Why the French-language Call My Agent! is a Netflix sensation

Los Angeles Times

"Like The West Wing (and every other Aaron Sorkin series), Call My Agent! is a story of people who love their work, even though it drives them crazy and ruins their lives," says Robert Lloyd of the comedy set in a French talent agency. "Even when they leave the office it’s usually for something work-related, and when we see relations outside work, work is usually getting in the way. (One thing the series does well is picture the hierarchy of the workplace and how it determines who hangs with whom inside it and out.) But where Sorkin uses the office as a platform from which to address Big Social Ideas, Call My Agent! is more interested in people and how they are — curious creatures, amusing to watch under pressure, as they try to make things happen or keep them from happening; hold onto a job or gain a little power; make art and/or make a living; uncover the truth or hide it. Apart from Arlette, who possesses the earned wisdom of a long, eventful life, they are all working through things they have no idea they are working through. Herrero has described it as 'a comedy of manners,' featuring “very independent female characters who don’t live through love or men” and also as 'a prism through which to address the relation of art and money, work and the relation between public and private life.'"