First Apple TV+ unveiled The New Look, a World War II drama depicting French fashion designers heroically carrying on with their vital work in Nazi-occupied Paris. Now the trailer for La Maison, a melodramatic family saga about a fictional French fashion house in crisis, struts down the catwalk. And it’s entirely in French. Hey, it could be great. Or, as the trailer suggests, it could be preposterously self-important.
And check out that tagline: “The fabric of power.” Seriously?
On the plus side, the show is brought to us by some talented folks behind good stuff — The Returned, Lupin and Le Bureau des Légendes. So I’ll leave out the “La Maison du Merde” jokes for now. La Maison debuts on Apple TV+ September 20.
La Maison trailer unfolds family saga of a rival French fashion houses
So the new show, “set within an iconic Paris-based high-fashion atelier,” is a “behind-the-scenes look at the contemporary, ever-evolving world of fashion and aspirational French elegance and luxury,” Apple TV+ said Tuesday. The 10-episode series follows “two illustrious, dysfunctional and powerful rival families as they vie for dominance in the cutthroat world of high fashion.”
And while that description sets up some potentially powerful drama, it doesn’t guarantee anything. A show like this can be delicious good fun, given surprising turns of plot, perhaps a mix of humor and high drama, and great writing for outsized characters to chew on. But the trailer doesn’t show much evidence of those traits in the show. It looks like it takes itself more seriously than the audience might. And do we need another show, like The New Look, that takes French fashion super-seriously? Maybe some people do. And of course trailers can be misleading (sometimes on purpose).
And in the trailer, there’s no shortage of cheesy lines trying to pump up the drama, like, “Sometimes dancing with the devil is the only way to survive.” So true.
Here’s more description from Apple TV+:
High fashion meets high stakes in this behind-the-curtain look at how an iconic fashion house is thrown into scandal and reinvention by a viral video featuring star designer Vincent Ledu (Lambert Wilson), leaving his family’s iconic and legendary haute couture house, LEDU, hanging by a thread. Perle Foster (Amira Casar), Vincent’s former muse who is still in his shadow, teams up with visionary next-generation designer Paloma Castel (Zita Hanrot) to save, evolve and renew the century-old Maison LEDU. Taking advantage of Vincent’s demise, Diane Rovel (Carole Bouquet), the ruthless CEO of the powerful Rovel luxury group, launches an offensive to acquire what she sees as her most important prize: Maison LEDU. To achieve her goal, anything is fair game, as this is more than acquiring just another brand — it’s about revenge.
Watch the trailer for drama series La Maison on Apple TV+
Promising cast and experienced producers
La Maison‘s cast looks formidable, going by its success with leading French film awards:
- Seven-time César Award nominee Wilson (De Gaulle)
- César Award nominee Casar (Call Me by Your Name)
- Best Actress César Award winner Bouquet (En thérapie)
- Most Promising Actress César Award winner Hanrot (Fatima)
- Most Promising Actor César Award winner Pierre Deladonchamps (Stranger by the Lake)
- Best Actor in a Supporting Role César Award winner Antoine Reinartz (Anatomy of a Fall)
- Four-time César Award nominee Anne Consigny (Elle)
- César Award nominee Florence Loiret Caille (The Bureau)
- Rising star Ji-Min Park (Return to Seoul)
- Most Promising Actor César Award nominee Corentin Fila (Being 17)
Based on an original idea by Alex Berger (executive producer), the series is created by showrunners José Caltagirone and Valentine Milville and directed by award-winning directors Fabrice Gobert (The Returned) and Daniel Grou (Lupin). Emmanuelle Bouilhaguet also serves as executive producer. La Maison is a TOA – The Originals of America production in conjunction with multi-award-winning studio TOP – The Originals Productions (The Bureau / Le Bureau des Légendes).
Watch dramas on Apple TV+
La Maison debuts with two episodes on Friday, September 20, on Apple TV+, followed by one episode weekly on Fridays through November 15, 2024. And the streamer has plenty of other dramas you can enjoy, too.
The service is available by subscription for $9.99 with a seven-day free trial. You can also get it via any tier of the Apple One subscription bundle. For a limited time, customers who purchase and activate a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac or iPod touch can enjoy three months of Apple TV+ for free.
After launching in November 2019, “Apple TV+ became the first all-original streaming service to launch around the world, and has premiered more original hits and received more award recognitions faster than any other streaming service. To date, Apple Original films, documentaries and series have been honored with 471 wins and 2,090 award nominations and counting,” the service said.
In addition to award-winning movies and TV shows (including breakout soccer comedy Ted Lasso), Apple TV+ offers documentaries, dramas, comedies, kids shows and more.
Source: Apple TV+
