Radio-Canada’s original series C’est comme ca que je t’aime (Happily Married), is premiering in English-Canada on CBC Gem this Wednesday, September 16th. The series is directed by Jean-François Rivard and written by François Létourneau, past collaborators on acclaimed and award-winning Radio-Canada series Les Invincibles and Série noire. They sat down with The Suburban to talk about the series’ premiere at the Berlin Film Festival as well as its upcoming English debut.

Tell us what the show is about.

Létourneau: The series is set in 1974 in Ste-Foy, a suburb of Quebec City, and it’s the story of two couples who have some difficulties and, during the summer, they take their children to summer camp, so they have three weeks without children. They look at it as a way of trying to reconnect, but soon, everything will go very badly. One of the women hates her husband and wants to kill him, and she soon discovers that she’s good at killing. She becomes this criminal and her husband and other couple follow her, and in those three weeks they become the worst criminals in the history of Quebec City.

How did you come up with this storyline?

Létourneau: I grew up in Ste-Foy and when I came back from summer camp one year as a younger person, my parents announced they were splitting up. I was in this space in my head where I was wondering what happened in those three weeks. Also, my son went to summer camp recently and I was alone with my girlfriend. So those two things came together and I had the idea for the story.

How has the response been to the series so far?

Létourneau: We had the premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February and it went very well there. People really seemed to enjoy the show.

Rivard: In Berlin, it was shown in French with English subtitles, so we didn’t know what to expect. But after the screening, we realized the audience “got” it and loved it. We were pretty excited to see that the series can relate to  everyone in the world, and the reaction was great. We were pretty proud.

Létourneau: It’s a TV show with the aspect of criminality, but it’s also a very serious show with the main subject of couples and how difficult it is to be in a couple when you have children and to keep everything balanced. It’s accessible and universal, and everyone can relate to these characters.

Radio-Canada’s original series C’est comme ca que je t’aime (Happily Married) will premiere on CBC Gem starting Wednesday, September 16th, with new episodes available weekly.