With the latest release of French series its global brand for a while now with international shows like How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast) and Baby, but it already has a very bingeable inventory of French-language shows on the platform right now.
From comedy to drama to horror, Netflix features many genres of French-language web series to stream from within the past few years. Here are some great French series available to watch right now if you liked Lupin.
Family Business
This French comedy takes place in Paris after is close to fully legalizing pot. In response, the Hazan family turns its butcher shop business into a coffee shop that sells marijuana. A slew of problems ensue with the new business venture, such as financial and renovation issues that run the family into comedic panics.
The show was ordered direct-to-series in 2019, and it subsequently aired a second season with a third one confirmed in October of 2020. There are only six episodes for each season running at 30 minutes per episode, making it an easily bingeable show with a cast of charismatic characters in a comically contemporary situation.
Marianne
French drama horror series Marianne follows the story of novelist Emma Larsimon (Victoire Du Bois) whose fictional characters turn out to also exist in real life. As she returns to her hometown, Emma must face the nightmarish creations she has conceived in her writing. The show includes numerous themes relating to dreams and even religion, making for an effectively chilling and binge-worthy watch.
Full of psychedelic dream sequences and jump scares, the series has one season with eight episodes running around 50 minutes each that premiered in the fall of 2019 and has garnered positive reviews, including praise from horror novelist Steven King.
The Eddy
This French-American limited series is a musical drama centering on Parisian jazz club owner Elliot who faces numerous different obstacles running a music venue, including problems with his live band and his daughter. The eight-episode show debuted in May of 2020, and the first two episodes were directed by La La Land and Whiplash’s Damien Chazelle and written by Shameless and Skins’ Jack Thorne. The Eddy also contains a mixture of dialogue in French, English, and Arabic. The show features a moody atmosphere and stars ’s André Holland and Joana Kulig, as well as America's Amandla Stenberg.
Plan Coeur (The Hookup Plan)
This 2018 comedy is the second French-language Netflix original series after Marseille. The Hookup Plan is a feel-good web comedy that follows protagonist Elsa (Zita Hanrot), a klutzy but ambitious woman coping with a breakup. In an attempt to help her move on, Elsa’s friends Charlotte (Sabrina Ouazani) and Êmilie (Joséphine Draï) hire male escort Jules (Marc Ruchmann) without Elsa's knowledge to charm her and reignite her confidence in the romance world. Problems arise, though, when the plan backfires and feelings enter the mix.
The show was recently renewed for a third and final season, and the second season features a special COVID-19 episode that premiered in August of 2020 that tv-goers might enjoy especially now while still in lockdown. The series is a bingeable romantic comedy taking place in Paris that offers a fun, French respite.
Le Chalet (The Chalet)
The Chalet is a French thriller that takes place in a cottage by the forest in the French Alps, where a series of accidents pushes friends on their summer trip to paranoia and hysteria. This series might interest people who like nonlinear timelines, as the show alternates between two separate timelines during 1997 and 2017. With only six episodes running at 50 minutes each, The Chalet is certainly bingeable as it rides off the suspense of unfolding timelines with a cast of interesting characters growing increasingly unhinged.
Marseille
This is the first French-language original series produced exclusively for Netflix, and the first season aired in May of 2016 with eight episodes running at around 40 minutes each. The story is threaded with plots of corruption and redemption in Marseille, where the city’s longtime mayor Robert Taro (Gérard Depardieu) faces off against his younger former disciple (Benoît Magimel). Some might consider the show a French version of House of Cards, so those interested in political television shows might enjoy this two-season series.
Black Spot
French-Belgian supernatural thriller Black Spot follows investigator Franck Siriani (Laurent Capelluto), who examines a series of seemingly unexplainable murders that take place in the fictional town of Villefranche, murders which, set in the dark, gloomy forest, can only suggest supernatural interference.
The show has two seasons with eight hour-long episodes each. The first season premiered in 2017 and the second in 2019. Black Spot is a crime show with dark and supernatural twists, and fans of horror might enjoy this series that takes place in a gothic forest in the mountains.
Osmosis
Some consider Osmosis a French Black Mirror. The Netflix original sci-fi series takes place in a future version of Paris, where dating app “Osmosis” accesses the deep recesses of s’ brains to most accurately detect their perfect romantic match. Complications arise, though, as the app has unlimited access to every consumer’s thoughts and, consequently, their deepest secrets. The show only has one season with eight episodes and first aired in March of 2019. Rather than directly commenting on the dangers of technology, the show suggests technology as a tool for the even more dangerous power of the human mind.
Dix Pour Cent (Call My Agent!)
Call My Agent! first premiered in 2015 and has since released three additional seasons. The plot centers around four agents at talent agency ASK who balance their career as agents, often a 24/7 job, with their personal lives. The show offers an interesting look at the life of an agent or assistant working with talent, especially as they find creative solutions to their clients’ problems -- most often through deception.
One of the most interesting features about the show is that every episode centers on a different well-known French actor (e.g. Cécile de ) facing everyday obstacles in the industry, bringing in new problems and characters for each episode. In fact, even Sigourney Weaver guest stars in one episode in the latest season.
Lupin
Mystery thriller Lupin is the first French series to rank in the top 10 on Netflix in the US, and it even what the French are capable of.”