This week I watched a French television show, called The Chalet, on Netflix. Watch the show, here, if some French drama might interest you too!
In a lot of ways this show was very similar to American dramas in that there was a lot of suspense, and the viewer doesn’t quite have the whole story.
However, the one thing that was rather difficult was all of the flashbacks the show did. Flashbacks alone can be hard to follow for viewers, but, adding in the element of a foreign language, I felt I struggled a bit to understand what was going on.
The general storyline is that a group of friends go away to a chalet, in Valmouline, where a dark secret from the past comes to light. Throughout the first episode there are a few instances where murder plays a factor, and I am under the impression that a murderer might be part of the plot moving forward in the season.
The relationships of the characters on the show, and the characters themselves, were very similar to what is seen in American television. They had normal interactions with one another throughout the episode. The only time there were strange social interactions was with one character, referred to as the hermit of the village, and that interaction is based off of his characters cues.
The major difference, between the way Valmouline is depicted in comparison to the United States, is in the setting of The Chalet. The setting of the chalet is in Valmouline, and is very reflective of a normal french village. In America, the concept of villages is not prevalent, and I have never been exposed to this setting. Even the concept of a chalet is not as prevalent here.
I noticed that the house look very different to what we typically have here. They are built differently, more closely together, and lots of wood is used in the buildings. I also noticed that the roads are much narrower, and very winding. I think that the is due to the terrain of the area. Valmouline is a very isolated village. There are lots of trees, nature, and mountains.
This is obviously a large contrast to the United States. While there are places here which are very mountainous, we have many cities, and access to almost everything we need with just a short drive. The isolation of the village of Valmouline, and the chalet, is not something many Americans choose, or are familiar with.
Additionally, the roads are often made of cobblestone in the show, which is a characteristic of European roads, and so this didn’t surprise me as much. However, it is a major contrast to America as most of our roads are often paved, and even.
Finally, one aspect of socioeconomic topics in the show was when one character asked another if the people who owned the chalet were rich. The question was harmless, and stemmed from the fact that they were discussing the chalet’s renovations. However, it did imply that the characters might not be rich themselves, because they were taken aback by the niceties of the chalet.