Show discussion: Fort Boyard France 2011

By | July 2, 2011

Well this is very, VERY exciting because I wasn’t expecting to be writing this at all given last year’s response. However the one true version of Fort Boyard appears to be back on screens this evening on France 2 at 8:35pm (7:35 UK time) for the series premiere, starring lots of old Miss Frances and a man.

The exciting thing is I don’t know how easy it’s going to be to watch outside of France. Happily last year they put new episodes up on the website for a fortnight which you could view internationally but there’s no guarantees they’ll do it this year. It will be on pluzz.fr, but not outside of France (anyone coming up with a cheap way around it get’s 20 Botherpoints, although I will pay to use a proxy if necessary). Maybe someone will stream it live on Justin.tv, like with Schlag den Raab, although I wouldn’t be getting my hopes up. And anyway, I’m not going to get the chance to watch it until tomorrow anyway, so.

116 thoughts on “Show discussion: Fort Boyard France 2011

  1. Alex

    Hello ! 😀
    I’m french, and I like too Fort Boyard. I saw this Website since one year.

    I thinck you can chat of the broadcast of the program with the French Community on a common forum of French Fort Boyard’s Websites. You can use an translator ?

    The website is here: http://fan-fortboyard.forum-actif.net/

    Sorry if my language is not perfect, I am learning english ^^’

    Reply
  2. Qusion

    According to the official website; badly google translated, the 20121 episodes will be available on the site immediately after broadcast.

    “Vous pourrez regarder toutes les émissions de la saison 2011, dès après leur diffusion sur France2.”

    “You can watch all programs of the 2011 season, immediately after they are broadcast on France 2.”

    Reply
  3. Alex McMillan

    If you need to get onto streaming websites outside the UK like pluzz.fr, I use a small web tool called “HotSpot Shield” which covers my IP for free.

    http://anchorfree.com/

    Seems to be free of any nastiness, and didn’t cost me anything.

    Reply
  4. Alex

    And it’s being delayed a bit because they can’t stop talking about some animated movie about Cuban jazz on the news.

    Reply
  5. Alex

    I know it’s only been 10 minutes already, but I LOVE this.

    It’s already basically doing an enhanced 2009. Always good.

    Reply
  6. David

    Someone on the FB staff must have been watching The Cube…those Judge White games looked awfully familiar…

    Reply
  7. Alex

    From the one forum I looked at, comments appear to be good to very good. And I’d agree.

    Reply
    1. Alex

      Or at least it says “unavailible” at the moment. Assuming the worst though.

      Reply
      1. Qusion

        It’s been like that all day but has just (since I last looked) changed to playing a holding slot for an advert but nothing else. It was a bit dodgy last year too so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for now.

        Reply
          1. Qusion

            Alas a game of proxy hide-and-seek demonstrates this to be the case. With an international format like Fort Boyard where there is a necessity to keep finding new parter production companies geoblocking does seem like a random decision.

  8. Brig Bother Post author

    Mmm, forked out for a French VPN connection in the end, and I fear it’s the only way to watch it for the forseeable.

    I’m watching it now. So far I like it, it feels much faster than it perhaps used to, and there’s definitely some elision going on. New graphics are neat – The Cube is a big influence by the looks of things, not just with the Interactive cell, but also in some of the grahics – there’s now a 20 second warning clock on the key games (this could do with a much better sound effect). A few adventures have been turned into key games, although they now seem to come under the banner of “collective challenges” i.e. done as a team. The old school key game music is back!

    I’m going to watch the rest and give other thoughts in the morning.

    Reply
    1. Alex

      The part of me loves that the team run off whilst they’re still in there, screaming.

      Reply
      1. Alex

        That would be “the sadistic part of me”, if I could type properly.

        Reply
      2. Brig Bother Post author

        I’m not going to be surprised in the slightest if that’s going to be the final adventure every week.

        Reply
  9. NJ

    I’m watching on a free proxy and not having any trouble. Site’s a bit slow loading but the video itself plays just fine. Also loving it, the 20 second warning is great since we’re not getting constant cuts to the water clock and the camera can focus more on the game.

    Reply
  10. Brig Bother Post author

    I’m going to write a lot more tomorrow, it isn’t perfect but it gets a lot of things right.

    Pere Fouras’ visual puzzle seems to be a reskin of something they did on Nickelodeon’s Brainsurge in the US – watch three rats in a race which also eat cheese, work out how much cheese the winning rat ate.

    Reply
  11. Lee

    Fort boyard just got under 3 million people (2,961,000 exactly) is 15.8% market share

    Reply
  12. Greg

    Has anybody managed to get a free proxy to work for either france2.fr or pluzz.fr to watch Fort Boyard? Guess i may have to shell out as i have tried over 50 in the last hour to no avail.

    Reply
      1. Qusion

        Did manage to get one to work this afternoon that took me through to the treasure-room – and then gave up. Like Greg I tried a fair number of servers before I found one. Whether it makes any difference or not – the one I used was they the type that requires you to alter Internet Options and enter the IP, not the kind where you just paste the URL into a box.

