpected family inheritance. Tom, who wants to launch a start-up, joins Mia in Greece to manage the building they inherited in Athens.
A flatshare will be formed around the two heroes and the series embodies the team spirit that made the 2002 film so great, with a great international cast. Even though veterans like Cécile de France are part of the cast, they don't outshine these talented young actors.
4- She sets up a new scenery.
As its title suggests, the Greek Salad series takes place in a new country, Greece, and more specifically in the capital Athens. After the streets of Barcelona in "L'Auberge espagnole", the avenues of St. Petersburg and Moscow in "Les Poupées russes" and the alleys of Chinatown in "Casse-tête chinois", Cédric Klapisch wanders his camera at the foot of the Parthenon.
This change of scenery is accompanied by a change of era. Tom and Mia are students like their parents Xavier and Wendy in the film "L'Auberge espagnole", but the context is no longer the same.
Times have changed and, in this series, the director focuses on a much less carefree Erasmus generation than that of Xavier, Wendy and company in the 2000s.
5- She addresses current issues.
Beyond the simple family story, the series Greek Salad addresses current issues such as climate emergency and the migrant crisis in Europe. The heroes Tom and Mia are young people in tune with their time and, through their adventures, question the issue of migrants and the defense of the environment. At the beginning of Season 1, Tom discovers that Mia has dropped out of school to join a migrant aid organization.
Everything is not rosy and festive under the Athenian sun! The new generation wonders how to inhabit an overheating planet and how to envision its future when war sends millions of refugees on the roads and shores of Europe... This completely up-to-date series has the only small flaw of not being able to surprise.
Season 1 is available on Prime Video, Amazon's streaming service, since April 14, 2023. To discover it, you must therefore subscribe to an Amazon Prime subscription (monthly subscription without commitment). Will you be tempted by this Greek Salad?
