The top 10 of the best original creations Canal Plus

What are the best series that made Canal + famous? Here are the original creations that you must have seen.

10) The flame (2020) – 2 seasons

If the parody of Koh Lanta – with The torch – was clearly more sluggish, the first season replaying the Bachelor is already cult. Marc, an unbearable airline pilot, is looking for love. And to try to seduce him, the elite of French cinema place themselves at the feet of Jonathan Cohen : Leïla Bekhti, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Ana Girardot, Laure Calamy, Géraldine Nakache… A schoolboy comedy spiked with cult moments, like the invention of the exceptional “Jean-Guile”, the evening at the bowling alley with a blind Florence Foresti or the creation of “Chatalèré”… A series which also contributed to revealing Pierre Niney as a megastar of the valve that kills. Without a doubt the funniest thing in a long time.

9) Ghosts (2012) – 2 seasons

For the first time, an Original Creation from the encrypted channel launches into pure fantasy. And it’s a triumph. Crowned Best Drama at the International Emmy Awards, the series created by Fabrice Gobert – based on the eponymous film by Robin Campillo – takes us into the foggy, mystical, almost unreal atmosphere of a small town enclosed between the mountains and an imposing dam, where people of all ages arrive one day, wandering aimlessly and totally disoriented. These people have been dead for several years and are back on Earth, trying to regain their place among the living who no longer really expect them… But where do they come from? Why did they come back? And how to accept them? A story of ghosts sumptuously reinvented, moving and fascinating, to the point of having been entitled to an American remake by Carlton Cuse (Lost, Bates Motel…). A series that made history in national television, despite its season 2 being significantly less well received.

8) The Savages (2019) – mini-series in 6 episodes

The director Rebecca Zlotowski stages Roschdy Zem on the steps of the Elysée, in this passionate political thriller, adapted from Sabri Louatah. A bold fresco, which takes multicultural France head on by imagining the election of a president of North African origin and embraces its mixture of tones without fear of narrative overload. A series which at times leans towards the cinema of James Gray or Michael Cimino, but finds its own tone, lyrical and bitter. Like the conclusion, whispered in the viewer’s ear, which indicates that it is perhaps by recognizing the imperfection of a society that we can patiently move forward.

7) UFO(s) (2021) – 2 seasons

Before that, you had certainly never heard of Gepan. The Group for the Study of Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena did indeed exist, in France, at the end of the 1970s. And the series immerses us in this madness of ufology and other paranormal phenomena. Ambitious and unusual in French fiction, this zany comedy – but not too much – exudes a scent of assumed nostalgia, an authentic tribute to the era whose references it piles on with relish. And Melvil Poupaud has fun in this improbable science fiction series not quite like the others.

6) Black Baron (2016) – 3 seasons

It is the favorite political series of French politicians. The one they happily quote as soon as a microphone asks them about their little television pleasures. And for good reason, by their own admission, Black Baron spectacularly reflects the corridors of power, parties, and the political class in general. The creators Eric Benzekri and Jean-Baptiste Delafon did a lot of research in advance (Alexis Corbière or Jean-Christophe Cambadélis advised), before inventing the character of Philippe Rickwaert, PS deputy from the North, sacrificed by his mentor while he is about to win the presidential election. Kad Merad explodes into a super serious role, light years away from Kamoulox. A stunning performance, honored by an International Emmy Award, facing the so powerful Niels Arestrup. You will no longer see politics in the same way.

5) Gears (2005) – 8 seasons

It is the most emblematic Original Creation of the Canal series. A criminal fiction that revolutionized the genre, telling the life of the Paris courthouse and its workings, through a hyper-realistic prism, carried by a thunderous casting, of fantasy Caroline Proust to the animal Thierry Godard and passing by the future star Audrey Fleurot. Embracing the points of view of the police officers as well as the prosecutor or the investigating judge, Gears is an edifying war machine, sold in 70 countries and above all one of the rare French series truly known in the United States. Thanks to its broadcast on Netflix, Spiral even won the International Emmy Award for Best Drama in 2015.

4) Hippocrates (2018) – 3 seasons

We are quite far from Grey’s Anatomy. The Canal version of the medical series is done through a former doctor. Thomas Lilti recounts the small and large setbacks of the hospital in this serial version which takes up the themes of his 2014 film – hailed by 7 César nominations – without losing anything of what made it so charming. A drama in white coats, which knows how to admirably navigate between romance and societal realism. Louise Bourgoin And Alice Belaïdi glow in the face of revelation Karim Leklou. A vibrant series in the form of political advocacy for the hospital to regain a central place in public policies, which has taken on a completely different scale since COVID. In this post-health crisis context, the third season is also being filmed.

3) Of Silver and Blood (2023) – 2 seasons

There was the documentary The Kings of Scam, on Netflix. This time, the scandal linked to the carbon tax inspires Xavier Giannoli. The director crowned at the César with Lost Illusions takes on the heist of the century, a surrealist VAT heist, which he transforms into a gleaming financial thriller, dissecting the madness of voracious capitalism behind a cast of colorful characters. Vincent Lindon is still as inhabited as ever, but the prize goes to Ramzy Bédia, demented and disturbing as a thug from Belleville ready to conquer the world.

2) The Legends Office (2015) – 5 seasons

It is about to have its remake in the USA, by George Clooney himself. This great spy series from Eric Rochant, which has become a global phenomenon, takes the viewer behind the scenes of the DGSE with meticulousness and exhilarating intensity. Carried by a staging of breathtaking suspense, we discover the functioning of the French intelligence services, its issues and its missions, through characters larger than life. Malotru will remain in the annals of the small screen. And around a Mathieu Kassovitz found, the entire cast does a job of rare precision. Jean-Pierre DarroussinSara Giraudeau, Florence Loiret-Caille or Jonathan Zaccaï will forever be associated with this legend.

1) The Young Pope / The New Pope (2016) – 2 seasons

This Canal Plus Original Creation holds a special place since it is an international creation, co-produced with HBO in particular. But it nonetheless remains absolutely essential. A television monument imagined by Paolo Sorrentino and in which the Italian director deploys all his cinema. A hyperbole of power in the form of a biblical painting, embodied by an inhabited Jude Law, who plays the new enlightened, radical and tyrannical American pope of the Vatican. A young Sovereign Pontiff with retrograde ideas, and who is accountable only to God. A masterpiece of irreverent satire, which does not weaken in its second season or John Malkovich arrives at the Holy See in New Pope competitor. Over the course of his 19 episodes, Sorrentino has fun building a gallery of cynical and ridiculous churchmen, but whom he films with love. And from perversion to perversion, the filmmaker describes a funny political circus where blackmail ultimately takes up more space than prayers. A work of art from the small screen if ever there was one.