Three years after its excellent first season, the political saga about the world of farmers, journalism and lobbies continues its momentum with six new episodes of stunning quality. Here are 4 reasons to discover all of Games of Influence, on Arte.
On paper, it doesn’t sell dreams, we grant you that. Between lobbies, agri-food and ecology, you may already be lost. But promise, Influencing Games will make all these themes much clearer and you would be really wrong to miss these two seasons, which tackle agricultural scandals head-on. In 2019, the series already perfectly blended the intimate trajectories of farmers, totally abandoned, and the major political machinations at work at the top of the state to try to contain the crisis around pesticides.
The same characters return in a second season, subtitled The Fighters, which highlights the work of grassroots environmental activists and tenacious journalists, all determined to bring the truth to light. If you are still not convinced, we give you 4 reasons to dive into this art production which will take you to the guts for sure.
Ecological issues close to our reality
Pesticides leading to serious illnesses, toxic products causing an impact on births, young citizens’ movements mobilized in ZADs, farmers up against the wall, disconnected politicians, journalistic investigations triggering real scandals thanks to launchers alert… Does this remind you of something? So much the better, it is the main asset of Influencing Games : develop themes largely close to us and to the ecological situation in France.
In the series, the Vitalia group, accused of spreading toxic products in nature, is thus reminiscent of scandals like those of Bayer (ex-Monsanto) or Triskalia. But the two seasons never forget to focus on intimate destinies. The farmers and their distress are thus perfectly transcribed on the screen, in poignant but realistic sequences.
Influencing Games highlights the struggles of women
The second season of the series is not dubbed “The Fighters” for nothing: women are clearly in the spotlight, on all possible fronts. The series has the intelligence to put back to back activism in the field and the work of the media, like two sides of the same coin: complementary, but with distant stakes. These two ways of campaigning are embodied by two actresses at the height of their art: Alix Poisson (Ghosts) and Marilou Aussilloux (Germinal). Influencing Games avoids the too obvious pitfall of opposing generations and prefers instead to expose different ways of resisting, each on its own scale.
The second season also tackles the question of “clusters”, not of Covid as we often hear it now, but of children suffering from serious illnesses, and whose origin is often buried under the carpet by large agri-food groups or medicated. The fight of these mothers to obtain justice and reparation, too often forgotten, is thus for once made legitimate on the screen, in all its complexity.
A journalistic investigation at the heart of the action
Inevitably, in this second season, the treatment of the investigations particularly touches us and sometimes jumps out at us as slightly fictionalized. But overall, Influencing Games deals with the media environment and the perseverance of investigative journalists with great accuracy, rarely seen on screen. It must be said that one of the creators of the series, Jean-Xavier de Lestrade (The Staircase, Laëtitia), is also a former journalist.
This can be felt in the writing: the plots are never exaggerated, always as close as possible to their characters and their feelings. At a time when freedom of the press is regularly challenged and journalists lack credibility (a very present aspect in the series, by the way), Influencing Games puts the human in a field too often caricatured instead of being listened to.
Influencing Gamesan exception in the world of French series
Can you name any French series that dares to take on current social issues? We, not really. The few notable exceptions can be counted on the fingers of one hand, with the remarkable Black Baronon Canal+, or the most recent Oussekine on Disney+ and In therapy, also on Arte. It must be said that the great mysteries of politics have rather been the favorite playground of American series, of The West Wing to Scandal Passing by TheWire.
In 2019, Influencing Games was therefore an anomaly in the small world of French series. Three years later, as its second season comes out, it remains as relevant and special as ever, slowly establishing itself as a reference. Educational and fun without ignoring serious societal problems, Influencing Games is in the image of her heroines: she does not hesitate to put her foot in the dish to better reveal the truth in broad daylight. The 12 episodes of the series are a lesson in fiction, which will interest both convinced environmental activists and the most refractory.
Seasons 1 and 2 of Influence games are available free of charge on the Arte website.
