This is a drama series of a young girl journey from innocent who believed in love to become a trafficked young girl for men with money and finally realized how she always has her family to go back to as her life crumbled. It's not about the bad guys being portrayed as evil, but stupidity of young girls believing that love is about her well being, not party, not living up to her man's desire, not being popular. It's the scariest series I've watched in years. It's not beautified by Hollywood, so beware of the nudity and violence.
9 Reviews
Suspenseful, gritty series, well executed
BuckBundy21 November 2023
I thought this was well written, the story was interesting and it keeps you on the edge of your seat. The character development was also executed quite well, I found myself caring about what happens next when it's so easy to get bored and loose Interest with most shows been churned out these days. My only gripe was when the acting ability of the main character Fanny she looked like a dear in headlights 90% if the time and when she try's to act sad or cry it's a painful experience to watch but the rest of the cast was fantastic especially her family members. If your on the fence about this one give it a try, I was hooked in the first 15 minutes.
Great acting, and worth binge watching
itztuli16 December 2023
I loved this series, very well portraied, relatable and acting wise I thought everyone acted their parts very convincingly. I especially liked the dad, who was extremely relatable. One aspect of the movie that I did not like is they show that even though Fanny seems to be engaged in barely any academic activities, she still is getting high 90 scores in subjects like Math. My teenager is in high school, and I see her and her friends going through such excruciatingly rigorous curriculum to maintain high grades, I felt these portrails brings down Canadian education system respect in the global forum. Please dont unnecessarily show such things.
I highly recommend this movie, this exposes how such rings work to manipulate kids, and its heartbreaking to see Fanny blaming herself for everything after all thats happened.
I highly recommend this movie, this exposes how such rings work to manipulate kids, and its heartbreaking to see Fanny blaming herself for everything after all thats happened.
I had a panic attack by the end of episode 4.
Jonathannba123423 November 2023
This is really scary to watch. Honestly, I thought it was going to be just another show with propaganda or whatever, but by the end of episode 4, I started to have panic attacks. It's horribly scary to watch, because this is exactly how some young girls end up in the wrong places in life by the time they're in their mid 20s. I somewhat could relate to the main character and it was chilling. Very well executed and properly directed, the actors and the actresses did their jobs perfectly. Just kinda wish there was an English audio for the Netflix because I couldn't keep up with the subtitles. I'm just surprised how this show is for 13+ audiences because there're horrific scenes and lots of nudity.
Good start but getting unbelievable (review of first season with mild spoilers)
flower-125858 December 2023
Warning: Spoilers
The beginning was well done. I liked the slow build up. The family and their different reactions were well portrayed but after the party scene it was getting strange. I couldn't believe how easily Fanny would just continue this lifestyle. And why one of her friends would get involved even though she knew what happened at that party also goes beyond me.
The ending also had some questions open. There was no word about the video. Why was Carlos not on trial? And while Natasha was also a victim she also took part in the abuse. I didn't understand why Fanny still wanted to be friends.
At the end important theme, not easy to watch but a lot of it didn't make much sense.
The ending also had some questions open. There was no word about the video. Why was Carlos not on trial? And while Natasha was also a victim she also took part in the abuse. I didn't understand why Fanny still wanted to be friends.
At the end important theme, not easy to watch but a lot of it didn't make much sense.
Do you know where your Daughter is ?
caspian19784 March 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Fugeuse is a failed Canadian attempt to be a dark and dangerous look into the life of a suburban teenage girl gone bad. Ludivine Reding shows off her assets as she attempts to show any signs of being an actress. An ornament at most, Ludivine's "deer in headlights" quality is the only saving grace of this series. Her sexy ignorance is attractive yet sickening. You want to see this "little girl" fall from the little grace she has in order to justify her story. Little girls should not play with matches, let alone be away from their parents until they are old enough to fly on their own.
The mean streets of Montreal at best looks like a unorganized day at Disney World than anything remotely like the mean streets of Los Angeles, Detroit or Chicago. The rough lifestyle and the mean streets they try to showcase falls short to anything real or traumatizing. The locations are too clean to be real. Much like most of the cast, they are hard to believe let alone accepting as dark characters.
