Sullivan Le Postec created the award-winning series, Woke for Studio 4, the French public broadcaster’s web fiction platform in 2017. Now available globally, it is the story of the melodramatic comings and goings of an LGBTQ Drop In Center in Lyons, which is suddenly turned upside down with the arrival of Hitcham (Mehdi Meskar) a closeted 22 year old Muslim who has runaway from home.
The only gay person Hitcham knows is Thibault (Eric Pucheu) who he met some years previously when he stayed at is family’s campsite. That encounter ended badly as when Thibault made a move on the then teenager he was met with a fist in his face.
Now Thibault happy to see Hitcham again and offers to let the homeless young man sleep on his couch. He divides his time between running his Bookshop and being an active Board Member of G Spot the LGBTQ centre. There are two factions at G Spot : one who believes it should function as group to socialise and the other who believes it should focus on political activism. Thibault very firmly belongs to the latter and possesses all the anger to match.
Hitcham arrives in town as a complete virgin in every sense of the word, but surprisingly enough he finds his political voice before physically sharing his sexuality. For someone so naive he soon becomes a wise old soul who takes on the task of unofficially broking a peace between Thibault and Amaury (Franck Fargier) the Mayor’s spokesman who have been warring. As the story develops in each subsequent episode there is a hint that possibly what these two men are really squabbling about is Hitcham.
Some of the plot strands are better than others especially when they steer clear of all gay stereotypes and the messes that they inevitable get into. It is at best when it tackles real issues such as homophobia and the in-fighting of Gay 8 which sadly is so very typical of too many not-for-profit groups. Also the arrival in town of Nadjet (Nanou Harry) Hitcham’s sister who wants to continue their close relationship even it means going outside of her own faith and understanding and accepting his sexuality.
There is also the possibilities of any romance that is always hovering, but that is best left to be discovered when you watch the series.
Woke is not a showy series like its American counterparts, but it is thoroughly entertaining and although may lack the usual amount of naked flesh, you still find yourself binge-watching the series eager to know how it all works out in the end. We’ll have to wait for Series 2 for that though.
Labels: 2019, drama, French, Web series
