Binge-Worthy French TV Shows: Your Guide to Learning French Through Entertainment

For those keen to learn French, immersing oneself in the language is key. While textbooks and language apps have their place, nothing quite compares to the experience of watching French TV shows. It’s a way to learn new vocabulary, understand French accents, and discover slang, all from the comfort of your own home.

Why French TV Shows Are Great for Language Learning

Watching French TV shows is an effective way to learn the language through comprehensible input, a concept that suggests we acquire language best by understanding messages that are just a little beyond our current level. French shows provide this optimal input through contextualized language use in authentic situations, natural speech at a native pace with proper accents, exposure to diverse vocab and grammar in use, and multimedia support with visual cues aiding comprehension.

Benefits of Learning Through Immersion

Learning French through immersion is one of the most effective ways to improve your language skills, enhance your listening comprehension, and gain valuable insights into French society and culture. By watching French shows, you absorb the language incidentally through plotlines, dialogues, and cultural cues without strained study.

How to Get Started

If you’re just starting out, begin by watching French Netflix shows with English subtitles. As you learn more, try episodes with French subtitles to test your language skills. Pause, rewind, and replay certain scenes to help your understanding, and write down new words or phrases to review later.

French TV Shows for Beginners

Even if you don’t understand everything at the beginning, listening to native speakers talk can help you get used to pronunciation, tone, and rhythm. With English subtitles, you’ll start to match repeated words with their meaning and recognize familiar phrases, sentence structures, and vocabulary.

Read also: French language learning guide

The Hook Up Plan (Plan Cœur)

This French TV show effortlessly blends humor, friendship, and romance. Centered around Elsa, a woman struggling to move on from a past relationship, the series follows her friends' unconventional plan to hire a male escort to help her heal. The show perfectly captures the complexities of modern relationships and offers a glimpse into Parisian life.

Family Business

This comedy follows a family's unexpected venture into the cannabis industry. When France legalizes marijuana, Joseph, a struggling entrepreneur, sees a golden opportunity to save the family's kosher butcher shop. With his quirky family by his side, he embarks on a hilarious journey to transform their business into a marijuana café.

The Adventures of Tintin (Les Aventures de Tintin)

This animated series follows a young reporter and his dog Snowy across adventures that take them around the world. Beginners benefit from the simple, clear language spoken at a pace that doesn't leave you behind. The stories are built around action and visuals, so even when you miss a word, the scenes tell you what's happening.

Nailed It, France (C'est du Gâteau)

This is the French version of the popular Netflix baking competition where amateur bakers attempt to recreate elaborate cakes and fail spectacularly. Reality TV is one of the better formats for picking up French slang and casual expressions because nobody is sticking to a script.

French TV Shows for Intermediate Learners

Once you’ve mastered some basic vocabulary and grammar, you’ll be ready to step into “full-French” shows. At this level, you'll grasp idiomatic expressions, learn natural transitions and filler words, understand a wider variety of accents and speaking styles, and gain deeper insight into French society, history, and humor.

Read also: Beginner's French Course

Call My Agent! (Dix Pour Cent)

This workplace comedy-drama is a must-watch. It blends humor, drama, and celebrity cameos into a captivating mix. The series offers a hilarious and often heartwarming look at the world of French cinema.

Standing Up (Drôle)

This comedy series is set in the Paris stand-up comedy scene, following four comedians from different backgrounds trying to make it in a world that wasn't built for them. This show is a great way to pick up French slang and the kind of casual, fast language that native speakers use in real conversations.

Chef's Table: France

This documentary series profiles some of the most celebrated chefs in French cuisine, with each episode focused on one chef's story, philosophy, and relationship with food. This is a solid show for building food and cooking vocabulary in context.

French TV Shows for Advanced Learners

These shows are suitable for advanced learners because the dialogue is dense and moves quickly.

La Mante

This crime series follows a detective as he tries to catch a serial killer before they strike again. The twist? The killer is copying murders committed years before by someone the detective knows all too well: his own mother. Police procedurals in French use a specific vocabulary around investigations, interrogations, and legal proceedings that you won't pick up from everyday conversation.

The Bonfire of Destiny (Le Bazar de la Charité)

This historical drama is based on the real-life Bazar de la Charité fire that killed over 120 people in Paris in 1897. This show is useful for getting used to formal, period-accurate French speech.

A Very Secret Service (Au Service de la France)

This comedy series is set in the 1960s, following a young recruit who joins the French secret service during the Cold War era. It's a fun way to experience French humor and understand how satire works in the language.

Other French TV Shows to Consider

Lupin

This is a thrilling French series that reinvents the classic gentleman thief character for a modern audience. Inspired by the iconic Arsène Lupin, the show follows Assane Diop, a charismatic anti-hero seeking revenge against a wealthy family who wronged his father.

La Forêt (The Forest)

This crime series takes you deep into the heart of the mysterious Ardennes forest as police investigate the disappearance of a teenage girl. The eerie setting of the forest, combined with the chilling mysteries surrounding it, creates a truly immersive viewing experience.

Marseille

This political drama offers a no-holds-barred look at the underbelly of French politics. The series centers on a power struggle between the long-standing mayor and his ambitious protégé.

Into the Night

This Belgian series starts when an armed soldier storms a plane and forces it to take off immediately. A mysterious phenomenon means they need to keep flying west-no matter what.

Marianne

This is a chilling horror series that delves deep into the psychological horror of a writer haunted by her own creations. The show masterfully blends suspense, terror, and a touch of the occult to create a truly unsettling viewing experience.

Osmosis

This thought-provoking sci-fi drama takes you on a thrilling journey into a future where love can be engineered. The show raises profound questions about the nature of love, relationships, and free will.

Tips for Learning French with TV Shows

Read the synopsis: Before diving into a new film or series, take some time to read through the synopsis.
Adjust playback speed: Modern streaming platforms often offer the ability to adjust playback speed.
Use close captions: Opt for close captioning in the language you’re learning rather than relying on translations.
Engage with the dialogue: Focus on how words are pronounced and the melody of sentences.
Practice shadowing: Select scenes or dialogues to watch repeatedly, then practice shadowing by repeating the dialogue as it’s spoken.
Look up unfamiliar words: Whenever you encounter unfamiliar words or phrases, pause the film to look them up.
Watch consistently: Commit to watching several episodes, or even a whole season, of the same series.

Make Learning Fun with Migaku

Migaku is designed to help you make language learning seamless while watching the best French films and TV shows. With Migaku, you can tap any word in the subtitles to instantly see its definition, save new vocabulary into your personalized flashcard deck, and practice spaced repetition with the words you’ve actually encountered while watching.

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