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The series-dossier is a difficult genre, including for a big name in documentary like Jean-Xavier de Lestrade. The director is never better than when he sticks closely to the truth, as evidenced by his very successful adaptation of Laetitia (Seuil, 2016), Ivan Jablonka’s book on the murder of young Laëtitia Perrais.
Alongside, the first season of Influence games (2019) made a rather pale figure, with its description in very broad strokes of the power and cynicism, which there is no doubt that they are very real, of the agrochemical lobbies, and in particular of the firm Bayer (formerly Monsanto). The series could nevertheless count on the commitment of two actors with discreet charisma, Alix Poisson and Laurent Stocker, and it is essentially for them that we will watch this second season, much more solid than the first.
The six episodes of Games of influence. The fighters are inspired by “clusters” of children suffering from malformations, cancers or other serious illnesses, identified in certain French regions and whose origin often remains mysterious, when one does not conclude that it is a simple statistical coincidence. Here, it is once again a pesticide manufacturer who is in the hot seat, accused of having sold banned fungicides and caused contamination of infant formula.
Pedagogy and conviction
Like Erin Brockovich, journalist Claire Lansel (Alix Poisson) crisscrosses the countryside at the wheel of her car and tries to put the pieces of the puzzle together. She comes up against aggressive farmers in overalls, but can count on the work of an epidemiological investigator (excellent Emilie Gavois-Kahn) and on the ambiguous help of Chloé, a radical eco-activist and daughter of a lobbyist whose the suicide (in season 1) was probably not one.
The director, who wrote the series with Antoine Lacomblez and Séverine Werba, demonstrates a pedagogy commensurate with the challenges of the subject and films with a certain inspiration. There is conviction in his way of denouncing the unnatural links between politicians and industrialists, without ever falling into “all rotten” or opposing farmers, the first victims of enslavement to agribusiness, to consumers. Its defect remains to often sacrifice dramaturgy and veracity on the altar of clarity: ultra-detailed developments on health security thus succeed botched adventures, such as this improbable car accident at the end of the season.
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