In Cash Queens, a new French dramedy in Netflix, five women become a bank-robbing gang mostly via desperation. Some of the women need the money, but others just need to feel something in their lives. How they become this unlikely crime gang, though, is an entertaining journey.
CASH QUEENS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: Two women are in a store looking at Barbie dolls. They’re debating which one to get a girl for her birthday. Actually, they’re debating which one to shoplift.
The Gist: Kim (Zoé Marchal) encourages her friend Rosalie (Rebecca Marder) to take both; “you have room,” she says. Rosalie looks pregnant, but she’s actually wearing a bowl under her shirt. They slip the Barbies and a few other things in, but they eventually get caught; they’re driven back to their apartment complex by Malik (Sami Outalbali), a police detective who’s the brother of their friend Sofia (Naidra Ayadi). They were stealing the Barbies for Sofia’s daughter’s birthday, which ticks Sofia off.
But the women are all struggling, financially and otherwise. Rosalie, who works at a bank, finds out that, because of the debt that her jailed husband incurred via his work for local drug kingpin Ézéchiel (Olivier Rosemberg) that was laundered in a failed restaurant, she and her kids will have to live on 30 euros a week. Rosalie, a massage therapist, wants to open a salon. Sofia gets a visit from child protective services, who has told her that they’ll remove her three kids from their home if she doesn’t fix the mold and other issues in her apartment. Rosalie’s youngest cousin Alex (Tya Deslauriers) wants to stop delivering McDonalds.
At her bank, which constantly runs robbery drills, Rosalie gets an idea: She and Kim should rob the bank when the ATMs are filled each morning, which could net them up to 100,000 euros. Alex definitely wants in. They try to recruit Sofia, but she doesn’t want to put her already tenuous situation at risk. Then, after Sofia gets fired from her job, she reluctantly signs on.
The plan is to disguise themselves as men, including voice modifiers; they try it out on an unsuspecting bodega clerk and seem to succeed. But they need a getaway car; Kim brings Rosalie to the house of her wealthy client Chloé (Pascale Arbillot). While trying to take one of her cars, Kim finds Chloé passed out from an overdose, an effort to get away from her abusive husband. Chloé ends up being a part of the crew, if for no other reason than to feel something.
Photo: Laurent Le Crabe/Netflix
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Co-created by Rosemberg and Carine Prevot, Cash Queens reminds us of shows like Good Girls and Turn Of The Tide.
Our Take: Cash Queens (Original title: Les Lionnes) sets out a plot we’ve seen a few times — five women become a gang of bank robbers who seem to flummox both police, the mayor and expert criminals — but here it’s presented with a sense of humor and a story with just enough layers to make it entertaining.
There’s a lot hooked into this group’s need to rob banks, and most of it has to do with fulfilling some deficit in their lives. For Rosalie, Sofia and Kim, it’s all about money. For Alex, it’s a desire to use her architecture education and do more than just be a delivery person. For Chloé, it’s something to keep her mind off her abusive marriage.
But there are other layers to this story; for one, there’s Sofia’s brother Malik, who investigates the robbery. And then there’s the mayor, Michel Marionnaud (François Damiens), who publicly vows to catch the robbers, but whom is also the abusive husband that Chloé has to endure.
There will be the inevitable episodes where, instead of laying low with the money, some of the women will spend it, attracting attention. More heists will be planned. The investigation will turn towards them at some point. But we enjoyed watching these five women interact with each other, so we’ll go through some of the usual ups and downs associated with a story like this to keep seeing that interaction.
Photo: Laurent Le Crabe/Netflix
Performance Worth Watching: Zoé Marchal is funny as the slightly-unhinged Kim, who isn’t the group’s ringleader but is definitely its biggest motivator and cajoler.
Sex And Skin: Kim visits her boyfriend in prison for a conjugal visit, but she just wants to know where Ézéchiel stashes his weapons.
Parting Shot: One of Rosalie’s kids brings a gun to class to illustrate where her mom works.
Sleeper Star: We’re curious to see where Chloé, played by Pascale Arbillot, fits into this group, given the fact that she doesn’t need the money they’re stealing.
Most Pilot-y Line: As they’re robbing the bank, we get flashes behind the goggles the women are wearing. Is it to identify them? We’re not sure.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Cash Queens is a dramedy thriller that certainly leans on the funny side of its story, with a fun chemistry among the five women who get together to form an unlikely but very effective gang of bank robbers.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.