IMDb meta-data is runtime of 24 episodes at 30 minutes each, rated 7.7 by 727 cinematizens.
Genre: Sy Fy.
Verdict: Addictive.
France 1978: When his major project fails, a Cartesian astrophysicist is shunted off to a backwater until the reaction to the expensive flop dies down. He is sent to head a unit dedicated to Objects Volents Non-Identifiés (OVNIs) sightings, that is, UFOs to you. A bad joke and a nightmare, this assignment seems to him. The more since no one in a subsequent inquiry can explain the failure of the major project. In the infamous last words of many a technician ’That should (have) work(ed).’
However, needs must and off he goes just past the broom cupboard before the last exit. There he finds…Groupe d’Étudies sur les Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-Identifié (GEPAN), that is, Study Group on Unidentified Aerospace Phenomenon. Amid all the erroneous reports by nut cases there are a few anomalies which Cartesian, man of science, decides to resolve. Doing so, he reasons, will restore his reputation in the scientific community. For the work he has three subordinates, a receptionist to answer the telephone, an unpaid intern to spin the computer (remember mag tapes?), and an unsalaried former police officer for leg work. They are there for their own reasons, too, he slowly realises.
Rather than simply study, that is, gather information about the reports of OVNI, Cartesian determines to investigate and debunk them. No longer will the staff write, file, cross-reference, colour-code, and tabulate material, rather they will go forth to examine allegations themselves.
The fateful four meet all manner of those who have seen an OVNI, not all of whom are obviously stark staring mad, although some are.
Little by little….he sees some strange things himself. Moreover, it seems that someone is covering tracks. Wheels turn within wheels.
Inevitably, in a genre program like this, predecessors come to mind and in fact some of them are retrospectively integrated into the stories. One can map some of the characters onto the more pretentious program like X-Files. Steven Spielberg even gets a look in. There is also a footnote to François Truffaut on one scene.
The touch is light. The humour is often in the situation or juxtaposition of events, not in some half-wit trying to be funny and only succeeding at being stupid. The bureaucratic backbiting that sent Cartesian to this Siberia is realistic. His confused home life is nicely drawn, as when his close colleague, boss, and ex-wife describes their relationship as NI, non-identifié. Though set in 1978 when homosexuality was taboo in France, it is integrated into the stories as a fact of life.
The story arc spans all twenty-four episodes but it does wrap most of the ends, though not quite all. Still it was worth the wait, n’est pas!
The team covers a lot of bases and each gets screen time.
The cars, the clothes, the technology — including Minitel — are of the time and place. So are the sexist attitudes in that the one who answers the telephone is a woman. Although even in the early going at least three other women (the engineer, the soldier, and the agent) have roles that it is unlikely they would have had at the time. While the reviews I read pick at anachronism they focussed on the automobiles, not the social norms.
It also differs from some other French television I have seen in that it does not have big name guest stars from the cinema in episodes, requiring flattering roles for them that can be shot in one take. (Capitaine Marleau groans under this dwarf-star weight in several episodes, but this series has so many other irritations this is but one on the list, yet it seems a success perhaps because of the aspects that annoy me!)
I came across OVNI on SBS.