The taboo of the good girl next door becoming the dirty Jezebel is the only thing that makes this series watchable. Her journey at best is predictable and at sometimes laughable. Her post rape scene was hard to consider dramatic. She looked more hung over than being manic from her ordeal.
In the end, the moral of the series is not taken seriously. The audience is here for the eye candy and nothing else.
Fugueuse is a recycled Havoc (2005). If Young & Beautiful (2013) and the Client List (2010) had a unwanted baby, it would look a little like Fugueuse.
If you want a R rated version of a Lifetime movie, Fugueuse is perfect. If you are looking for something raw and original, it falls flat.
We already know how naive and green eyed teens are
neeyee14 April 2024
This is a result of not listening to parents and thinking you know it all. You want to date a rapper for millionaire lifestyle. Not knowing youll be passed around and treated like meat.
The show was very uncensored and not for kids. Portraying rape, abuse and sex. Its sad to see but this happens and many women have been sold into adult entertainment and adult work. Just because they want to be independent. You should leave your parents house when youre an adult and get married. Old traditions die hard but so do its victims. Unfortunately this show is more for TV acting was okay but areas are not gritty enough to fit its dark portrayal.
What makes this worse is i knew someone like this, I never talk about it to anyone. Fast money comes with slow permanent problems!
The show was very uncensored and not for kids. Portraying rape, abuse and sex. Its sad to see but this happens and many women have been sold into adult entertainment and adult work. Just because they want to be independent. You should leave your parents house when youre an adult and get married. Old traditions die hard but so do its victims. Unfortunately this show is more for TV acting was okay but areas are not gritty enough to fit its dark portrayal.
What makes this worse is i knew someone like this, I never talk about it to anyone. Fast money comes with slow permanent problems!
Review of both seasons of Fugueuse
plpregent28 August 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Below are reviews for each season of the show.
SEASON ONE: More akin to an educational pamphlet for teenage girls- and their parents - than to an actual fiction series.
"Fugueuse" was a massive hit in Quebec last year. Its textbook depiction of a dramatic situation appears more akin to an educational pamphlet for teenage girls - and their parents - on the dangers of falling into the web of a pimp - from the early signs to the tragic consequences - than it is to an actual fiction series. It tells the story of a teenage girl from a good suburban household, Fanny, who falls prey to a wannabe hip hop producer from the city, Damien, who also happens to be exactly the kind of guy you wouldn't want your daughter to fall in love with: a lying, manipulative lowlife pimp. She quickly falls for him, as he showers her with love, gifts, while initiating her to a lifestyle that most girls of her age would find glamorous. He slowly manipulates her into getting away from her family and friends, and eventually, she flees. A downward spiral of partying, drug use and degrading sexual abuse ensues, thereby breaking her pride and leaving her at the mercy of Damien and his entourage's dirty wills. Next thing you know, she dances for dollars in a strip club, and a couple weeks later, she's a full time prostitute, with Damien no longer being the nice guy she initially met, even though she still loves him. From there, expect things to take the worst possible turns, and history to repeat itself - almost to a point where it becomes a caricature.
There have been dozens of films with identical narratives released worldwide - most of which were low-budget TV movies "based on true stories" with a heavy dose of melodrama - so for anyone who's seen one of those, nothing in the narrative will come as much of a surprise here. The script feels quite mechanical and the writers never bother bringing much depth or nuance to most characters, instead opting for obligatory, functional archetypes through which textbook psychological mechanisms operate. In the latter half of the series, especially, Fanny is nothing but a victim, which becomes her only defining character trait. The same can be said about Damien, who's just the typical, ill-willed textbook lowlife gangster wannabe. Nevertheless, Ludivine Reding's (Fanny) and Jean-François Ruel's (Damien) do a great job impersonating their respective characters, despite having to work around dialogue that sounds phony on a regular basis and being stuck in a Manichean narrative. Ludivine Reding, especially, really does a great job portraying Fanny through every step of her character development, which occurs almost entirely during the first half of the series. Honorable mention goes to Jean-François Ruel as well, who is highly despicable as the villain.
