French tv rec: Tout Va Bien ("Everything Is Fine")
Jun. 13th, 2025 07:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tinny
Tout Va Bien - English title: Everything Is Fine
It's a French 8-episode drama about a family whose child has leukemia - basically it's a study on how people deal with grief.
This show is amazingly well-written. I read a few interviews and it turns out that screen-writer and producer Camille de Castelnau's niece had leukemia, and that explains the incredible realism both concerning hospital routine and emotions.
It stars Virginie Efira, Sara Girardeau, and Nicole Garcia. (And Mehdi Nebbou.)
What I personally loved about it is how calmly everything flows. The situation itself is so horrible, there's no need for added dramatics. The hospital routine, the facts, the medical details, it all speaks for itself. You can clearly see the cracks appearing in all the characters, but there's barely any shouting, there are barely any tears except for characters crying quietly when they're alone, there are no major fights. Everyone is high-strung and weighed down to their breaking point, but it's never exploited for shock value.
Is this a rec? Yes! Although there's one major thing I did not like.
Does it have a happy ending:
ending spoilers
I'm double-spoiler-cutting this. Unfortunately, yes. The show sets up this extremely painful and realistic family drama about a child dying, and then the child does not die at the end. This annoyed me very very much, because they completely robbed us of that well-earned katharsis of how life could have continued after Rose's death. Fuck Disney. Ymmv.
Where can I watch it? It's on hulu and Disney+.
non-spoilery character screencaps
Rose in the hospital, getting her blood transplant
Marion and Stephane - Rose's parents, struggling to cope
Claire, Marion's sister and Rose's aunt, with her boyfriend Antonio
Antonio's ex-wife with their daughter Lou, about whom she's fighting a custody battle
Vincent - Rose's uncle (the youngesst of the three children) and steward for an airline
Vincent hates hospitals, but can't turn down the requests for his help
Anne, Rose's grandmother and famous author, always working, and her husband Pascal
Louis, Marion's secret affair - yes that is Mehdi Nebbou and I watched the whole thing for him
the hospital psychologist, one of my favorite characters, she gives the best advice
my comments (also non-spoilery)
* What makes this series so brilliant is that each character deals with the situation in their own way, and I found it realistic that even within one family, the approaches of every person would be different.
* Rose herself, despite being a young girl, is shown in a way that I could empathize with. She's not the unfortunate carrier that causes all the problems but is herself unaffected. She's afraid but cautiously optimistic, sometimes dead tired, sometimes annoying, sometimes happy. All very normal, I thought.
* The mother, Marion, strikes up an anonymous (mostly sexual) relationship with a man she meets in the parking lot of the hospital, just to get away from everything for a little while.
* The uncle, Vincent, has a phobia of hospitals and the whole situation gives him panic attacks. His life as a steward for an airline - complete with "a girl in every port" - slowly falls apart. He's probably the most cruelly affected by the story. <3
* The younger sister, Leonie, is acting up because her parents are focused mostly on her dying sister - and because she's losing her sister, of course.
* The father, Stephane, is probably the single underdeveloped character in the show. He only gets a few scenes with his wife and daughter, and one scene at work, and that's it. The women are by far better developd (and I can't say I minded).
* The grandmother, Anne, is a famous author of self-help books and tries to push her "helpful" attitude on everyone around her, including Rose.
* The aunt, Claire, tries to deal with the tragedy by taking on as many tasks as she can, to help in any way she can, neglecting everyone else in favor of Rose (and her sister Marion).
* Plus, a lot of the characters are grieving about more than one thing:
** Anne is confronted with the fact that her editor and long-time lover has been sexually abusing other clients of his and his image and company are imploding.
** Claire is dealing with the custody battle for her boyfriend Antonio's daughter, and struggling with her inability to connect with that girl, Lou. Lou herself also acts out sometimes due to the conflict between her divorced parents.
** The ex-wife of Antonio is mourning her failed relationship and tries to sabotage his new happiness in every way she can.
** The grandfather, Pascal, is mourning his own relationship (his wife cheating on him with her editor for years) and getting older and not being needed by anyone.
* All of this is marvellously interwoven and sometimes it's like watching a train-wreck in slow motion. Nobody knows how the cancer will progress/react, and everyone is caught in their own bubble, unable to escape.
