10.19.2008

La roue de la fortune

Someone loaned me a TV for my apartment. I only get three channels though, and one of them is in Flemish. But fortunately for me, one of the two channels that I get and can actually understand shows La roue de la fortune, aka French Wheel of Fortune. It’s basically the same thing as ours, but the differences make it hilarious. The girl who turns the letters over is young, ridiculously blonde, and wears dresses that look to be about two sizes too small for her. In the credits they only call her Victoria, no last name. She makes remarks throughout the show and makes faces when the contestants guess a wrong letter. Also, one time after a commercial break, the host definitely unzipped the top part of Victoria's dress...which zipped down the side. Since it was so tight, he couldn't get it zipped back up and some other guy who must have been a tech guy or something had to come on and help him. It was weird. The host is pretty entertaining as well. He has a dog that sits with him on the set. I haven’t figured out the reasoning behind that yet.

The people who come to compete are quite similar to the ones who go on Wheel of Fortune, c’est-à-dire usually overenthusiastic and not necessarily all that good at the game. It’s a little less frustrating to watch it here than back home because at least I’m at a disadvantage with the whole language thing and am less likely to solve the puzzles early on, but sometimes I still know the answer to a puzzle long before the contestants seem to. Really?

My favorite part about La roue de la fortune is that on the wheel there’s a removable slice called “caverne.” If the wheel lands on that, the contestant stops what he’s doing and goes with the host to another part of the stage where there are a bunch of expensive things—electronics and kitchen appliances and a scooter. The contestant has thirty seconds to grab as many things as he can, and then the total value of the things that he’s gotten is added to his overall score. It’s really bizarre.

I don't watch much more than that show. But I did catch an episode of
Bob l'Eponge the other day, and the dubbed voice for Spongebob is way too deep instead of high-pitched and annoying. French children are not getting the full experience!

1 comment:

MegoPolo said...

Bob L'eponge, haha. I love French.