<span style="font-size:10.5pt;">Plus belle la vie also known by the acronym PBLV is a French feuilleton télévisé (serial) created by Magaly Richard-Serrano, Bénedicte Achard, Georges Desmouceaux et Olivier Szulzynger, and produced by Hubert Besson, Michèle Podroznik and François Charlent. It is aired Monday through Friday at 8:10 PM on France 3 since 30 August 2004.

It deals with the daily life of the inhabitants of an imaginary neighbourhood of Marseille, "Le Mistral", where rich families cross paths with the less than rich.

The drama is organized around two main types of intrigue:

• The personal lives of the inhabitants of Mistral, their daily strifes and pleasures, the development of their loves and friendships;
  
• the criminal intrigues in which some residents of Mistral are involved.

Le site officiel</span>

The opening & closing credits:

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I hate this thing...absolute piece of crap.

Thank the Lord I remember your high opinion of Lynn Latham so I don't really care if you hate it.

I think I once caught pieces of it on "TV 5 Monde".

It's really down to earth aka. boring. They do capture Marseille nicely though.

You two are terrible.

If for example only the set design is fabulous, it is reason enough. To watch.

I hate this thing...absolute piece of crap.

Why does it annoy you so much? Now I'm intrigued.

Storylines are so over the top. They don't have a week without a murder and it is supposed to be happening in a nice district of Marseille. It is so unrealistic. For most part, actors are very very bad. Scripts are laughable. What I hate most is probably the way France 3 tries to promote it because they are so proud of their soap, in the same way JFP did at the Emmys: 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year, etc. Hello guys, soaps have been existing for 60 years Their attempt at doing comedy is so poor. I'm really ashamed it is the only soap France is able to produce.

Storylines are so over the top. They don't have a week without a murder

wow - I must have caught their most boring week ever then.

Maybe I give it another try... LOL

So, sheils, you really like France Télévisions?

Storylines are so over the top. They don't have a week without a murder and it is supposed to be happening in a nice district of Marseille. It is so unrealistic. For most part, actors are very very bad. Scripts are laughable. What I hate most is probably the way France 3 tries to promote it because they are so proud of their soap, in the same way JFP did at the Emmys: 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year, etc. Hello guys, soaps have been existing for 60 years Their attempt at doing comedy is so poor. I'm really ashamed it is the only soap France is able to produce.

But much of those same things plague the American soaps, too.

Do you have any home-made primetime shows? What's popular there now?

No we don't really have good primetime shows like in the US. To give you an idea here is what airs in France these days:

Tonight:

TF1: "On a retrouvé la 7ème compagnie", 1960s' movie

France 2: "La soirée inattendue", entertainment (a French star is given many surprised)

France 3: "Comissaire Brunetti", Italian detective series

Arte: "Les caprices d'un fleuve", movie

M6: "Bones", American TV series

Wednesday:

TF1: "Criminal Minds", American TV series

France 2: "Double enquête", French TV movie

France 3: "Mission Millenium", French adventure game

Arte: "Histoire secrète de la Lufthansa", History

M6: "Zone interdite", News magazine

wow - I must have caught their most boring week ever then.

Maybe I give it another try... LOL

Indeed the first few months were really down to earth but soon the show became...weird

That's disappointing.

How can such a gorgeous country with so many great writers who wrote high-class literary soaps (Balzac, Flaubert, Proust...) not have good or great soaps/primetime shows?

I so much agree. There was a very good primetime series, "Avocats et Associés" that ran from 1998 to 2009. It was about some lawyers: the cases were so great, the romantic estranglements very good.

I don't really like cop shows, but is Engrenages any good?

I don't really like cop shows, but is Engrenages any good?

How do you watch all these foreign shows? Are you a multiple language speaking guy? (I know there's a word for it, it just so happens to not be in my vocabulary at the moment.)