<img src="https://img.lemde.fr/2023/08/10/0/200/2160/1440/664/0/75/0/cd1fc56_1691675215170-fisk-billboard-dark-ltr-01-zxx.jpg" srcset=" https://img.lemde.fr/2023/08/10/0/200/2160/1440/556/0/75/0/cd1fc56_1691675215170-fisk-billboard-dark-ltr-01-zxx.jpg 556w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/08/10/0/200/2160/1440/600/0/75/0/cd1fc56_1691675215170-fisk-billboard-dark-ltr-01-zxx.jpg 600w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/08/10/0/200/2160/1440/664/0/75/0/cd1fc56_1691675215170-fisk-billboard-dark-ltr-01-zxx.jpg 664w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/08/10/0/200/2160/1440/700/0/75/0/cd1fc56_1691675215170-fisk-billboard-dark-ltr-01-zxx.jpg 700w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/08/10/0/200/2160/1440/800/0/75/0/cd1fc56_1691675215170-fisk-billboard-dark-ltr-01-zxx.jpg 800w" sizes="(min-width: 1024px) 556px, 100vw" alt="Kitty Flanagan as Helen Tudor-Fisk, in " fisk,"="" the="" series="" she="" created="" and="" directed="" with="" vincent="" sheehan."="" width="100%" height="auto">

It seems that the creators of Fisk (led by stand-up comedian, creator, performer, co-director, and co-writer Kitty Flanagan), set themselves a challenge: To take the most banal characters, the least exciting profession, the most ordinary environment, and extract an amount of comedy comparable to that generated by the military hospital in MAS*H (Robert Altman film, 1970, TV series, 1972-1983). The gamble paid off.

Helen Tudor-Fisk (Flanagan), a lawyer in her 50s, was recently abandoned by the husband she'd been with for decades. Her decision to leave Sidney's hectic life for the provincial calm of Melbourne in order to practice probate law (in the hope that the deceased will be more bearable than the living) at a firm that's barely scraping by, has generated one of the funniest and most endearing comedies of recent months.

This success is due to the ease with which Flanagan establishes her character, right from the very first episode. Always dressed in beige pantsuits that float around her like a toxic fog, Helen is torn between her desire to minimize her interactions with the rest of humankind (her best friend is a dog) and her propensity to engage in epic battles at the slightest annoyance. She has barely arrived in Melbourne when she's banned from drinking espresso in the only coffee shop on the street – which leads to a running gag featuring cups containing the weak coffee dispensed by the local convenience store.

Unsurprisingly, inheritance law reveals a treasure trove of absurdity. The scenes are filmed with an almost documentary-style detachment, played with total commitment: The division of a deceased man's ashes between a post-adolescent mistress and a Victorian widow; The aspirations for recognition of a man convinced, on the strength of a vague resemblance, that he is the heir to a local celebrity; The drafting of a will that divides up the legatee's housewives, teaspoon by teaspoon.

Fisk's debt to The Office and Parks and Recreation will be recognized here. The series finds its personality in the singularity of the central character, the care taken in developing the supporting cast (Helen's father's new husband, the colleague at the law firm who spends the entire season barred from practicing law...), and the painting of the life of a tiny firm in a town that seems sheltered from the convulsions of the world.

This first season was broadcast in Australia in 2021 before Netflix made it available to the rest of the world. The second season is ready and eagerly awaited.

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