Alexia Landeau, Elisabeth Shue, Sarah Jones and Julie Delpy in the series ‘On The Verge’
On The Verge is a new series created by Julie Delpy, on Netflix since September 7. Produced by Michael Gentile and Lauraine Heftler at The Film TV for Canal Plus and Netflix, this 12-episode series is a smart and funny portrait of four women.
Set two months before the pandemic outbreak, On The Verge follows four friends living in Los Angeles, all middle-aged women, Justine, Anne, Ell and Yasmin (played by Julie Delpy, Elisabeth Shue, Alexia Landeau and Sarah Jones). The series dives into their lives, and how their friendships help them grapple with their marital conflicts, raising their children, and their professional careers.
Full of unapologetic wit and humor, On the Verge is a lighthearted comedy with great performances.
With its 30-minute-long episodes, the series is an easy-to-binge comedy, that works more like an elongated movie than a series—the fact that the opening images echo the last episode suggests that too. There are no big twists, no major conflict, no cliffhangers punctuating each episode to entice viewers to watch the next. Instead, the series focuses on the portrayal of these four characters and their relationship, making it largely dependent on whether these characters are relatable and intriguing enough for viewers to continue to the next episode.
In my opinion, they are. Offering a different view of middle-aged women than what shows like Desperate Housewives presented, On the Verge chronicles these four women’s lives and the awkward, and at times absurd, situations they find themselves in. It feels similar to Girls, Sex And the City or the Spanish series Valeria in the way that it portrays a tight-knit group of women friends.
Justine (played by Delpy herself) is a French chef with her own restaurant Chez Juste, who has been commissioned by her recovering-sex addict of a boss (Giovanni Ribisi) to write a recipe book while raising her son. She is married to a disparaging husband, Martin (Mathieu Demy), an architect, who is having difficulty finding a job in L.A. since relocating there from France. Elisabeth Shue plays Anne, a clothing designer, who likes to smoke a little marijuana. Living in her Venice house, bought by her mother, Anne appears to have the perfect life, with her German au pair who never seems to be doing anything, but Anne is about to separate from her husband. Ell (Alexia Landeau) is a single mother of three children, all from different men, who is struggling to hold down a job, finding goofy schemes instead to make money. And Yasmin (Sarah Jones) is a stay-at-home mother, trying to restart her career in politics. A feminist with a son she named Orion, she is prone to panic attacks.
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These four women have no secrets from each other, knowing every intimate detail of their lives, details which as the dinner party in episode 2 shows the husbands have never heard of, and by the look on their faces, in fact, did not need to know about. Delpy is great at creating these little moments of awkwardness.
Films or series about middle-aged women are rare. This is in a way what makes On the Verge feel refreshing. If you liked Julie Delpy’s films, such as 2 Days in Paris and 2 Days in New York and their goofy tone, you’re sure to enjoy On the Verge—the latter and the series were in fact both co-written by Delpy and Alexia Landeau (who played her sister in the films). Much like 2 Days in New York, On the Verge is a smartly written and directed lighthearted comedy, with Delpy directing five episodes, Mathieu Demy (who also directed episodes of The Bureau) directing four, and David Petrarca the remainder.
The series was filmed in Los Angeles between the first and second waves of the pandemic (after a three-month delay the production managed to shoot the series from late August to Thanksgiving, following the new COVID-safety protocols). As the series takes place just prior to the pandemic outbreak, perhaps the second season will see how the four friends fair during the pandemic.