From a technical standpoint, "Fugueuse" looks pretty good (for a series with a relatively limited budget), with competent direction and cinematography. It manages to engender some genuinely tense moments and depicts the contrast between the different environments better than most productions with similar storylines. Again, what's missing here is the key component in a TV series: quality writing. The main deficiencies in the writing lie mostly within the dialogue, which at times sounds phony, and within the lack of a surprising twists and nuanced characters, during the latter half especially. To the writer's credit, however, "Fugueuse" manages to maintain a nice pace throughout, despite certain repetitive or far-fetched turns of events.
As an educational piece, I suppose "Fugueuse" can say mission accomplished as it managed to spark discussions on the issue of sexual exploitation in numerous Quebec households, which might have had the effect of raising parent and teenager awareness on the matter to a certain extent. In the #metoo era, and within a Quebec society where the appetite for local drama series is endless, it was easy to predict that "Fugueuse" would be incredibly popular. And as we've seen countless times in the past, popularity is in no way an indicator of quality.
5/10
SEASON 2: The perfect instruction manual on how NOT to write a fiction series
When it was announced that there would be a second season of this show, the first thing that came to my mind was that it would probably be just as didactic, this time focusing on the aftermath of Fanny's nightmarish descent into sexual exploitation hell, and the impact on her relatives. But it was not, or at least, only very partially. The story picks up four years after the first season ended, and Fanny has become an undercover police officer, and probably the least believable one ever put on screen. We follow her as she infiltrates a group of homeless teenagers in an attempt to track those responsible for the murder of a bunch of teenage runaways whose bodies were found in a quarry owned by a wealthy Montreal attorney. The group that she infiltrates includes Daisie, an aboriginal prostitute, Yohan, a runaway teenager struggling with his gender identity, and Karim, a young pimp.
While I could certainly appreciate the fact that the writers did not opt for an entirely Manichean approach to storytelling this time around, Fanny's quick transition from prostitute to undercover police officer is barely believable at all. At first, I did not find it to be such a big deal. On the contrary, I thought it brought a whole dimension of well-assumed fiction to the table, thereby squashing one of the main issues that I had with the first season. Despite the completely absurd premise, the main plot revolving around the investigation was somewhat puzzling. But it didn't take too long for the writer's bad habits to resurface and, in many ways, for their spectrum to extend even further. Several key characters are severely underdeveloped and barely get any screen time, often at the expense of useless ones. Another annoying aspect is the obvious insistence on integrating characters reflecting hot topics that are "du jour" in Canadian/Québecois society, such as oppressed groups like trans and Indigenous people and communities. While I do appreciate the effort to reflect diversity and agree that it is necessary to break taboos about these groups, the insertion of these characters feels obligatory, over explicative and clumsy. Token, stereotypical characters do not genuinely reflect diversity, sorry. On the contrary, it makes it look like an attempt to check the necessary boxes to get tax credits from the government. A prime example is the restaurant owner, a trans character whose second line of dialogue contains the word "vaginoplasty". Why not have her look at the camera and say "there you go, ignorant folks, that's how it's called" and spell it out, while we're at it. Oh boy.
Another core issue lies in the fact that the main plot becomes totally secondary at the expense of a torrent of sub-plots that mostly lead to nowhere. Many characters are completely forgotten midway through, and you're left wondering why a complete episode was wasted on their story. Again, most times, it feels like it was only to check these famous "boxes" that were mentioned earlier. As the conclusion nears, you can feel that the writer clumsily tries to piece everything back together and recalibrate the story towards the main plot, but it is too late, and the conclusion feels rushed, unconvincing and reflective of the entire season: all over the place and messy.
