I think I've asked this here before but does anyone know any TV shows in French or German? I've seen S1 and S2 of Spiral (French) which was good but I think I'd prefer something long running and maybe less dramatic. Lots of dialogue.
Karambolage is a good program, yeah.
Do you want lots of dialogue or not (I'm not sure) ? Because if the latter you're probably shit out of luck, French loves that shit. French TV on the whole is a notch or two below some of the British stuff, not a lot of high production values shows with tons of actions or SFX.
I didn't watch any of that, but those are the safest bets :
-
Un village français, which takes place in a country town during WW2. 7 seasons so far (the last one should be final since it covers 1945) and I've only heard good things about it including from a couple of friends of mine (including an history buff).
-
Le Bureau des Légendes, 2 or 3 seasons so far and more on the way, which centers around the office managing deep cover agents for French intelligence.
-
Engrenages : a procedural drama about the different cogs of French justice within the Paris tribunal. 5 seasons.
-
Les Revenants : Loosely based on an earlier film, about how a small countryside community must deal with the dead coming back to life. It's mostly intimist and low key (no flesh eating or anything like that) but this one I've actually seen the first season and I can vouch for the quality of the aesthetics (image & music). I wasn't mad sold on the story but it was interesting nonetheless. 2 seasons. This has been picked up on Netflix and remade in english, too.
-
Braquo : I guess it's the French equivalent of
The Shield. Produced and created by a former cop (also a director of dubious taste) 32 eps.
Otherwise, but the language barrier and otherness might be too much, there's some comedy shows that might be of interest.
-
Kaamelott, a comedic take on Arthurian legend. It's a short program though (210 seconds, over 400 episodes).
- From some of the same people,
Hero Corp, a comedic take on superheroes. Running time varies depending on seasons (and I guess for whom they produced) between to 26mn.
-
Le Visiteur du Futur, a webseries about a slacker and a man pretending to come from 2550 to save Earth of doom.
And to be complete, if you're interested in terrible soap operas :
Plus Belle la Vie (480 ep.) &
Sous le Soleil (over 3000 eps), taking place respectively in Saint-Tropez and Marseille. I guess it's fine if you love Ricard 51 or have a fetish for French MILFs.
Not a ton of old school stuff to recommend, TV series were long the black sheep of audiovisual production (cop shows were mostly declined as"made for TV" films in 75-90mn).
Les Enquętes du Commissaire Maigret/
Maigret (as the series had two distinct runs with two lead actors between 1967 and 2005) are probably the best (and most iconic) example of that, adapted from Simenon's novels. It's a character in the vein of Columbo or Poirot.
Otherwise
Les Brigades du Tigres, about cops in the 1920-1929 period and produced in the seventies. The series was so-so, but the pseudo-historical context elevates it quite a bit.
