Misleadingly titled but entertaining mini-series from France

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Anaïde Rozam

César Domboy

Sami Outalbali

In 2001, Isabelle, Raphaël, Karim, and their teams had less than four months to get a new show on the air: Loft Story, a French remake of the Big Brother format. In France, they are the first ones to produce a &apos;reality TV&apos; show.

Culte

As Episode 1 of &quot;Culte&quot; (2024 release from France; 6 episodes of about 45 min each) opens, we are in &quot;December 2000&quot; and the French TV production company PPP has received videotapes of a new type of show that is very successful in a number of European countries: reality TV show Big Brother. PPP is pitching the idea (now titled Loft Story) to M6, a smaller TV channel that is going up against TV-leading TF!. There is only 1 problem: M6 wants to start airing episodes in April, 2001, just 4 months away. At this point we are 10 minutes into Episode 1.

Couple of comments: this is a rollicking (and fictional) account of how reality TV came into being in France. Let me immediately question the title of this mini-series: &quot;Cult&quot; (in French: &quot;Culte&quot;). This is as misleading as I have ever seen. There is no Cult of any kind to be seen or heard in this mini-series. If anything, it should be called &quot;On the cutting edge of TV&quot; (reality TV did not exist in France before Big Brother). Episodes 1 and 2 are the least entertaining as it mostly deals with selecting candidates. Things get going for real in Episode 3 and then don&apos;t let up from there. The mini-series in super plot-heavy so the less said on that, the better. The events take place in late 2000/early 2001, and the production sets reflect that era quite well (you&apos;ll hear, for example, &quot;Sing&quot; by Travis playing in te background).

&quot;Culte&quot; started streaming on Amazon Prime very recently. I read about this mini-series in the New York Times and made a mental note to check it out. I&apos;m glad I did. I watched 3 episodes on 2 consecutive nights, and can confirm this is very bingeable. As long are you are aware that this has nothing to do with being a &quot;cult&quot; but rather the birth of reality TV in France, I&apos;d readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

Teaser Season 1 [OV]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZTkzOTJkMTQtODU3NS00YTVhLTkyNTYtYzVkOTU1MGZlYTVhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXRyYW5zY29kZS13b3JrZmxvdw@@._V1_.jpg

As Episode 1 of "Culte" (2024 release from France; 6 episodes of about 45 min each) opens, we are in "December 2000" and the French TV production company PPP has received videotapes of a new type of show that is very successful in a number of European countries: reality TV show Big Brother. PPP is pitching the idea (now titled Loft Story) to M6, a smaller TV channel that is going up against TV-leading TF!. There is only 1 problem: M6 wants to start airing episodes in April, 2001, just 4 months away. At this point we are 10 minutes into Episode 1.

Couple of comments: this is a rollicking (and fictional) account of how reality TV came into being in France. Let me immediately question the title of this mini-series: "Cult" (in French: "Culte"). This is as misleading as I have ever seen. There is no Cult of any kind to be seen or heard in this mini-series. If anything, it should be called "On the cutting edge of TV" (reality TV did not exist in France before Big Brother). Episodes 1 and 2 are the least entertaining as it mostly deals with selecting candidates. Things get going for real in Episode 3 and then don't let up from there. The mini-series in super plot-heavy so the less said on that, the better. The events take place in late 2000/early 2001, and the production sets reflect that era quite well (you'll hear, for example, "Sing" by Travis playing in te background).

"Culte" started streaming on Amazon Prime very recently. I read about this mini-series in the New York Times and made a mental note to check it out. I'm glad I did. I watched 3 episodes on 2 consecutive nights, and can confirm this is very bingeable. As long are you are aware that this has nothing to do with being a "cult" but rather the birth of reality TV in France, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

In 2001, Isabelle, Raphaël, Karim, and their teams had less than four months to get a new show on the air: Loft Story, a French remake of the Big Brother format. In France, they are the first ones to produce a 'reality TV' show.

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Culte

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