An archive of blog entries about French TV programmes and production.
Airdates
When’s that show you mentioned starting, TMINE? Including Mirzapur and Deutsch-Les-Landes
Every Friday, TMINE lets you know when the latest TV shows from around the world will air in the UK
Acquisitions
The big acquisition news of the week – if not the entire year – was the BBC’s decision to mirror the Sky Atlantic-HBO-Showtime agreement and become FX (US)’s content home in the UK. FX shows that have already been acquired by other UK networks, such as American Horror Story, are going to stay in their current homes, but new shows, including Danny Boyle’s Devs, the TV spin-off with Matt Berry of What We Do In The Shadows, Phyllis Schlafly biopic Mrs America and a Bob Fosse-Gwen Verdon biopic, are all going to end up on the BBC.
The situation for shows that haven’t already been acquired by UK networks but have already aired on FX is a little more complicated. The Beeb, for example, has also acquired Ryan Murphy’s 80s transgender show Pose, Sons of Anarchy spin-off Mayans MC and Better Things. But Mr InBetween, which was made by Foxtel in Australia with FX’s backing, doesn’t seem yet to be included in the deal (although it might be).
Premiere dates
Mirzapur (Amazon Prime)
Premiere date: Friday, November 16
Amazon’s fifth Indian original:
The journey of two brothers lured by the idea of power only to get consumed by it, Mirzapur is an amped-up portrayal of India’s heartland and youth. It’s a world replete with drugs, guns, and lawlessness, where caste, power, egos and tempers intersect and violence is the only way of life.
Iron-fisted Akhandanand Tripathi is a millionaire carpet exporter and the mafia don of Mirzapur. His son, Munna – an unworthy, power-hungry heir – will stop at nothing to inherit his father’s legacy.
An incident at a wedding procession forces him to cross paths with Ramakant Pandit, an upstanding lawyer, and his sons, Guddu and Bablu.
This snowballs into a game of ambition, power and greed that threatens the fabric of the lawless city. With heart-pounding action, violence at an operatic scale, gangsters with sharp minds and dry humor, Mirzapur is a hinterland story that is as raw as it gets.
Deutsch-Les-Landes (Germanized) (Amazon)
Premiere date: Friday, November 30
Deutsch-Les-Landes is the story of Jiscalosse, an idyllic French village in the département of Landes. The village is on the edge of bankruptcy and Martine (Marie-Anne Chazel), the matriarch of the community, needs money to save it. Martine therefore decides to sell part of the village to Gerhard Jäger, the eccentric CEO of a car company, who has fallen in love with Landes. However, he decides to relocate all the company and its workers to the south of France, which leads to a dramatic and comedic culture clash.
The trailer looks interesting, but I’m not sure how well it’ll wash in the UK. Lots of the jokes concern language differences and pronunciation, which obviously don’t translate (even the title is a French-German linguistic hybrid). It’s also worth knowing that whereas the UK stereotype of Germans is of being humourless and efficient, more accurately, the French (who do, of course, live right next door and work with Germans a lot, rather than relying on old Second World War movies) believe them to be a light-hearted bunch, always making jokes and not taking things too seriously. Again, that might not work as well for a UK audience.
Hell, I don’t even know if they’ll give it English subtitles. But it might be worth a punt.