* A minor nitpick is that some of the supporting characters are a little 'too supportive'. Louis, Marion's secret lover, doesn't seem to have his own goals and seemingly just exists to support Marion. Antonio, Claire's boyfriend, has an endless amount of patience for both Claire and his ex-wife. Alice, one of Vincent's girlfriends, becomes part of the family and gives him far more love than their casual relationship warrants.
* I personally loved the hospital psychologist - a family therapist who gets to say a lot of the best lines.
* In general, there are quite a few amazing lines of dialogue. Like when the grandmother says (about herself) "it's so hard to watch your daughter suffer and not being able to help" - like, no shit, Anne, you selfish ass! Or when Louis says "the palliative care unit is no place for clowns" and Marion answers, "it's no place for children." Or the editor, explaining to Anne why he never assaulted her, "because I never needed to." Or when Marion says to her husband that "without her hair, she looks even more like you." There are so many good lines of dialogue in this, those are just the ones that I remember off the top of my head.
* Last but not least, I would never have watched this if Mehdi Nebbou wasn't in it. He has a much bigger role than I'd expected - probably the biggest non-family-member role in the show - and it was very very much worth watching it for him. But I ended up loving the show for its amazing writing, and I can absolutely rec it on its own merits, Mehdi or no.
(no subject)
Jun. 12th, 2025 11:45 pmdani_meows
Jasper is currently resting comfortably with me checking on him frequently to make sure he doesn't scratch his eye area or need anything. In exchange he doesn't have to wear the cone.
So far he's being a real trooper about it just like last time. I really do think cats understand English and he understood my explanations of what was happening.
The opthalmologist took out everything they could and hopefully the biopsy will show the cancer not all the way through the removed tissue.
Ian gets paid in ten minutes so we don't have to worry about not having enough money for groceries/expenses after that.
The above picture is of Jasper at our vet the day we went to understand his diagnosis.
Besides Jasper I've mostly been reading fanfiction and making sure the other three cats aren't jealous of the attention Jasper's getting.
The headache I've had for days is getting better. And I'm glad the cancer cells are hopefully out of my cat.
Three weeks or so we should know for sure.
Which will put us in July. Hopefully after the anniversary of the cat who's death still feels fresh rather than almost a year ago.
Anyway Jasper is asleep and safe for now. I'm going to go back to reading fanfiction mostly about Harry Potter being raised by his godfather. Sometimes with manipulative Dumbledore... They are my weakness.
(no subject)
Jun. 12th, 2025 01:24 amdani_meowsJasper's surgery is in six hours.
I am a mess of anxiety.
We won't know until about 3 weeks or so if this time they got all of it. Last time they didn't know it was cancerous and the cancer was all the way into the margins.
I hope they can get the cancer out. I hope he'll forgive us for putting him through another surgery.
I hope he won't stop cuddling me or purring on my shoulder while nesting onto my boobs for a nap.
I am a mess of anxiety.
We won't know until about 3 weeks or so if this time they got all of it. Last time they didn't know it was cancerous and the cancer was all the way into the margins.
I hope they can get the cancer out. I hope he'll forgive us for putting him through another surgery.
I hope he won't stop cuddling me or purring on my shoulder while nesting onto my boobs for a nap.
(no subject)
Jun. 9th, 2025 11:05 pmdani_meowsI am so anxious today. My chest hurts. My tongue is numb.
I have a valid reason for my anxiety. Jasper's surgery is soon. This Thursday. I am so afraid. I regret Miso's surgery last year. Even though it was the best chance we had of him living to see six years of age. Unfortunately he was one of ten percent of cats who don't survive multiple urinary tract blockage followed by PU surgery.
This is a different thing but in some ways it's the same. Money is tight. The cat is ill and it all comes down to this treatment.
I also feel bad they have to open the healed area to reopen it. But even if they'd found it earlier we would have had to wait because cats should not go under more than once in a month.
Especially a senior boy with kidney disease.
I want to believe they will successfully remove all the melanoma cells. That they will be successful.
That a few weeks from now I'll be blogging about something random maybe my thoughts on anime or books or literally anything with Jazzy beside me like he is right now. Nori and Boo next to him. My three cat boys having a sleep while their sister plots world domination for endless supplies of ice cream and macaroni noodles.
But I'm scared. Is it my anxiety disorder? Maybe yes? Maybe no.
