"The 7 Lives of Lea": Beefcake, Gay Characters, Time Travel, and Body Swapping. What's Not to Like?

The 7 Lives of Lea, on Netflix, is the best tv series I've seen in ages, witty and intriguing, with minimal cliches and maximum beefcake, and a main character who is probably gay.  I reviewed the first episode.

Scene 1:  June 14, 2021.  Lea, age 17, is at a wild teenage party at a nature preserve in the Massif Central of France, feeling depressed and miserable.  She goes off by herself into Valmy Gorge to drink and drug herself to death, and comes across a skeleton!  Wearing a silver bracelet...

Scene 2: Police officer Miriam says that the skeleton belongs to a young man, and it's been buried for a long time, but she won't know anything else until the coroner does an analysis.  Lea's imperious parents arrive to yell at her for going to a wild party instead of studying for her exams (um...is that really what's important now?).  They argue; Lea runs into her bedroom, changes clothes (gratuitous body shot), and goes to sleep.

Scene 3: And wakes up as a hot guy, Ismael (Khalil Ben Gharbia)!  She doesn't have any of Ismael's memories, doesn't recognize his parents, doesn't speak Arabic.  Fortunately, she convinces Ismael's science fiction fan brother that she's shifted her consciousness into Ismael's body.  He suggests going to the gorge where she saw the skeleton, and maybe things will revert.

Scene 4: But first it's time for the apple harvest. The Arab immigrants are all apparently migrant workers.  Lea/Ismael picks apples for awhile, then sneaks out and tries to hitch a ride to the gorge.  No one stops; some passing soldiers call her "raghead."  Wait -- showing some skin works for girls, so why not boys?  She takes her shirt off, and sure enough, a lady and her teenage daughter pick him up.

They find it odd that Lea/Ismael is examining her new body -- abs, nipples, biceps.  And the silver bracelet from the skeleton!

As they drive through town, Lea/Ismael is shocked by how different it looks.  Plus the costumes are like something out of an old movie, teens are listening to "rad tunes" like "Everybody Dance Now," and there's an ad for Schwarzennegar's Terminator 2.  She not only switched bodies, she traveled back in time 30 years,  to June 15, 1991!

While she is freaking out, a woman named Patricia grabs her: "What are you doing here?  You're late!"  

Scene 5:  The woman ignores Lea/Ismael's pleas to take her to the Gorge and talks about how important this audition is: "the chance of a lifetime."  

They arrive at the resort where Lea's grandparents live.  They are 30 years younger, of course, and don't know who Lea is.  But they know Ismael!  

In the house, Lea's parents Stephane (Theo Fernandez) and Karine, now teenagers, are tuning their instruments. Stephane has his shirt open; in this series, it's beefcake all the way down!  They criticize Lea/Ismael for being late.  When he calls them "Mom" and "Dad," they think he's high, and try to bring him down: "We worked hard for this audition!  Don't blow it!"  They're really expressive with Ismael, hugging and groping -- are they, like lovers as well as bandmates?

They begin the audition. Of course, Lea/Ismael doesn't know how to play the guitar, and tanks.  Patricia the Band Agent stomps off, while teenage Stephane and Karine follow, begging for another chance.

Scene 6:  Ismael's Dad arrives to drag him back to the apple orchard, and yell.  "The boss's son saw you sneak away!  We could both be fired!  We'll lose the house, and be deported!  And you're failing your exams, and you dress like a bum, and I hate everything about you!"  Hey, Lea reasons, maybe the body-switching ruined Ismael's life, and that's why he committed suicide.  Maybe she can fix things for him...

Scene 7: Back at the house, Little Brother Soufiane is also irate. "You lied to me about the body-transfer stuff, just so you could go to your stupid audition!"  

Lea finds Ismael's journal under the mattress: full of artwork (no pictures of girls), lists of goals (again, no girls), song lyrics, and "June 15!  Big Audition!"   She buries the journal in the apple orchard, so if she ever gets back to 2021, she'll have proof.

Pye (Alexander Ferrario), the boss's son, arrives on his motorcycle (fully clothed, but don't worry, we see him in his underwear later on).  He's the one who snitched  about Lea/Ismael ditching work: "I hate lazy bitches like you."   He punches Lea/Ismael, says "Do your job!", and leaves.   

Scene 8: Lea/Ismael goes home and takes a shower (more gratuitous beefcake, not that I'm complaining).  She masturbates while looking in the mirror (wouldn't you?).  Then she goes to bed...and wakes up in 2021, as Lea!  Was it a dream?

Googling Ismael, she finds a blog about his mysterious disappearance, run by Little Brother Soufiane.  He announces a new lead, and a meeting at City Hall tonight.  If the disappearance was such a big deal in this small town, wouldn't Lea have known about it?  Especially if her parents were Ismael's best friends? Unless they have been deliberately covering up their involvement in his death...

Scene 9:  Mom drives Lea to her job at Dubont Bio (I guess it's close to the school).  The boss stops by -- Pye, the boss's son from 1991, now middle aged! 

Lea skips philosophy class and takes the bus to the apple orchard.  She digs up Ismael's journal.  This was no dream!

Scene 10:  At school, Lea tells her friend Romane, who is a lesbian and uses a wheelchair (were they checking off diversity boxes?), about her time-travel body-transfer adventure. Romane thinks she's crazy.

Scene 11: The meeting at City Hall.  About 20 people there.  The police don't know if the remains actually belong to Ismael, or if his death was accidental or suicide.  Lea blurts out that it has to be him, because it was wearing Ismael's silver bracelet!  The middle-aged Little Brother Soufiane (now played by Vincent Heineine) is irate: "Why didn't the police tell me about the bracelet?  It's obviously my brother!  And how does this random girl know about it?"

Afterwards, everyone is angry with Lea for "making things up," except Soufiane, who thanks her.  He remembers the body-snatching conversation with Ismael 30 years ago -- didn't he say his name was Lea?  

Scene 12:  On the way home, Lea interrogates Mom about how well she and Dad knew Ismael.  "We were in the same class, but we didn't know him very well," she lies.  Lea wonders what she's hiding.

Lea goes to bed, and wakes up in 1991 again.  But this time she's the teenage Mom! The end.

Beefcake:  No shirts, no problem.

Other Sights:  This is a small resort town.  Chances are they'll never make it to Paris, or even Lyon.

Heterosexism:  Lea finds Ismael hot, but she won't be dating him, for obvious reasons.  That leaves her teenage Dad -- nope -- and Pye -- double nope.  Pye gets a girlfriend, however.  

Gay Characters:  The big mystery of the series is not really who did it, but who is in love with Ismael, Mom, Dad, Patricia, Pye, all of the above, or none of the above?  It becomes clear in Episode 5.

Body-Swapping: Every successive episode takes place on a successive day, with Lea switching to the 1991 bodies of Mom, Pye, Patricia the Band Manager, and finally Dad.

My Grade: A.