Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Family Business’ on Netflix, a French Comedy About Opening a Marijuana Dispensary

French Netflix sitcom Family Business takes a different angle on stoner comedy: capitalizing on legalization. We’ve seen many potheads and dealers before, so why rehash (sorry) the same old ideas? It’s a promising premise in which a Jewish man takes over his father’s butcher shop and hopes to turn it into a dispensary — an idea that may not be too kosher (apologies) with the family. Will it be dope, or just dopey? (I’ll let myself out.)

FAMILY BUSINESS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A meat-delivery truck zooms hastily down a busy city street.

The Gist: Joseph (Jonathan Cohen) is desperate. He bumps around in the back of a refrigerated truck on his way to pitch his cockamamie app concept to investors. His developer has left him high and dry, but Joseph gamely muddles through — to no avail. Back to Hazan Meats he goes, to the family business he despises. Now what?

Joseph’s father (Gerard Darmon) and sister Aure (Julia Platon) lean on the counter. Ever since their mother/wife passed away a year ago, the business has struggled. The books are a mess. Aure is moving to Tokyo to pursue a business opportunity. Joseph would rather do anything than run the shop, but the old man gives him the deed anyway. For Joseph, destiny wears a white apron and carries a cleaver.

But. Marijuana is close to being legalized, which gives Joseph and his best bud (Olivier Rosemberg) an idea: Meat is out. Weed is in. The future isn’t converting from kosher to halal — it’s getting high. Yet the Hazans are the type of family that’s too good at keeping secrets. Joseph is secretly dating the younger sister of his friend Ali (Ali Marhyar). Aure is relocating to be with her Japanese girlfriend. And Pops has failed to pay the lease on his wife’s grave, and exhumation is imminent. The latter point prompts a tiff with Joseph, and the old man tears up the deed. No one said opening a tokery was going to be easy.

Our Take: Family Business is an easy watch. It’s amiable in tone, the cast is strong and the weed-dispensary concept is fresh. These elements partially make up for the wheezy dysfunctional-family dynamic and Joseph’s goofball-buddy characters, who seem lifted from a Judd Apatow production. (Notably, Cohen recently played a similar slacker-entrepreneur character in another Netflix original, the movie Budapest.)

In other words, the pilot episode is fine. It’s not extraordinary, or even particularly memorable. I smirked a little, and laughed out loud approximately zero times. It has the potential to grow into something funny, but with a six-episode season, it probably should hit harder and quicker.

Sex and Skin: Aure’s honey flashes her breasts during their video chat. Tokyo, here we come!

Parting Shot: Joseph sighs deeply after his dad shreds the butcher-shop paperwork, and we hear the sound of a bong hit in the background.

Sleeper Star: Darmon brings a veteran presence to the cast, shucking some of the stereotypes of the role with a lived-in approach to the character.

Most Pilot-y Line: “It’s been tough,” the old man says, speaking at his wife’s grave. “The butcher shop… the children… it’s complicated. It’s complicated.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. It’s funny enough. I don’t mean to damn it with faint praise, but we’ve been entertained by less, no doubt.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream Family Business on Netflix