On the verge, new Julie Delphy Netflix show, review

Premiered Aug 28, 2021 on Netflix, staring and created by Julie Delphy. It focuses on a group of four women. Julie Delphy as the  chef, and then also single mom, aiming to be ‘the United Colours of Benneton’ (yes this was an age specific reference, a more likeable than you might think heiress, and, well, a spy? maybe, or maybe not.

On the verge, Netflix, review

The title is pretty much asking you to fill in the blanks, as it is, afterall, Women…. On the Verge? Which was a great movie, and you know that Delphy knows her film history. Your opinion of her may already be fixed, clouded, or inspired, by her Before Sunrise, Before Sunset etc roles. For others they were perhaps more of the marmite variety, to be loved or… not. So, how does this one fare?

The four lead characters are all strong and quite watchable. The heiress even has a truly hilarious / awful, scene stealing German au pair which kinda grew on us. Delphy is good too, though, as she created the show, how much of a doofus is her husband going to turn out to be. She created an impressively awful character for her on screen husband, dreaming of the one (Ethan Hawke) that got away perhaps. Or maybe he is the necessary grist to her mill. She is completely believable as the French chef though, and we enjoyed that thread, and also her mixed experiences with writing and promoting her book.

It was a convenient contrivance that all four of the lead characters had sons of the same age. Maybe that was the random element that brought them all together, that all four sons had degrees of gender identity issues seemed perhaps a little ultra ‘now’ for the sake of it, but maybe it also offered stronger scope for different story lines. This was one element of the show, that there were so few episodes that the whole product, six episodes, felt like an extended trailer or teaser. Maybe this is the new Netflix way, share a limited number of episodes, and see if the world bites before making a definite commitment?

As we have already mentioned Delphy’s husband is truly a bit of a git. For the partner of the is she/ or isn’t she a spy character, he was said to be Irish, but had absolutely zero Irish accent. Maybe this was an attempt at wish fulfilment, that if you say you are Irish often enough, then the rest of the world will simply accept the statement as fact. Who knows, he was quite likeable in many ways, and plausible as a computer programmer, so maybe the casting agents figured they were ahead of the game and didn’t need to actually risk trying a less than par Irish accent?

If we were deciding whether to commission more episodes we would chance another 12, simply because most of the lead characters were quite captivating to watch, rather than because of any gripping story lines.

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