I have a valid reason for my anxiety. Jasper's surgery is soon. This Thursday. I am so afraid. I regret Miso's surgery last year. Even though it was the best chance we had of him living to see six years of age. Unfortunately he was one of ten percent of cats who don't survive multiple urinary tract blockage followed by PU surgery.
This is a different thing but in some ways it's the same. Money is tight. The cat is ill and it all comes down to this treatment.
I also feel bad they have to open the healed area to reopen it. But even if they'd found it earlier we would have had to wait because cats should not go under more than once in a month.
Especially a senior boy with kidney disease.
I want to believe they will successfully remove all the melanoma cells. That they will be successful.
That a few weeks from now I'll be blogging about something random maybe my thoughts on anime or books or literally anything with Jazzy beside me like he is right now. Nori and Boo next to him. My three cat boys having a sleep while their sister plots world domination for endless supplies of ice cream and macaroni noodles.
But I'm scared. Is it my anxiety disorder? Maybe yes? Maybe no.
(no subject)
Jun. 9th, 2025 01:35 amdani_meowsI'm finally caught up on comments!
Let's see:
Jasper has surgery on Thursday to hopefully remove the rest of the melanoma which hopefully isn't spreading elsewhere. The lab gave it a 20 percent chance of moving elsewhere. But then again the biopsy was an abundance of caution from the optometrist vet and only had a 15 percent or so chance of being cancerous.
Poor Jasper and I.
He's been in good spirits. His weight is back up but we'd like it if he'd gain a pound. He's a thin mint. He's been curling up and cuddling more since we had to evacuate in October because of hurricane Milton and that trend has continued. No hard feelings from the first surgery and that will hopefully continue with this second one.
I'm preparing for his surgery by trying to change my sleeping schedule so someone is with Jasper at all times. Ian doesn't have off work this time so it'll be a little trickier but thankfully he works from home.
Thinking about making a play pen type thing for him because he's unsteady and frail without meds but becomes extra unsteady on meds.
I got my birthday presents in the mail, and have happily enjoyed the manga for nichijou,
and looking forward to reading the two history books.
Spent some time playing dreamlight valley. Love the Cheshire cat!
I really need some new media my muse is pretty much dead.
Saw the gif of Billie Piper becoming the Doctor it's shame Doctor Who sucks and makes no sense otherwise I would be incoherent with delight. Love me some Billie Piper and in the hands of someone wanting to tell a good story you could do interesting things with that.
I think I'd pick a point and have the Timeless Child be a trap by the Master because that whole thing started the convoluted nonsense that is currently canon. Plus the Master being endlessly tortured as a child in order to have regenerations stolen from him would have made more sense. Given some depth to his crazy. A reason for him to destroy everything.
But supposedly it's cancelled.
Afraid to look at my friends page. Tumblr has been full of people lately that are cool with parroting terrorists phrases being cool with people being killed for being Jewish. I have blocked so soooo many people.
Let's see:
Jasper has surgery on Thursday to hopefully remove the rest of the melanoma which hopefully isn't spreading elsewhere. The lab gave it a 20 percent chance of moving elsewhere. But then again the biopsy was an abundance of caution from the optometrist vet and only had a 15 percent or so chance of being cancerous.
Poor Jasper and I.
He's been in good spirits. His weight is back up but we'd like it if he'd gain a pound. He's a thin mint. He's been curling up and cuddling more since we had to evacuate in October because of hurricane Milton and that trend has continued. No hard feelings from the first surgery and that will hopefully continue with this second one.
I'm preparing for his surgery by trying to change my sleeping schedule so someone is with Jasper at all times. Ian doesn't have off work this time so it'll be a little trickier but thankfully he works from home.
Thinking about making a play pen type thing for him because he's unsteady and frail without meds but becomes extra unsteady on meds.
I got my birthday presents in the mail, and have happily enjoyed the manga for nichijou,
and looking forward to reading the two history books.
Spent some time playing dreamlight valley. Love the Cheshire cat!
I really need some new media my muse is pretty much dead.
Saw the gif of Billie Piper becoming the Doctor it's shame Doctor Who sucks and makes no sense otherwise I would be incoherent with delight. Love me some Billie Piper and in the hands of someone wanting to tell a good story you could do interesting things with that.
I think I'd pick a point and have the Timeless Child be a trap by the Master because that whole thing started the convoluted nonsense that is currently canon. Plus the Master being endlessly tortured as a child in order to have regenerations stolen from him would have made more sense. Given some depth to his crazy. A reason for him to destroy everything.
