What amazes me about French television is how little the French people *mind* dubbed programs and movies; dubbed TV drives me to distraction! I was an exchange student in France and I remember being disappointed that most of the TV shows were shows I had already seen: Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place, etc. Somehow my cultural experience lacked real culture because all of the TV shows were American and not French.
Except for Extreme Limite. This was the show that my brothers and my sister and I would gather 'round the TV to watch *every* time it was on no matter where we were. It's a show much in the same vein as 90210, but French, so it's way cheesier. The show is about the inter-playing relationships of a group of sufficiently attractive young people living at L'Acadamie du Sport; so you get the teenage sex, the drugs, the drama, and then they would go water sking, or vent their frustrations in a fencing match or on the tennis court. It was great, and because it wasn't imported from America, I didn't feel like a cultural imperialist as we all crammed onto the couch and watched TV.
When I think of my stay in France, I think of the afternoons when my host-family and I would gather around the TV; it was like being a member of the family.
