“This program contains language, scenes and sexual references that may be shocking to young viewers,” warns a warning message broadcast ahead of the first episode. An alert coupled with an additional precaution: Frenchie Shore is not recommended for under 16s. We quickly understand why. Broadcast since November 11 on Paramount + and MTV France (one episode per week), the show is not really in the best shape.
The principle of this unique reality show? Follow the festivities, the antics and the moods – in the background – of ten candidates (“the 10 biggest party people in France”) in a villa in Cap d’Agde, in Hérault. In its form, the show can evoke the Loft where the Marseille. But much, much more trash. Concept, almost undisguised sex scenes, explicit comments… Here’s what you need to know about Frenchie Shore before you can talk to the coffee machine about it.
Punchlines and display of kikis
We thought we had covered the issue in the 2000s with the famous swimming pool scene in Loft Story. Or with the “olé olé” sequences of Temptation Island which spiced up Saturday evenings on TF1. Cat pee next to Frenchie Shore. The viewer observes the daily life of ten candidates locked in a house to spend a “dream vacation”. All this is interspersed with a few missions outside to allow the merry men to earn their crust, in restaurants for example. But the point lies mainly in what happens in the villa: long parties, shouting matches and sex. We told you: a “dream vacation”.
We’re not just talking about tight-fitting dances or little drool rolls with streams of drool (there are those too, don’t worry), but barely blurred blowjobs or sex in the air. Not to mention the numerous exhibitions of dicks (not the little stuffed animal from the 1980s) and the incessant fiddling around the pool, on the dance floor, in the bathroom, between two corridors… Wherever space allows, in short.
The salt of the program perhaps lies in the particularly flowery (not to say vulgar) language of the candidates and the permanent punchline competition which animates them. Like this striking exchange that we hear at the very beginning from the credits. “I don’t really like kissing…” says one candidate. “Do you prefer to suck?” », replied one of his comrades. In this art of eloquence, Tristan seems to stand out from the first episodes. “I wear my heart on my sleeve and my hand on my tail,” he said in particular. We must know how to salute the meaning of the formula.
“On the verge of pornography” according to the Minister of Culture
But where does this new little wonder come from? Produced by Ah! Production (Moms and Famous, The Villa of Broken Hearts…), the show is adapted from an American reality show broadcast across the Atlantic on MTV between 2009 and 2012. Titled Jersey Shore, the program of 6 seasons (and 71 episodes), revealed the daily life of 8 American roommates of Italian origin. A show since adapted in the United Kingdom (Georgie Shore) and in Spain (Gandia Shore).
For its French version, filmed over a month last summer, we are promised an unscrambled program and the spontaneity of the candidates. “At no time did production force us to do anything. There is no common thread,” assures Ouryel, one of the candidates, to Telerama. A first season which clearly focuses on the disrepair and the exchange of fluids, without going into porn, according to its producer David Maceira. “We are not here to make a pornographic film,” he emphasizes to the Parisian.
An opinion that the Minister of Culture Rima Abdul-Malak does not really share, for whom Frenchie Shore, “borders on pornography”. “We are not in the register of fiction, of a film or a series, with the hindsight that that implies. For teenagers who say to themselves, this is the reality of human relationships, of sexual relationships, it can be a catastrophic introduction,” she believes in an interview with Parisian. “This program is not recommended for children under 16 years old. But anyone can come across it on social media like it happened to me. Arcom (the media regulatory authority), contrary to what I have read, has jurisdiction over platforms for the protection of minors,” she adds.
Who will sleep with whom (and how)?
As for partygoers, the show highlights a cast that is fearless and inclusive, with candidates of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. The “reflection of part of Generation Z” and “a real girl power”, believes the producer “I see young people free and comfortable with their sexuality. They have no filters or barriers and are free from what people will say,” he says. We will not say the opposite. Don’t expect any big, committed and militant speeches in the fight against patriarchy either (at least in the first three episodes currently broadcast). The program is not free from clichés, particularly sexist, and is essentially based on the potential of the candidates’ sexual experiences with each other.
In broad terms: Who will sleep with whom (and how)? Who will most frequently show their pubic hair (and what goes with it)? How many times will the words “pussy” and “dick” be said throughout the season? We challenge you to count them.