Plus belle la vie

I don't usually give a 1/10 because films or TV series tend to at least have something of worth, be it action sequences or something, and I'm a merciful person so most of the time I resort to a 2 or 3 for really bad things. "Plus Belle la Vie" (or "Poubelle la Vie" as I like to call it), is the most grotesque, politically correct, cheesy, obnoxious and of course, unrealistic waste-of-my-life TV series I've ever seen. I have seen a few episodes in their entirety, all against my will. When I accidentally fall on an episode, I quickly change channel because I don't want to give this vile trash any more viewership than it deserves.

I remember an episode about some right-wing racist businessman who was the bad guy (who am I kidding, most of the bad guys in this show are right-wing racists - but not the realistic kind, the kind that can only be fantasized by "bourgeois-bohème" writers). In the end of the episode, it was revealed that this right-wing racist businessman was actually... Satan. Yeah, you read that right. That's fine in a De Niro or Pacino thriller movie, not in a awkwardly colorful and politically correct French TV show.

Also, the actors are bad as can be, playing cardboard characters, acting in boring plots, which are often about political or social subjects, the TV show always happy to make tolerance and upper-class hippie naivety be the correct thing to do against the bad meanies! That doesn't mean that you'll like it if you're left-wing. I know of many anarchists and communists who detest this series for those reasons. I will never in my life understand the appeal for "Poubelle la Vie".

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.

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

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.