Plus belle la vie

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.

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!

I'm french and trust me, this is the worst thing I have ever seen in a long time.

Acting : do they actually know what it is? I mean I could anticipate what they're about to say, they're not credible at all. Plot : the story always takes place in the same street and there is more bribery or murders on that street than on any major cities (What the hell?). It's boring and it always talks about the same thing: love, betrayal etc.. Sometimes actors are supposed to tell funny things, I have never laughed (yet).

To conclude, I really don't understand how this show can be so famous amongst people. Four seasons already, wow.

1/10 (too bad 0/10 doesn't exist)

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.

I just found out I cannot see PBLV in advance. I will miss my 25 mn no brainer soap