“Nona And Her Daughters” – TV review

“Nona And Her Daughters” (“Nona Et Ses Filles”) is a character-driven dramedy miniseries from French TV that successfully spans a few genres. Nona (Miou-Miou), after a lifetime devoted to advocacy for women’s rights, shockingly finds herself pregnant at 70. Even worse, the only man she’s been with is proven NOT to be the father by a DNA test. Nona has been fiercely independent, heading their city’s equivalent of Planned Parenthood after raising triplet daughters Emmanuelle (Virginie Ledoyen), Gabrielle (Clotilde Hesme), and George (Valerie Donzelli) on her own, without ever being at all sure who sired them. Or caring, for that matter. The trio (with their unisex, per mom’s principles, names) is about to turn 44, and even more surprised than Nona by this seeming impossibility.

The diverse set of women rally together around this event. The daughters move back to mom’s apartment to provide support. That’s really needed, since Nona is ordered to stay home and minimize all stress for the duration. They strive to keep her little passenger a secret, rather than face the media frenzy this news would inevitably generate. Emmanuelle, a mother of five, fills in for Nona at the clinic, fabricating an excuse for her mom’s absence. Gabrielle, a sex therapist, starts coming unglued for various reasons, most of which seem at odds with her professional training. George, a perpetual student who keeps changing majors and thesis topics about as often as her underwear, contributes as best she can.

Although her character is an underachiever, Donzelli actually does triple duty for this series. She‘s one of the series’ creators and writers, a co-leading actress, and also the narrator giving voice to her journal entries about the course of events we’re seeing. I didn’t check the credits to see if she also handled craft services on the set.

The series builds in the style of classic farce. Complications pile on from various sources. The circle of secrecy keeps broadening as more people are needed to assist the foursome. Leaks force the inclusion of less-welcome attention from others. Comings and goings based on partial or incorrect information accelerate until the lid inevitably blows off. The tone of the unfolding events and story arcs is admirably maintained as lively, while remaining well shy of zany. Slapstick is not part of the deal, though there is a considerable amount of movement – physical and otherwise. The nine half-hour scripts serve up healthy doses of social satire and sentiment, even dangling a bit of mysticism within the overall comedic package.

Performances from the quartet are exceptional across-the-board. They flesh out distinctive personalities, and all shine in their moments of opportunity. The daughters are played by actresses within three years of their characters’ age, bearing just enough resemblance to each other for credibility as non-identical womb-mates (I had to look that up to confirm it’s really a word. No extra charge for the service). The men mostly fill needed roles for the story, though a few are given interesting minor arcs of their own. Though obviously written for an audience primarily of women in the age range of these characters, its appeal turns out to be more inclusive of other demographics. Present company included.

On the downside, the authors seemingly wrote themselves into a corner, falling a bit short of an ending befitting all they’d crafted in leading to its apex. For me, the series peaked in Episode 7 with one truly superb scene. The last two were a relative letdown, though not enough to negate the high quality of writing and acting preceding them that made a one-day binge feel like time well spent.

“Nona And Her Daughters” (“Nona Et Ses Filles”), mostly in French with English subtitles, streams on MHz Choice starting on May 2.

RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars