Lemaire (TV series)

For the Magisterian actress, see Marie-Christine Lemaire

Lemaire is a Magisterian sitcom television series created by Marie-Christine Lemaire. The show aired on MTV from 22 February 2013, to 24 May 2019, for 168 episodes, over six seasons. Preston Elton, Philibert Woodcock and Marie-Christine Lemaire all served as showrunners and were executive producers for the show. Set in Mathias, Little Belgium, the series revolved around the retail office and home life of "everywoman" Marie-Christine Lemaire, the fictionalized version of the comedienne.

The series has received critical acclaim from critics and audiences alike. The on-screen chemistry between the show's six leads, especially that of Lemaire and Kemper, has been praised. During the course of the series, 148 episodes of the show aired over six seasons.

Premise
The series chronicles the life of the fictionalized version of Marie-Christine Lemaire, a 39-year old everywoman working as a manager of a restaurant. Marie-Christine's half-sister, Anne-Marie Lemaire (Mindy Kemper), was born to an unknown woman and was a result of a fling. In the flashbacks from the second episode of the fourth season, it was revealed that Anne-Marie spent her miserable childhood in an neglectful orphanage and blames her father for letting her live miserably.

Marie-Christine lives in an apartment with her husband, Yvon Irvine (Jonathan Nicolas), while her childhood friends Brody (Radclyffe Spooner), Santiago (Ralph Hollins) and Brandi (Joslyn Slade) live next door.

Multiple storylines in the series are established. During most of the first three seasons, Marie-Christine and Anne-Marie shown to have sour relations to each other thanks to Anne-Marie's bitterness towards on how she lived like crap in her childhood and it seemed like there is no way for reconciliation. The finale of the third season saw the long-awaited reconciliation of Marie-Christine and Anne-Marie, thanks to the help of their friends who took them to an intervention. The finale of the third season was also the highest-rated episode in the history of the show.

Main

 * Marie-Christine Daniela Marcia Lemaire-Irvine (played by Marie-Christine Lemaire) is the protagonist of the sitcom. She works as the manager of Langston's Cuisine, a restaurant located in downtown Mathias. Marie-Christine is kind and optimistic, though high-maintenance at times.
 * Anne-Marie Kassandra Alexandra Lemaire (played by Mindy Kemper) is Marie-Christine's half-sister. Anne-Marie is depicted as a wise-cracking, outspoken, insensitive, bitter, sociopathic, and cold-hearted person who had a frequently-mentioned miserable childhood in an neglectful orphanage. For the first three seasons, she is shown to have deep envy and hatred towards her older half-sister and towards her late father. For the later seasons, her hatred towards Marie-Christine completely disappeared but her hate towards her late father is still intact.
 * Yvon Irvine (played by Jonathan Nicolas) is Marie-Christine's husband and Anne-Marie's half brother-in-law. Yvon had a spoiled upbringing. He was his high school's MVP on basketball and was very popular. Anne-Marie often calls him "princess" sarcastically due to him being spoiled, and the two don't get along well.
 * Brody Smedley (played by Radclyffe Spooner) is one of Marie-Christine's childhood friends. Brody is depicted as silly, socially awkward, and very loyal to his friends. He is often at Marie-Christine's apartment conversing with Yvon and has very few other friends. He consistently strives to pick up women but to no avail.
 * Santiago Cuesta (played by Ralph Hollins) is one of Marie-Christine's childhood friends. He is from a family of Cuban immigrants, and is shown to be a hypersexual individual. According to Lemaire, she wanted to have a Quagmire-inspired character into the show to add more 'variety' of jokes.
 * Brandi Deering (played by Joslyn Slade) is one of Marie-Christine's childhood friends. She is portrayed as a goody-two-shoes, very naive, and often takes people at face-value. Brandi has unrivaled beauty. This made her a source of jealousy among other girls during her high school and college years and leaves her with few friends other than Marie-Christine, Brody and Santiago, thus leaving her with extremely low self-esteem.

Conception
Comedienne Marie-Christine Lemaire has expressed interest about creating a show about her life in a different universe. In late-2011, Lemaire was approached by former Young Couple Life writers Preston Elton and Philibert Woodcock and pitched a situational comedy centered around the comedienne if she never became the high-profile comedienne she is and instead worked a simple, white-collar life.

Though Lemaire had several connections, Lemaire was not an easy sell. Lemaire sought the help of Quinten Sinclair (who was the showrunner of Marlin). Lemaire, Sinclair, Elton, and Woodcock met with MTV executives later that month, and the network tested the show with 8 episodes, before committing to 28 episodes the following fall.