On the bright side, I did like how they brought back Damien, and the nuances they were able to inject into his character, as he struggles to reinsert himself into society with old "acquaintances" knocking on his door only a few days after he's released from prison. Other returning characters such as Carlo, Nat and Fanny's parents are cruelly underused. The cast is very uneven, and oddly enough, the best performances come from actors mostly impersonating secondary characters: Jean-François Ruel (Damien, the main villain from season one), Iannicko N'Doua-Légaré (Carlo, another villain from season one), Jean-Simon Leduc (Christophe, Fanny's new boyfriend), Kimberly Laferrière (Natasha, a prostitute from season one), Nicolas Canuel (Jérôme Montagne, the attorney) and Kevin Ranély (Karim, a young pimp) each deliver quite convincing performances. Ludivine Reding (Fanny, the protagonist), Jemmy Echaquan Dubé (the aboriginal prostitute) and Robin L'Houmeau (Yohan/Alex, the runaway trans teenager) are average at best. Marie-France Lambert (Fanny's boss, Josianne) delivers an awful performance. Again, it's obvious that the atrocious dialogue did not help, but every second of her screen time is incredibly cringe-worthy. Joseph Martin is not too far behind, as Josianne's sidekick cop. Those scenes where both these police officers have conversations with Fanny were seriously painful to watch.
Overall, while I can salute the willingness to go from a pamphlet-based model to pure fiction, making a second season of Fugueuse was an opportunistic, uncalculated and unnecessary move. The end result speaks for itself.
3/10
SEASON ONE: More akin to an educational pamphlet for teenage girls- and their parents - than to an actual fiction series.
"Fugueuse" was a massive hit in Quebec last year. Its textbook depiction of a dramatic situation appears more akin to an educational pamphlet for teenage girls - and their parents - on the dangers of falling into the web of a pimp - from the early signs to the tragic consequences - than it is to an actual fiction series. It tells the story of a teenage girl from a good suburban household, Fanny, who falls prey to a wannabe hip hop producer from the city, Damien, who also happens to be exactly the kind of guy you wouldn't want your daughter to fall in love with: a lying, manipulative lowlife pimp. She quickly falls for him, as he showers her with love, gifts, while initiating her to a lifestyle that most girls of her age would find glamorous. He slowly manipulates her into getting away from her family and friends, and eventually, she flees. A downward spiral of partying, drug use and degrading sexual abuse ensues, thereby breaking her pride and leaving her at the mercy of Damien and his entourage's dirty wills. Next thing you know, she dances for dollars in a strip club, and a couple weeks later, she's a full time prostitute, with Damien no longer being the nice guy she initially met, even though she still loves him. From there, expect things to take the worst possible turns, and history to repeat itself - almost to a point where it becomes a caricature.
There have been dozens of films with identical narratives released worldwide - most of which were low-budget TV movies "based on true stories" with a heavy dose of melodrama - so for anyone who's seen one of those, nothing in the narrative will come as much of a surprise here. The script feels quite mechanical and the writers never bother bringing much depth or nuance to most characters, instead opting for obligatory, functional archetypes through which textbook psychological mechanisms operate. In the latter half of the series, especially, Fanny is nothing but a victim, which becomes her only defining character trait. The same can be said about Damien, who's just the typical, ill-willed textbook lowlife gangster wannabe. Nevertheless, Ludivine Reding's (Fanny) and Jean-François Ruel's (Damien) do a great job impersonating their respective characters, despite having to work around dialogue that sounds phony on a regular basis and being stuck in a Manichean narrative. Ludivine Reding, especially, really does a great job portraying Fanny through every step of her character development, which occurs almost entirely during the first half of the series. Honorable mention goes to Jean-François Ruel as well, who is highly despicable as the villain.
From a technical standpoint, "Fugueuse" looks pretty good (for a series with a relatively limited budget), with competent direction and cinematography. It manages to engender some genuinely tense moments and depicts the contrast between the different environments better than most productions with similar storylines. Again, what's missing here is the key component in a TV series: quality writing. The main deficiencies in the writing lie mostly within the dialogue, which at times sounds phony, and within the lack of a surprising twists and nuanced characters, during the latter half especially. To the writer's credit, however, "Fugueuse" manages to maintain a nice pace throughout, despite certain repetitive or far-fetched turns of events.
As an educational piece, I suppose "Fugueuse" can say mission accomplished as it managed to spark discussions on the issue of sexual exploitation in numerous Quebec households, which might have had the effect of raising parent and teenager awareness on the matter to a certain extent. In the #metoo era, and within a Quebec society where the appetite for local drama series is endless, it was easy to predict that "Fugueuse" would be incredibly popular. And as we've seen countless times in the past, popularity is in no way an indicator of quality.
