Parents' Guide to

Marseille

By Kari Croop, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 18+

Steamy sex, drugs, and corruption -- with subtitles.

TV Netflix Drama 2016
Marseille Poster Image

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On the surface, Marseille is stunning. But this edgy Netflix series seems only superficially concerned with the city's beauty, focusing instead on its shockingly ugly underside. That not only includes sex, drugs, and organized crime but also gangs, greed, and government corruption, resulting in an adults-only destination that's iffy at best for older teens. Not that they'd be terribly interested anyway, as Marseille is clearly targeting a mature audience.

Marseille marks another first for a Netflix series in that it was filmed in France with French-speaking actors as part of a push to create original content for local audiences in other countries. That translates into English subtitles for U.S. subscribers and subtly shifts the emphasis from the acting to the (often laughable) dialogue that's printed on-screen -- like at one point, when Depardieu's character describes the city's flashy new casino complex in grossly sexist terms: "It's like a beautiful woman. The dress isn't enough; you need make-up, jewelry, and a lot of other things besides." Mon dieu, Marseille. Can't we do better?

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