But supposedly it's cancelled.
Afraid to look at my friends page. Tumblr has been full of people lately that are cool with parroting terrorists phrases being cool with people being killed for being Jewish. I have blocked so soooo many people.
Fannish May
Jun. 7th, 2025 11:38 amtinnyMovies
Not much... I saw a documentary called Ice Grave at the theater, at a festival. It's (another) version of the famous Swedish North Pole expedition in a hydrogen balloon in 1897. I can't honestly recommend it, but it was well done and pretty immersive, put together mostly from the photographs taken by one of the three expedition members. It has an absolutely beautiful saxophone score by Bendik Giske, who was there at the showing, and explained that he recorded it in one go, as one long piece through the whole movie. O_O His style is unique, here's a concert of his: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OQfk5HUN-Q. I couldn't find any more information on it online anywhere, and the version we saw looked kind of unfinished. I don't think it has an international release yet.
TV ongoing
HPI season 5!!!! This fandom is my whole world at the moment and I'm loving it. I've made a French friend with whom to talk about it, and I've managed to rope two friends into the show, and both are on their way through season one and love it so far. \o/
The first three episodes aired in May. My new friend and I agreed to follow the weekly French airing schedule instead of watching all four episodes at once, to really be able to dig into each episode separately. So I've seen the first three and they are brilliant! Half of it is excitement about a new season - premieres tend to do that to me - and half of it is that the end of the first episode is just so very good omg. I'm very happy that I have the means to watch it at all and don't have to wait for months for a German release. (It will be on Disney+ in June, so that's something.) My rewatch is now in season 4, and I suspect if we want to keep going with that, I will have to translate the subs myself. At least I've found French subs by now, so it's less work than it could have been. The first episode was quite a trial for me, watching it without any subs at all. I think I watched it at least five times, and there were still scenes where I didn't get everything.
I had the crazy idea to make a comm for it (
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
hpi_tv) and posted all my icons to it so far. I'm thinking of adding ep discussion posts, and articles/photos, but haven't gotten there yet.I finished The Pitt in one big rush. Phew! So good! I still maintain that the one-day format detracts from my enjoyment of character development, but they did a really good job letting us get to know the characters despite that restriction. I liked all of them in the end, even Langdon. I think my faves were the abrasive women, Santos and McKay. I was happy (not happy) to have predicted what was going to happen in the evening eps, as I'm usually not good at picking up on foreshadowing. I blame it on them being very very obvious. :D I quickly scanned the fic that's there about the show, but nothing snagged me so I've basically put the show behind me. It was good.
Doctor Odyssey finished airing, and the thing I had been afraid of happening did happen, so I'm likely out of there. I don't think they'll get a second season anyway, but... yeah. I might change my mind by September, but I am pretty miffed at where they took it in the end. It was very good in the middle there. The fandom suspects network interference, which probably explains the lack of a renewal. Moving on.
Having been ill for a bit this month, I opted for watching something random and landed on Remington Steele. Oh my, it only holds up part of the time. It's quite funny in places, but a lot of the jokes are more misogynistic than they should be, considering the premise of the show, and Pierce Brosnan's acting is still cringe. (I love him anyway.)
TV new
Murderbot! I watched the first ep, and then started rereading the novella, because I'd forgotten most of it. I finished that (and two more novellas) before I continued with episodes 2 and 3. Definitely a good decision, because I can now relatively confidently tell what follows the book and what they changed. Fwiw, I don't like the fact that murderbot sounds and looks so decidedly male, but I liked it despite that. It's really well done, great visuals, fun book-accurate narration. I think all of it is really close to the book, except for some sex/romance/pining that wasn't in the book. Which confuses me, because Murderbot explicitly says it doesn't care for sex, so why did they think they had to add that? To annoy Murderbot (and its fans) more? I guess it's a valid trade-off between the existing Murderbot fans (who are going to watch it anyway, lets not kid ourselves) and trying to attract new fans by adding more sex. Anyway, that's a minor complaint. I like it so far.
I tried two eps of Etoile, and while I adore the pervasive bilingualism - every character speaks both English and French and some of them codeswitch wonderfully - I actually don't like a single one of the characters. Some of them actively annoy me to a point I never want to see them again. A pity.