5/10
SEASON 2: The perfect instruction manual on how NOT to write a fiction series
When it was announced that there would be a second season of this show, the first thing that came to my mind was that it would probably be just as didactic, this time focusing on the aftermath of Fanny's nightmarish descent into sexual exploitation hell, and the impact on her relatives. But it was not, or at least, only very partially. The story picks up four years after the first season ended, and Fanny has become an undercover police officer, and probably the least believable one ever put on screen. We follow her as she infiltrates a group of homeless teenagers in an attempt to track those responsible for the murder of a bunch of teenage runaways whose bodies were found in a quarry owned by a wealthy Montreal attorney. The group that she infiltrates includes Daisie, an aboriginal prostitute, Yohan, a runaway teenager struggling with his gender identity, and Karim, a young pimp.
While I could certainly appreciate the fact that the writers did not opt for an entirely Manichean approach to storytelling this time around, Fanny's quick transition from prostitute to undercover police officer is barely believable at all. At first, I did not find it to be such a big deal. On the contrary, I thought it brought a whole dimension of well-assumed fiction to the table, thereby squashing one of the main issues that I had with the first season. Despite the completely absurd premise, the main plot revolving around the investigation was somewhat puzzling. But it didn't take too long for the writer's bad habits to resurface and, in many ways, for their spectrum to extend even further. Several key characters are severely underdeveloped and barely get any screen time, often at the expense of useless ones. Another annoying aspect is the obvious insistence on integrating characters reflecting hot topics that are "du jour" in Canadian/Québecois society, such as oppressed groups like trans and Indigenous people and communities. While I do appreciate the effort to reflect diversity and agree that it is necessary to break taboos about these groups, the insertion of these characters feels obligatory, over explicative and clumsy. Token, stereotypical characters do not genuinely reflect diversity, sorry. On the contrary, it makes it look like an attempt to check the necessary boxes to get tax credits from the government. A prime example is the restaurant owner, a trans character whose second line of dialogue contains the word "vaginoplasty". Why not have her look at the camera and say "there you go, ignorant folks, that's how it's called" and spell it out, while we're at it. Oh boy.
Another core issue lies in the fact that the main plot becomes totally secondary at the expense of a torrent of sub-plots that mostly lead to nowhere. Many characters are completely forgotten midway through, and you're left wondering why a complete episode was wasted on their story. Again, most times, it feels like it was only to check these famous "boxes" that were mentioned earlier. As the conclusion nears, you can feel that the writer clumsily tries to piece everything back together and recalibrate the story towards the main plot, but it is too late, and the conclusion feels rushed, unconvincing and reflective of the entire season: all over the place and messy.
On the bright side, I did like how they brought back Damien, and the nuances they were able to inject into his character, as he struggles to reinsert himself into society with old "acquaintances" knocking on his door only a few days after he's released from prison. Other returning characters such as Carlo, Nat and Fanny's parents are cruelly underused. The cast is very uneven, and oddly enough, the best performances come from actors mostly impersonating secondary characters: Jean-François Ruel (Damien, the main villain from season one), Iannicko N'Doua-Légaré (Carlo, another villain from season one), Jean-Simon Leduc (Christophe, Fanny's new boyfriend), Kimberly Laferrière (Natasha, a prostitute from season one), Nicolas Canuel (Jérôme Montagne, the attorney) and Kevin Ranély (Karim, a young pimp) each deliver quite convincing performances. Ludivine Reding (Fanny, the protagonist), Jemmy Echaquan Dubé (the aboriginal prostitute) and Robin L'Houmeau (Yohan/Alex, the runaway trans teenager) are average at best. Marie-France Lambert (Fanny's boss, Josianne) delivers an awful performance. Again, it's obvious that the atrocious dialogue did not help, but every second of her screen time is incredibly cringe-worthy. Joseph Martin is not too far behind, as Josianne's sidekick cop. Those scenes where both these police officers have conversations with Fanny were seriously painful to watch.
Overall, while I can salute the willingness to go from a pamphlet-based model to pure fiction, making a second season of Fugueuse was an opportunistic, uncalculated and unnecessary move. The end result speaks for itself.
3/10
See also
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