Off the Hook review – who doesn’t want a digital detox? Anyone who’s seen this so-called comedy

We’ve all fantasised about being untethered from our smartphones. But this dull French sitcom – about two friends abandoning their devices for a month – might make you rethink it

The idea behind Off the Hook (Netflix), or, to give it its French title, Détox, is intriguing. Roommates Léa (Tiphaine Daviot) and Manon (Manon Azem) start to suspect that their smartphones, to which they are practically glued, are making their lives worse. They attempt to do a dry January on their digital lives, eschewing all devices and therefore emails, texts, social media and apps, for 30 days.

They come at the project from different angles. Léa is so obsessed with her ex-boyfriend that she stalks him to the point of arrest. That isn’t hyperbole: she uses a spy app to watch him, sitting down with a bowl of popcorn as if she were about to watch a film. She also logs in to his emails and keeps tabs on his social media. When he changes his passwords and blocks her, she turns up at his workplace, ranting about how she still loves him. There is an odd undercurrent of “well, everyone does it, right?”. Either I am not getting the joke, or I am alone in not having any desire to log in to my exes’ emails to see what they have been up to this week.

Manon, meanwhile, finds herself being humiliated online. Although Off the Hook is largely given the quirky slapstick treatment – all bright colours and madcap dashes around Paris – Manon’s storyline has more sinister undertones that seem at odds with its jolly presentation. She is an aspiring singer, managed by a cretinous and violent “producer” who tells her to lose weight from her arms, put on weight on her backside and dress sexy. When she falls off stage during a lacklustre gig, her fake silicone bottom lands on her head. Naturally, the moment goes viral and she gains far more attention for that than for any of her artistic aspirations.

During a night of drunken commiserations, Léa and Manon decide that it is the digital world, and not their terrible behaviour or the awful people around them, that is making their lives so shambolic. They pack up their phones, laptops and tablets and ask their friend Gagan, who runs the local grocery shop, to lock them away for a month. He lets them use his landline for anyone who needs to get in touch with them. The challenge is set.

I am sure many of us have fantasised about being untethered from our smartphones. I do weekly, when a screen-time notification pops up to inform me, in a roundabout way, that I could have used my time more productively than Googling whether homemade crumpets are worth trying to make (not really) or whether an actor is Irish or not (with apologies to the cast of Bad Sisters). Off the Hook points out that technology makes everyday life more seamless; Léa and Manon find themselves unable to navigate, or tell the time, or find out who is going to an important family event. It turns out that digital clocks and maps have their uses, after all.

As the two relearn life in its analogue form – asking people for directions, using a landline to get in touch with someone hours, if not days, later – there are some surreal touches that add a bit of fun. The women are sent to a digital-detox weekend retreat, where they are zapped with short electric shocks if they reach for their phones when a ringtone sounds. I like the idea of a white room where people are sent to do nothing but think for 30 minutes; perhaps that should be compulsory everywhere.

The idea of a digital detox begins to spread. A nephew learns that big tech firms harvest data and starts a movement called We Are Not Pigeons, urging his classmates to join him and revolt. Léa’s mother decides she wants more real-life experiences and ends up going to war with Léa’s father, who prefers to live his life online, where he can check facts, watch documentaries and play chess.

This is a silly, knockabout comedy. It shouldn’t have to be an oracle of wisdom. Its observations are mostly familiar: a young YouTuber is a showoff; a man who compulsively reviews stuff cannot think without assigning everything a star rating. It sees a world in which being without a phone is akin to public nudity, but it doesn’t push much further than that. The idea of deliberate disconnection from the digital realm has been fodder for plenty of articles and books before, but I am not sure that putting the concept through its paces in a sitcom format has been done. Perhaps there is a reason for that.

Contributor

Rebecca Nicholson

The GuardianTramp

Related Content

Article image
Meet the Richardsons review – sofa, so good for this comedy couple
Jon Richardson and Lucy Beaumont’s domestic mockumentary returns for a second series, with fewer meta jokes but just as much fun

Rebecca Nicholson

08, Apr, 2021 @9:40 PM

Article image
Ted review – this foul-mouthed teddy bear sitcom doesn’t feature a single funny joke
Seth MacFarlane’s animated comedy prequel is like a deliberate attempt to ignore everything its creator has ever learned. Bloated episodes drag on without raising a smile – it’s a total disappointment

Lucy Mangan

09, Feb, 2024 @10:00 PM

Article image
Dreaming Whilst Black review – this Bafta-winning show is ripping up the rules of comedy
This hilarious, inventive sitcom about a Black film-maker struggling to make it feels totally new. No wonder it’s full of cameos from comedy legends

Rebecca Nicholson

24, Jul, 2023 @9:30 PM

Article image
Mo review – it is impossible not to become instantly invested in this warm, moving comedy
Palestinian American comic Mo Amer’s semi-autobiographical sitcom about a refugee seeking US citizenship is gorgeously textured, bewitchingly acted – and very, very funny

Lucy Mangan

24, Aug, 2022 @5:00 AM

Article image
Bloods review – patchy paramedic comedy unlikely to split your sides
Comics Samson Kayo and Jane Horrocks bring just enough charm to elevate this ambulance-based sitcom from perilously laugh-free to worth 22 minutes of your time

Lucy Mangan

05, May, 2021 @9:30 PM

Article image
Atypical season four review – warm autism comedy comes of age
Netflix’s sitcom about an autistic teenager’s road to independence reaches its final season, dealing with big themes in a way that is sweet but not saccharine

Rebecca Nicholson

09, Jul, 2021 @8:00 AM

Article image
Hacks season two review: the most vile – and pleasurable – comedy on TV
Deborah and Ava are heading off on tour ... and still being operatically cruel. Who cares about likability when watching these women be vicious to each other is such a delight?

Rebecca Nicholson

10, Jun, 2022 @8:00 AM

Article image
PEN15 review – the most captivating cringe-comedy on TV bows out on a high
As Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle’s show enters its final run, it’s at the peak of its powers. Never have the agonies of teenage life been so clear … or so hilarious

Rebecca Nicholson

04, Jan, 2022 @10:15 PM

Article image
The Witchfinder review – a comedy with so much wasted potential it makes you sad
Daisy May Cooper, Tim Key and other stellar talents are hamstrung by this period comedy’s thin story and unimpressive jokes

Lucy Mangan

08, Mar, 2022 @10:30 PM

Article image
Chivalry review – Steve Coogan and Sarah Solemani’s immensely satisfying #MeToo comedy
What if Alan Partridge were a Hollywood hotshot in 2022? This razor-sharp show follows an old-school film producer floundering in a strange new world – and it’s got just the right amount of wrongness

Lucy Mangan

21, Apr, 2022 @10:05 PM