In last Friday’s episode, the screenwriters of “Plus belle la vie” had fun winking at a cult scene from the series “The Wire”.
If daily soap operas are often mocked for their sometimes incredible scenarios, they sometimes have a little fun with series fans. This was the case in episode 4460 of Plus belle la vie broadcast on Friday January 21.
As Jean-Paul (Stéphane Henon) and Ariane (Lola Marois) inspect the place where Talbot was killed, they chain the “whore” as they discover clues. For several minutes, it’s the only word that comes out of their mouths, giving this sequence a comic aspect.
If neophytes saw nothing more than a strange dialogue scene, screenwriter Nicolas Robert, who notably worked on The Code for France 2, immediately understood that it was in fact referring to a cult scene from The Wire (On Listening in French), an American series broadcast on HBO in the early 2000s.
“I was in the living room and suddenly, boom. Quietly, with mischief, the January 21 episode of Plus belle la vie slipped a remake of the cult ‘Fuck Scene’ into its narration.” he wrote on Twitter on Tuesday, tagging in passing Pauline Rocafull, screenwriter of the episode in question.
She also very quickly confirmed the direct homage to this scene, from an episode of season 1 entitled “Old Cases”. For five minutes, McNulty (Dominic West) and Bunk (Wendell Pierce), who return to a crime scene overlooked by previous detectives, exchange no words except “fucks” and “motherfuckers” that punctuate each of their discoveries.
Hailed by critics, The Wire marked the history of TV series, becoming for many a true monument of pop culture. For 5 seasons, its creator, David Simon, set about painting a portrait of the city of Baltimore through its crime and the efforts of law enforcement and social workers to address it.
More than a simple inventory, it is a real social chronicle that the spectator is invited to follow by discovering the city from all its angles. On Listening is available in France on OCS and MyCANAL.
Check out the famous scene from The Wire below:
