I’m trying to care about Carême (2025), the new-ish Apple TV series about Napoleonic-era chef Marie-Antoine Carême, but I’m not sure I can muster it. The series focuses on the young Carême, working for a master patissiere in Paris and hating newly-in-charge Napoleon. But when his master is arrested, Carême starts working for diplomat and future foreign minister, Charles de Talleyrand, who puts him to work literally spying while also making exciting new dishes. It’s all very implausible when the 20-something new chef shags the empress in order to blackmail her for his evil boss, instead of focusing on the cooking and the various relationships amongst the kitchen staff or whatever. Thankfully it’s shown in its original French and I was able to put on French subtitles, which you can’t always do in the States, so it’s been helpful for my language learning!
OF COURSE, the people behind the show decided to sex up the costumes, because that’s the only way the show could ever be relevant and is something that has never been done before. According to lead actor Benjamin Voisin,
“We spent hours looking at photos of Lenny Kravitz and Mick Jagger. With costume designer Pierre-Jean Larroque, we thought it would be great to bring that sexy, liberated feeling to his outfits, to bring rock’n’roll. What could be more beautiful from making a period series yet talking about people who could live today?” (Carême cast and character guide: Who plays whom in Apple TV’s new show?)
Which leads to Carême (and the rest of the kitchen staff) wearing what appear to be white wool (doesn’t it get hot in French kitchens?) motorcycle jackets and a jaunty sash:
Shout-out to reader Joanne, who alerted me to the excellent ranting of Lordansketil on Tumblr about the series; their commentary on this scene:
“our beloved fuckboi now wearing black leather pants, an unlined tan 1930s flyboy style jacket you could buy in a basic department store, and a scarf round his waist like a pirate” (apple tv carême i have so many questions).
The men’s hair is very questionable:
Some of the women’s too:
The dresses are sorta-Regency:
Except for Empress Josephine, who goes full Tits Out in order to demonstrate that she is considered SEX-AY:
And her daughter Hortense de Beauharnais has worn weird daisies that appear to be made of hair in every scene so far:
I made it through 2.5 episodes, if anyone made it further and thinks there’s a good reason I should persevere, let me know and we can negotiate.
Have you seen Carême? Does it get any more interesting?
Find this frock flick at:
yeah, but madame recamier put so much effort into her personal life being super wierd that a plain white dress was probably all she had the emotional bandwidth for?
I mean being married to your own dad and him insisting you remain a lifelong virgin despite the fact that he’s in an active menage au quatre with you’re mum would be enough to make anyone incapable of getting changed out of thier nighty?
I just think it would have been common decency to get the poor lass a good looikng stable boy and look the other way, talk about double standards!
What in the ever loving fuck??? It kept getting worse with every picture. My dreams will become nightmares haunted by Hortense’s creepy-ass hair flowers
Yeah Apple TV doesn’t seem worth a subscription to me! They need to step up their game instead of finding the next Bridgerton clone! This is just my mini rant!
Are you guys planning a review of Outrageous? That series looks fun!
Yes! I’m watching and a review is coming soon :)
It is been utterly panned by critics here in France so I didn’t even give it a try…
Y’know what I HATE
All the men in any period, pick one, running around town, on the promenade, at court(!) with their doublets unbuttoned, coats and waistcoats unbuttoned, shirts open at the neck down to their navel, unkept hair, unkept beards, riding boots no matter where they are…
Here we go again….
I thought the hair… nest was a fascinator at first so thank you for pointing out the WTF that I didn’t immediately clock.
What in the fresh hell?!
The men’s hair makes it look like they’re all in A Flock Of Seagulls cover band.
Bridgerton influencing the French is slightly scary. This is going on my must miss list.
Along with S2 of the Buccaneers!
Benjamin Voisin (Carême) was Lucien de Rubempré in Balzac’s Lost Illusions 2021 (much better)
https://www.imdb.com/fr/title/tt10505316/
Dear God, the Minister of Police! No, just no!
I’m very glad I don’t have Apple TV!
Mordieux, never have I so passionately longed for Richard Sharpe and his hooligans to savage a crop of Frenchmen – not so much the characters as the creatives who inflicted such a pitiful excuse for the First Empire upon us!
This looks so spectacularly terrible I almost want to see it?
I’ve been watching it even though the costumes are pretty blasphemous because I’m also a pastry chef. It’s kind of a hate-watch situation. I will say that the picture of the woman wearing the 1770s black robe à la française kind of makes sense with her character, cause it’s supposed to be Marie Joséphine of Savoy (wife of Prince Louis, Count of Provence), living in depressing exile after the revolution and before her husband became Louis XVIII.