Gone are the days when American series monopolized the small screen. “Just as the ‘Nordic black’ captured the imagination of the whole world at the beginning of this century, the last decade has seen the evolution of the ‘new French wave’ on television,” said the BBC. In France and around the world, French series have never been as successful as the year 2020-2021. Cock-a-doodle Doo !
Gears, the first Original Creation of Canal + whose “Last Chapter” was broadcast in France in the fall of 2020, was a pioneer in the renewal of French fiction, revolutionizing the detective genre. Sold in nearly seventy countries, when it was created in 2005, it was one of the rare French series to be exported.
In the UK, it airs on BBC Four, which is also associated with the production of seasons 2, 4 and 6, under the title “Spiral”. Gears is the first non-English-language drama series acquired by Netflix in 2012 and the first series to be broadcast in a French version with subtitles on the Los Gatos platform in the United States, according to Variety. Since then, French fiction has come a long way and this example is no longer an exception.
French series, worldwide success
Proof of the recognition of the quality of French series, in 2019, The Legends Office, another Canal + series, is in third place in a list of the 30 best foreign series of the 2010s published by the New York Times. And the consecration abroad of our tricolor series does not stop there.
“I said ‘yes’ to ‘Ten percent’ without having read the script,” Sigourney Weaver told 20 minutes during the last CanneSéries Festival. The international press is full of praise for the France 2 series. “Adieu to a fabulous French concoction (Adieu à une fabulous sauce française!)”, Headlined Rebecca Nicholson of the prestigious British daily.
The Guardian, his column posting five out of five stars at the time of the release of Season 4 in the fall of 2020.
After a first Quebec adaptation in 2019, Ten percent, which gained international fame following its release on Netflix, will even be entitled to a British remake, titled Call My Agent!
The success is also at the rendezvous for the agents of ASK in France, that while season 4 had been presented as the last, Dominique Besnehard announces at the same time “a unit in New York” and a “fifth season. “.
An icon is back
If the British have James Bond, the French now have Lupine, who has definitely placed France on the world map of television series. Unprecedented phenomenal success for a French fiction, number 1 in Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Argentina, Vietnam, the Philippines and – a first – number 1 in the United States, part I was seen by 76 million households worldwide, becoming one of Netflix’s biggest hits. To the point that during confinement, “doing tricolor series marathons has recently been very chic on the British side of the Channel”, analyzed the British weekly. The Telegraph.
After the resounding flop of Franco-German co-production Deutsch-Les-Landes, the critics also appreciated Mixed, the first 100% French series from Prime Video. “Between teens and period series, Amazon finds the right one Mixed », Greets Charles Martin in First.
“Solar, very rock thanks to its soundtrack, remarkably interpreted, Mixed is a real good surprise at the start of this summer ”, congratulates Stéphanie Guérin on the Parisian. Same story among Internet users. “I am not at all French series but the series Mixed from Amazon is really good! »Writes a
twittos. “Super cool the series Mixed on Amazon prime, a good surprise ”, rejoices a
other.
French series, French success
In France, the success of the French series is just as remarkable. On television, out of the 100 best audiences of historical channels (TF1, France 2, France 3, Canal +, M6 and Arte) for fiction programs on television, 95 were signed by French works in 2020 (compared to 85 in 2019), including 82% series.
Among these successes, the 35 episodes ofIn therapy have thus been able to count on 1.35 million viewers on average, or 6.3% audience share, while the Franco-German channel usually targets 3% audience. The series also totaled more than 41 million views on Arte.tv, becoming the most viewed series in Arte history.
Latest example to date, HPI, carried by Audrey Fleurot, totaled 11.5 million viewers on average on TF1. Never seen since Dolmen in 2005 ! Hexagonal fiction, boosted by the health crisis, was a hit in 2020-2021, the start of a new French soft power?
20 minutes looks back all week on the success of the French series of recent months with the interviews of six actresses and actors of these successes.