“Some of my friends don't understand my interest in Plus belle la vie.
For them, it sucks.
But what's funny is that they don't give more explanations on the reasons they have for finding the series sucks, knowing that they have never watched a single episode.
Marie-Amélie is 24 years old and lives in Haute-Saône, far from Marseille and the Mistral district.
Despite the strong opinions of her friends on her favorite series, she “never let go”: “Impossible to do so given my attachment to the series as well as to the characters.
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Lucas, 23, remembers the day when one of his friends needed to explain something to him by being forced to admit to him that he was watching Plus belle la vie.
“Before explaining to me what he had to explain to me, he said to me 'I'm going to tell you something but no one must know it'.
Neither of them dared to talk about it, because PBLV is badly perceived when people don't know.
They think of a series that is a bit old-fashioned and not interesting.
“Same story for Thibaut, 22, who lives in Vendée:” When I talked about it, my friends told me that it's a series for old people!
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"At 8:20 p.m. it was 'hush, we're watching!'
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Young or old – the average age of viewers is 51 – whatever happens is the end clap for this series: the last episode, shot this week, will be broadcast on November 18.
“Every year, we thought it was going to stop.
But in February, I thought it was rumours, ”laments Thibaut.
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In 18 seasons and 4500 episodes, the series has attracted several million French people daily.
Up to 6.8 million and among them a significant number of young people: up to 25% market share in 2010, and according to a Hadopi report in 2015, it was the most streamed series at that time ahead of Game of Throne (which remained the most downloaded anyway).
Thibaut fell into it in 2005. “My parents watched at the table in the evening, my brother and me too without really having a choice.
At 8:20 p.m. it was 'shh, we're watching!'
Between 2006 and 2018, it was non stop.
Then I got a little bored and when I learned the end of the broadcast, I went back to see the end of the series.
“At Marie-Amélie too, the meal was and still is with her mother in front of the TV, “every evening to watch the new episode”.
“My parents watched at the table in the evening, my brother and I too without really having a choice.
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Thibaut
On the other hand, it was Lucas, a former student in the trades of books and children's literature, who brought "PBLV" home after a vacation with his grandmother.
“I was 16 and spent a week with my brother at her house.
Every evening, the TV broadcast the series in the main room.
At first, I watched out of the corner of my eye.
And then the day I left, I came across a huge cliffhanger and I absolutely wanted to see the sequel!
" The following ?
He turned on the TV at the times of Plus belle la vie à la maison and got totally caught up in the intrigues of the screenwriters.
“I continued to watch for the main plots, then the next one, then the secondary ones and in two months it was over,” laughs the Grenoble resident who initiated his mother in stride.
“My mother did like me, first out of the corner of her eye.
“It allowed me to understand myself better!
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In the plots are also mixed subjects that echo what the many young people who watch it experience.
"For me it's a family series, with a bit of everything and intrigues that talk about social issues", summarizes Thibaut, who admits to rather appreciating "historical characters like Thomas, Léo or Mirtha".
Marriage for all, transidentity or even homosexuality, so many themes that the series fully integrates into its scenario.
“The character of Éric Normand and his love story with Simon touches me a lot, for example.
The series sends beautiful messages to viewers and deals with important current topics such as racism, homophobia or even recently the fires”, underlines Marie-Amélie.
“The only series to do that”, abounds Romain, 23, who has been following the series with his mother and his little sister for ten years.
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“I especially identified with the characters who were entering high school when I left.
I was more Théo, Tom or Antoine than Baptiste and Emma", says Lucas for whom the character of Tom, homosexual, was a revelation: "I had a huge crush, because from the first scenes, I I found in his sensitivity, his emotivity and his tenderness.
I said to myself that the series broke the codes of masculinity and the three years that he was present on screen, I followed the character with interest: it allowed me to understand myself better!
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Everyone finds what he came for.
The result ?
“Evolving mentalities” according to Lucas, who is also a great fan of fantasy and science fiction: “The friend who was watching at the same time as me did not find the concept of transidentity normal.
He thought these people were sick.
Thanks to Plus belle la vie, he became familiar with the subject, and it's good that people can evolve and learn through a series.
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“They showed us people who looked like us”
The announcement came as a big shock to them all.
“I had started watching the series again since the first episode on Amazon,” says Thibaut.
Now that he works, he watches one or two episodes for breakfast before going to work, then in the evening while eating: “I came across a site that lists episodes from the beginning, including bonuses.
I “binge watch” Plus belle la vie, I can watch 5 a day.
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“I watched this series for 12 years of my life”, quickly calculates Thibaut, “it was a series that I liked and I said to myself” Oh the cow, that stops.
Learning the end of the series made me nostalgic.
“Same distress for Marie-Amélie who is struggling to realize that PBLV will stop definitively: “It seems totally unrealistic to me.
With Romain too, it's hard to believe.
“Even though we know that the series is airing until November 18, we are really sad.
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“It seems totally unrealistic to me”
Marie-Amelie
In addition to these waves to the soul, they worry that the series, by its absence, no longer brings anything to the debates.
“It will be missed, even if other series can do it.
They showed us people who looked like us.
The Bellesta family, for example, is the French family par excellence, it looked like everyone else” regrets Lucas who will perhaps take the opportunity to “turn off the TV” at mealtime.
Marie-Amélie, she does not know what she will do with her daily half hour free, even if she imagines “most certainly getting lost on Youtube”.
One thing is certain, one day they let themselves be surprised and will remain attached to it for a long time.
“PBLV, I fell into it and it was not planned at all.
If someone had told me before, I wouldn't have believed it,” laughs Lucas.
