Plus belle la vie

I am hooked on Plus Belle La Vie on TV5 Monde - Europe. The story lines are the staples of the soap universe, to be sure, but there is something appealing about the cast (all attractive enough to appear in an Australian soap!) and the setting (the city of Marseilles looks absolutely lovely) that makes it more attractive than the grim misery of EastEnders. I would say it is more akin to Emmerdale in feel - the humour, the melodrama, the age range of characters...

I want escapism from a soap and Plus Belle La Vie delivers every time. As entertainment it does its job very well. And my French is improving with every episode!

This is a French answer to UK's Eastenders and Emmerdale. Pleasant and easy to watch.

I've been watching on TV Cinq Monde and I find it entertaining. Seriously, I don't understand the criticism. Why would anybody get his (or her) knickers in a twist over this harmless bit of TV? It's not intended to be realistic or profound. It's just a soap opera -- the French equivalent of, for instance, EastEnders. There are definite parallels to EE -- several families, different backgrounds, organized around a square with a local hangout where everybody fetches up sooner or later -- the pub in EE, Roland's bar in PBLV. Sure, there is more melodrama than there would be in any real urban setting -- again just like EastEnders.

It's entertaining, the actors are almost all appealing. Ça sert à passer une demi-heure. What else do you want? If it's high drama that you're hankering for, don't watch PBLV, go to the Comédie française and catch some Racine.

The first French series reaching 4000 episodes ! 15 years later, it is still focusing on actuality (terrorism, gestational surrogacy, climate change, transenders, etc...) so the authors have lot of ideas to create exciting plots.

The onle negative point may be the number of characters: at the beginning of the series (in 2004) there were only 18 main characters and now...they are more than 60 ! And there is a bad turnover: some characters are very present and others are almost always absent.

Very good show! Actors are excellent and stories are interesting and gripping.

On air since 2004 and still successful.

All categories of people are portrayed in this show: teenagers, families with children, older people, poor or rich people. All those people encounter at Place du Mistral, in Marseilles, France.

Roland is the owner of the bar, Mirta owns Hotel Select, Charlotte the boutique... There is also Blanche, the teacher with her children, Vincent, the architect and his daughter Ninon, Rudi, Mirta's grandson et Luna's son, who will be a medicine doctor...

Many murders are committed and most are solved by policeman Léo.

And many other guest people in this show.