French TV Fiction in Comparison with The Wire

More than ten years after French television was denounced for leaving no space for diversity and non-white minorities, we are witnessing a shift. In the quantitative data that was either available or was produced especially for this research, it appears that the question of numbers has almost been resolved, especially in new French fiction. This brings to the fore the question of the meaning of the following finding: the price paid for this greater presence seems to be that the question of ethnicity is swept under the carpet. To demonstrate this, the author examines the ways of taking minorities and ethnicity into account in ‘quality’ US fiction, The Wire, and compares them to regular French TV fiction. The contrast between the two is intended not to rank these two types of fiction but to highlight the cultural constraints weighing on French TV fiction.