So, More beautiful life, It’s almost finished ! France 3’s flagship soap will bow out this Friday after 4,665 episodes. Known under the name of PBLV by his intimates, the program was invited daily for eighteen years in the living rooms of the viewers, becoming the series with the greatest longevity of the PAF. How More beautiful life changed the life of the French, going from intergenerational “family ritual” to “member of the family”?
“Silence reigned and we watched carefully”
“A page is turned, but the memories will remain”, explains Marie, 27, who followed the soap opera “from the age of 10 to the age of 16”. “It was the family ritual, at 8:15 p.m. after All Sports, silence reigned and we watched with attention the adventures of this Marseille district. It’s a part of my childhood, it was the first French daily fiction. The one where you could identify, regardless of age or social class, ”she recalls.
Same story in the family of Clara, 20, who started watching the series at the age of 2. “I saw the first episode without remembering it. I’m getting ready to see the last one soon, this time it will be unforgettable! “, she says.
“We have to get home quickly, we’re going to miss PBLV!” »
“ More beautiful life marked our family, our routine, our life. A ritual that we didn’t miss for anything in the world, not even for a minute. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard my sister say to my mother “we have to go home quickly, we’re going to miss PBLV!” “says Clara.
Corentin, 22, watches the France 3 soap opera with his brother and his parents: “I even managed to make my boyfriend like this series and we followed the series together. It’s an appointment, a bubble of air that I will miss enormously ”.
“From November 19, it will be everyone in their room”
Laura, 35, follows the series with her husband except when the latter works at night: “He watches it on replay the next morning at 5 a.m. It will make us very strange, it was our daily routine. “I eat while watching More beautiful life nightly. I wonder how my meals are going to be after the end,” wonders Angélique, 37.
Muriel, 55, watches the series with her sons, aged 22 and 17: “It’s the only series we watch together, it was a great family moment. From November 19, it will be everyone in their room, it’s sad and nostalgic, ”she apprehends.
Within Clara’s family, PBLV has been the subject of much debate. The soap opera has imposed itself in the “discussions, between the reflections on the various themes addressed (very often topical), the forecasts for the episodes to come, the evolution of the actors and characters and many other things” “It was a subject of discussion with my grandmother and my relatives”, also testifies Corentin.
“I joined them when things were going badly”
More beautiful life represented for many viewers support during difficult times. “Much more than just a date with my TV family, PBLV taught me to be positive about everyday circumstances, to put things into perspective in times of distress,” says Marie-Charlotte, 33. “This series brought me happiness, relaxation, a moment of forgetting my problems”, abounds Maryse, 74 years old.
Morgane, 28, victim of teenage bullying, follows the characters of More beautiful life since 2008: “I joined them when things were going badly in college”. “I followed from the beginning without missing a single episode. It helped me in a difficult period of my life,” says Christianne, 74.
“This series is for me an antidepressant, a bubble of escape every day. I apprehend the sequel without it. Honestly, I have the impression of separating myself from a friend, ”says Carole, 40 years old.
The serial is a faithful companion. ” PBLV accompanied me throughout my childhood, adolescence and early adulthood. It was a relaxing family moment and it has lasted until today where everyone is still watching PBLV on his side, ”explains Camille, 25 years old. “I grew up with More beautiful lifethe story of this soap opera is that of our lives”, greet in chorus Mickael, 33 years old and Joris, 25 years old.
“So my daughter’s name is Luna”
“At the beginning of the series, I was a teenager with a very difficult and rebellious life. This series has helped me through every period of my teenage and adult life. I cried with them, I laughed with them, I hoped for the end of the scenario with them … In short, I grew up with them, ”says Sophie, 31, who named her granddaughter Luna, “the serial first name of our incredible Anne Decis”.
Jessica, 40, started watching More beautiful life “in the morning, on maternity leave” of her first child. For her second pregnancy, Jessica was “hospitalized in emergencies”, the child was born “premature”: ” More beautiful life was happening at that time, so my daughter’s name is Luna”.
“I see in each character one of mine”
By dint of supporting viewers in the major stages of their respective lives, ” More beautiful life has become like a member of the family, who grew up with us,” analyzes Clara. “We look forward every evening to reuniting with our friends, our distant family,” adds Véronique, 48.
The soap even sometimes serves as a surrogate family “I have never missed an episode since the very first one. I have no family and I see in each character one of mine,” says Marina, 29.
“The loneliness will be harder without this meeting”
Rachel, 35, works in a retirement home and notices that More beautiful life is the series residents have been waiting for all day. “They don’t necessarily have a family or a visit, the only people they see are the caregivers, this series was their family and today they lost it,” she laments.
“The actors and actresses of More beautiful life are part of our life, our family. What a pleasure to know that we were going to find them, every evening! “says Laurie, 71 years old. “The loneliness will be harder without this meeting”, fears Liliane, 73, who criticizes “a cruel decision”. “Nathan, we met him at 13, Luna brightened up our days with his presence. Sadness,” she cries. “Many, including me, were particularly moved to see this Roland go out, as if it were our grandfather”, launches Corentin, 22 years old.
“This mourning will be too heavy to bear”
“How are we going to spend our evenings now?” asks Valérie, 50. ” More beautiful life we will miss it too much… Why stop? “Asks Danielle, 73 years old.
Farewells with the Mistral family this Friday will be heartbreaking for many French people. “After 18 years of daily reunions, I will really miss my TV family and their approach to the feelings of life and people,” says Marie-Charlotte. “I can’t believe this is going to stop. It’s unthinkable for me, this mourning will be too heavy to bear, “cries Laurie, 71 years old.
“On November 18, it will be a part of my life that will be interrupted, after more than twelve years of having grown up in front of this great series”, underlines Corentin, 22, who hopes that the series “will be able to revive in one form or another one “.
Same story for Nadia, 48: “I loved this series, when I learned that it was stopping, I cried and I will miss it, because 18 years without missing 1 episode, that was part of of my life “.
“Thank you to everyone who participated”
“This ending breaks my heart. I owe them so much to all of its amazing actors. Thank you to them, to the screenwriters as well as to all those people who have worked in the shadows to make us live our most beautiful life for eighteen years, ”writes Sophie, 31 years old.
“I dare not imagine the emotion on the day of the last shooting. But know that this emotion is shared by us too”, concludes Clara, 20, who wishes to “thank all those who participated in the creation of PBLV and those who have allowed it to continue to live all these years”.