The Hook Up Plan, Season 3 (2021) - Trio of friends are given a hard time in this dark final season
Credit: allocine.fr
Tensions run high in the third season of The Hook Up Plan, which almost feels like it’s joined the party too late. In the opening episode, Milou (Joséphine Draï) balances lunches with Elsa (Zita Hanrot) and Charlotte (Sabrina Ouazani), who refuse to speak to one another after it was revealed the latter was dating Max (Guillaume Labbé), the former’s ex, in the ‘pandemic special’. Stuck in the countryside with husband Antoine (Syrus Shahidi), still recovering from a pandemic-fuelled burnout, Milou invests her time in her yummy mummy Instagram account, revamped as an interior designing effort. Meanwhile, Cha and Max are planning Max’s election campaign for Paris mayor, while Elsa devotes her time to getting pregnant by consulting shamans and burning incense.
The trio are back, certainly, but because Elsa and Cha are no longer friends and Milou quickly grows tired of their childish games, Season Three feels more like an analysis of their relationships to their partners, and their femininity, particularly their bodies. Unwanted pregnancies, illnesses, struggles to conceive… when Cha declares almost incredulously that she feels they’re having a hard time, one can only agree. Season Three is dark, and perhaps it is too dark, considering none of them have each other’s backs for almost all of the episodes. There are, of course, some humorous situations and scenes to lighten the mood, but in the grand scheme of things, they are not effective, nor are they necessary considering the weight the other storylines carry.
The issue is also that Season Three seems to try and latch onto the #MeToo movement four years too late. Such narratives are, and always will be, important to feminism, but in Elsa’s desperate desire to create a female-orientated company, her boss Suzanne’s (Manika Auxire) polyamory, and various misogynistic encounters with doctors (male and female) there is an out-dated feeling, a sense of déjà vu. All in all, there is nothing new or refreshing about preaching to a group of Instagram followers that they should rid themselves of “guilt” and “social pressure”.
Of course, there is also much to like about this new season. There are some very moving relationships, notably between Elsa and Julio (Marc Ruchmann), who always find a way to make it through, as a team. Some tender words are shared, a game of girl vs. boy paintball goes comically wrong. Milou discovers a strange, fairytale-esque English-speaking singer living near her, who employs her as her interior designer. The premise might be passé, and a bit heavy considering the two previous seasons: but it sums up the series nicely, leaving a melancholic if hopeful aftertaste.