Hard - Soon to be on the air on Sky (UK)

IMPORTANT : If you're a child or a teenager intending to snoop around on that thread, first of all you're cool, and second of all you should know that below there's a (rather soft) picture of a lady's tooshie (a promotional pic for the show). So, you know, don't look at it (but I'm sure you had closed your eyes already when hearing this thread would feature such vulgar obscenity, because that's what kids do).

Well, this thread had been put as "draft" by someone. I just put it back up now, but as I said last night, I took the Supernatural label off today (guess no one will ever know if the cast of the show did appear naked on Hard) and I also altered the controversial picture of two cheeks, since it seems to have caused outrage. But come on, it's just a woman's ass, and the picture wasn't even shot in a tacky, vulgar way so I wonder what's the problem. Oh, well, you will see no butt today, rest assured kids (that is unless you've watched a "family-friendly" show featuring blood, monsters and death). As for the label, it was just a joke, relax. It took me time to write this message so I thought I'd give it the SPN spin for it to get more than 4.5 readers.

Leblogtvnews.com reports that Sky, the british satellite television service, has recently acquired the rights to air Hard, a Canal+ comedy series starring Natacha Lindinger (1788 et demi, Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky) as Sophie, who, shortly after becoming a widow, finds out that his husband owned Soph'X, an indebted company producing porno movies. Prior to that sale, Hard had already been sold to international markets such as Canada (Télévision de Radio-Canada), Germany (Sat1) and Italy (Mediaset).

Season 1 (6 episodes) aired on Fridays at 11pm in May 2008, and season 2 (12 episodes) aired on Mondays at 9pm in May 2011. Each episode is 30 minutes long. As of today, no word on whether the show has been renewed for a third season or not, but this purchase from Sky for british audiences will only help.

I haven't seen the show yet, but I've heard very good things, as pretty much all the time with Canal+ original series (minus XIII, which is coincidentally the first english-speaking Canal+ series, but thankfully the great first season of english-speaking Borgia set the records straight).

If you have the opportunity, maybe you should watch this show (I know I will). Jared Padalecki, Misha Collins and Jensen Ackles may or may not have shot nude scenes for Hard. I guess you'll have to check it out to find out for sure.

Anyway, here's a trailer for the first season coming soon on Sky :




Cathy Varney wrote all 18 episodes (Stéphane Foenkinos co-wrote season 2 with her) and she directed 12 episodes (Benoît Pétré directed episodes 2.07 to 2.12).

Cathy Varney had not done anything else before Hard, and that was the idea : each season, Canal+ gives carte blanche to newcomers as part of La Nouvelle Trilogie experience (the seventh installment will arrive in a few months). You write them something original, if you get selected you go and pitch it to the programming directors and if they decide to choose your story, you get means & funds to get that story on the air, preferably as a 90-minute standalone (split in 3 parts for the broadcast, and there's usually 3 different stories, thus giving a 'trilogy' of movies from 3 newcomers). Canal+ were really confident Hard would work, so instead of the usual 3-part commitment, they allowed Varney to have the 6 episodes she wanted. It paid off, and the show got renewed for a 12-episode season airing in primetime last year.


While on the subject of Canal+ original comedies, Kaboul Kitchen, starring Gilbert Melki (Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran, Angel-A, La vérité si je mens trilogy), premiered Monday night. If you want to know what it's about, you can check out this thread or that one or even that one. Most critics are praising the show, and thankfully it got great ratings : an average of one million viewers (15% of the subscribers) watched the first 3 episodes from 9pm to 10:30pm. It's a little more than Platane's ratings back in September but it's less than original drama series Borgia or Braquo season 2. Well, since you're asking, I, too, liked the first three episodes of Kaboul Kitchen (great cast, great chemistry between the leads and an original premise that pays off so far) and I will be back next week for more.

Also, Canal+ announced that the 110-minute TV movie Yann Piat, chronique d'un assassinat, will air this April, so it's likely to be on Monday, April 16, after the end of Mafiosa's fourth season the week before. Directed by Antoine de Caunes (Les Morsures de l'Aube), written by Dominique Garnier (La femme publique) and starring Karin Viard (Delicatessen, Le Couperet) as Yann Piat, this chronicle of an assassination won the Prix du Jury and the Prix du Public at the Luchon festival last week. It takes place from 1986 to 1994 and follows the political rise of Yann Piat from her first wins for the Front National (= far right) to her assassination by two thugs on motorcycles.

EDIT : After much consideration, I took the Supernatural tag off of this thread. Sending innocent SPN fans onto this page mostly taking about a french cable comedy dealing with porn (and which got picked up by a big british company, so this thread is relevant on Spoiler TV, sort of) was too crual, even for me. But I'll say this again : Jared Padalecki, Jason Ackles and Misha Collins may (or may not) have shot a nude scene on Hard, with full frontal nudity for all three of them, which quite possibly ended up in a threesome. But if you don't watch the show, you'll never know if that's true.

EDIT #2 : Sorry, I put the tag back, couldn't resist. I'll take it off tomorrow morning (so when harm will be done, basically). That's because I truly believe that I may be right : official statistics show there's a 0.92% chance of it being true : Jensen, Jared and Misha might have guest starred naked on Hard and might have done things to each other on screen.

Well, that's going to give an unusual exposure to a Canal-related news, so, uh... watch Engrenages ! Watch Reporters ! Watch Scalp ! Watch Pigalle la nuit ! Watch Mafiosa ! Watch Braquo ! Watch Borgia ! Watch Platane ! Watch the other few Canal+ original series I didn't mention (except XIII, don't watch that, your pupils would burn). Please, pretty please ! Either you won't understand a thing, or you'll be pleased to have seen great, original TV. While I'm at it, watch Curb your Enthusiasm, too, that's comedic genius right there — soon this show will be as big on SpoilerTV as Fringe or SPN, I know it will (see how much I mention Supernatural in this thread ? Totally coincidental, obviously. SPN).

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