Season III captures

Scoop ran for 4 seasons so, as you can imagine, a lot happened in that time. As befits a drama about the day-to-day running of a newspaper office, several important political and social issues were dealt with, not to mention the private lives of the staff and internal business politics.  The following summary, however, concentrates on the relationship between Michael Gagné (Roy Dupuis) and Stéphanie Rousseau (Macha Grenon).

Michael Gagné, a young former country lawyer, is newly arrived in Montreal and to the big time with a job as a reporter at The Express newspaper. There he meets and falls in love with fellow reporter Stéphanie Rousseau, who also happens to be the daughter of the multi-millionaire owner of the paper.  Of course the path of true love never runs smoothly and there are plenty of obstacles for the couple to overcome.

The first of these is when Stéphanie becomes pregnant. At first Michael is not very happy about this. His mother has Alzheimer's and he is worried that it might be hereditary. After the birth of their son, Francis, Michael begins to feel that the relationship is stifling him so he moves out of their apartment. Stephanie starts to date someone else and Michael begins a brief affair with a French-Canadian rock singer.  Eventually, though, Michael realises that it is Stéphanie he loves and they get back together. However they are in for anything but a smooth ride.

The government tries to force Stéphanie's father to sell The Express because, by also owning a TV station, he is in violation of the country's media monopoly laws. He manages to find a way around this by financing a rival publication, Scoop, for Stéphanie to take charge of, enabling her to prove her credentials as heir to her father's communications empire.

As with many series that have exhausted all the realistic storylines, things start to get quite dramatic by the third season.  Stéphanie is kidnapped for the large ransom her father would be able to pay, and even though she is eventually freed the young family have to move into the well-guarded Rousseau Manor for security reasons.  Whilst Michael is covering a story for Scoop he becomes trapped in a flooded mine. On his way to the mine by helicopter, Stéphanie's father is involved in an accident which leaves him paralysed. He enlists the help of his male nurse to put an end to his life. As his heir Stéphanie takes over the parent company, Roussac, and this is where the problems with Michael really start.

The final straw for Michael comes when Stéphanie decides to relaunch Scoop as a tabloid newspaper.  For Michael the timing of this is not great; in order to make the changes needed at Scoop they have to suspend printing for 3 days, but Michael has a breaking story which he is not prepared to sit on for that length of time so he takes it to a TV station. He is also disappointed with Stéphanie for going back on her principles, her original dreams when she set up Scoop. Not only is he no longer able to work at Scoop, he feels he and Stéphanie no longer have a future together - they never did get married. The series ends with Michael leaving her and their son Francis for a new job in Paris.

<< As of 2007 there is talk about a 'next generation' series, written by Réjean Tremblay, possibly appearing in 2009/10, with perhaps some of 'the old guard' back behind their desks. >>

For an intellectual viewpoint ...

Scoop inspired cartoon (1)

Scoop inspired cartoon (2)