Through the whole "where do I get HPI from" stress, I've found more French tv streaming sites and got my hands on more Mehdi Nebbou things:
Another Mehdi Nebbou thing! Tout Va Bien (2023) (English title "Everything is Fine"). It's a French drama about a family whose child has leukemia - basically it's a study on how people deal with grief. I'd originally intended to watch this over the summer, but then it sucked me in and I watched all eight eps this week. (I knew if I stopped, I wouldn't finish it, because the subject matter is so dark.) I only watched this because Mehdi Nebbou is in it (and he's cute and dead sexy in it so totally worth all the tears), and I liked 90% of it very much and have many thoughts about it, so I'll write up a review. It's on hulu.
Aaaaand another Mehdi Nebbou thing! Mann|Frau, a German 2014 webseries of 40 5-minute eps. The title implies that it's about differences between men and women, but that's not at all it. It's just a cute, quirky, slice-of-life, growing-up thing told from two povs, where the protagonists turn into a group of friends/lovers. By the end, I very much loved all the main characters. I never noticed that none of them have names, until I watched an interview with producer Christian Ulmen at the end. :D There's lots of casual drinking and casual drug use (not my thing), and lots of sex and funny dialogue and surprise polyamory (very much my thing!). It's a quick watch, I recommend it. Youtube playlist here (only German, no subs).
Jazzy update
Jun. 6th, 2025 03:36 pmdani_meowsSo we went to the vet on Wednesday to discuss Jasper's whole health with our primary vet. We trust him a lot because he's been our vet for 13 plus years now.
Our vet said that with Jasper's kidney disease (early stage 1) he wouldn't recommend going to an oncologist for treatments as both radiation and chemo may put to much strain on our boys kidneys.
He sent an email to our optometrist who did Jasper's surgery about the risks of going in again to try and remove the additional melanoma cells. And got back to us that day recommending the surgery to hopefully be able to remove the additional melanoma.
Apparently diffuse iris melanoma doesn't grow back often and it's risk of moving elsewhere is also low.
So next Thursday, Jasper goes back in for surgery.
Hopefully they can save him.
I want to have hope. I'm never ready to say goodbye to my cats. And I want Jasper to live as long as he can. To beat kidney disease and Cancer for as long as possible.
At the vet's office I also got to meet a five week old kitten, that our vet rescued! Omg she was the tiniest little thing.
Jasper than bit me in jealousy! I have my hands full with Jasper, Boo, Bitsy and Nori though!
Our vet said that with Jasper's kidney disease (early stage 1) he wouldn't recommend going to an oncologist for treatments as both radiation and chemo may put to much strain on our boys kidneys.
He sent an email to our optometrist who did Jasper's surgery about the risks of going in again to try and remove the additional melanoma cells. And got back to us that day recommending the surgery to hopefully be able to remove the additional melanoma.
Apparently diffuse iris melanoma doesn't grow back often and it's risk of moving elsewhere is also low.
So next Thursday, Jasper goes back in for surgery.
Hopefully they can save him.
I want to have hope. I'm never ready to say goodbye to my cats. And I want Jasper to live as long as he can. To beat kidney disease and Cancer for as long as possible.
At the vet's office I also got to meet a five week old kitten, that our vet rescued! Omg she was the tiniest little thing.
Jasper than bit me in jealousy! I have my hands full with Jasper, Boo, Bitsy and Nori though!
(no subject)
Jun. 6th, 2025 01:03 pm22degreehaloFandom events in 2025 be like:
>'Can I-?' Just have fun!! :) We're here to create! To enjoy ourselves! Or don't. I can't tell you what to do! :P As long as you make something vaguely completion-shaped, we'd love to see it! <3
>Use of AI, in any way, shape, or form, is strictly prohibited. If you are caught using AI on your works, you will be banned from this and any/all of our future events. This includes using AI to rephrase sentences.
RNG is perfectly fine, but AI is not allowed.
>'Can I-?' Just have fun!! :) We're here to create! To enjoy ourselves! Or don't. I can't tell you what to do! :P As long as you make something vaguely completion-shaped, we'd love to see it! <3
>Use of AI, in any way, shape, or form, is strictly prohibited. If you are caught using AI on your works, you will be banned from this and any/all of our future events. This includes using AI to rephrase sentences.
RNG is perfectly fine, but AI is not allowed.