        Reply
          1. Qusion

            Proxy, googled France Proxy and went through the lists.

  13. Brig Bother Post author

    Right then, I’m going to cut and paste what I said up there so I can have all my opinions in one place. Note that this contains SPOILERS, so don’t read if you don’t want to know:

    Right, apparently the story is Pere Fouras got bored of standing in his tower, so decided to move into his own library to control the fort. From here he sets the tasks, Passe-Muraille acts as a go between Olivier and the team and Fouras, delivering parchment after each game with the instructions as to where they should go and who should do it. This works better than I was expecting.

    It feels much faster than it perhaps used to, and there’s definitely some elision going on. New graphics are neat – The Cube is a big influence by the looks of things, not just with the Interactive cell, but also in some of the graphics – there’s now a 20 second warning clock on the key games (this could do with a much better sound effect). A few adventures have been turned into key games, although they now seem to come under the banner of “collective challenges” i.e. done as a team for which failure just loses the key on offer, there is no prisoner taken. The old school key game music is back! Hurrah.

    Unfortunately in episode one the punchline for the Barrel of Powder was ruined, so perhaps they need to set the box off a little earlier.

    Between games you will sometimes see the team running round the fort, and sometimes it will cut to a fly through the fort’s schematic, eventually showing a picture of a door with the title of the game. The doors themselves in real life look very neat and even if the room isn’t themed sometimes they’ve stylised the outside. Sometimes there will be a short character skit between games, like it was 1997.

    The interactive cell is returned to three times during the game – twice as a challenge (The Firefly explains the game on the video wall, but does not appear in the real world) and once for a visual riddle of Pere Fouras, which I suspect are going to be brain training-esque (as previously mentioned, the rats running used in this episode seems like a reskin on something used on Nickelodeon’s Brain Surge). The cell works well, although it’s difficult to tell if the difficulty has been correctly pitched – the first game was effectively Pathfinder from The Cube, the second one was a bit more original, avoid standing on the red cubes scrolling towards you where the contestant didn’t seem to make much progress despite not doing too badly at it, I thought.

    The Hall of Judgement is a pretty neat set-up, it’s bright white and it’s hosted by Judge White. Here prisoners and sacrificed team members to make up keys play games of skill. Each game is introduced by a Minute to Win It style blueprint. You will have to decide for yourself if this fits the Fort styling or not, I’d suggest not, but the idea for a second section is neat (even if the games are a bit easy). This would slot it quite well as a general alternative to the Council internationally, I’d suggest.

    The adventures now run on a 25 minute clock, in reality that means six adventures. Whilst I was originally annoyed that so many old adventures had been dropped (at least have them on reserve to mix things up a bit!) the reality is that the refresh of the ideas work very much in its favour, although the quality of some doesn’t match what it replaces – I’ll take the sunken house over the submerged cage every time, I think.

    The two standout ones for differeing reasons are The Abandoned Cabin and The Stretcher. The Abandoned Cabin is Pere Fouras’ riddle given down the phone line whilst cockroaches are dropped onto the contestant. It doesn’t sound hilarious, but it actually is. Pere Fouras won’t read the riddle out whilst the contestant is screaming, and for the viewers at home the riddle is put up on screen. The contestant has a minute to listen and respond before Pere Fouras hangs up.

    The Stretcher is very Fear Factor. Two contestants play, one lies on the stretcher, the other sits in a small 6ft x 3ft x 3ft room beneath it. The stretcher is put into place and spiders and scorpions are fed fown the tubes on top of the person in the stretcher. His job is to inspect each creature for digits of a combination lock, once inspected he can put it through the straps into the chamber below with cruel but funny consequences. It’s a game that marks a bit of a change from the Boyard norm – normally you have to be proactive in an adventure, here what’s going to happen is always likely to happen, which is slightly uncomfortable. This said, the way the game ends with Olivier delivering his link to camera and the team running off to muffled shouting from the room next door was a decision of dark genius.

    The Council has always been the show’s low point for me, this year it’s a bit more interesting as Pere Fouras is running it and the team can watch and communicate through a window. For each of the four games the team bet one of 10, 15, 15 or 20 seconds which will get added or removed from the standard three minute treasure room clock depending on if they win or lose. For me this comes under “rubbish jeopardy”, the time swings are not enough to be exciting and given they have to solve the codeword in that time also seems a bit mean.

    And finally to the Treasure Room, which is the same as it’s always been but with an updated clock graphic which I think is a bit garish. Contestants don’t get the bonus time it takes for Felindra to put the tigers away for clue solving this year, which given the team could be a minute down is a bit mean, I think.

    So there we are!

    Reply
    1. Alex

      I think the guy with the second High-tech cell flopped because of the way the game records red square touches. I think they have it as if he steps on a square and there’s ANY redness in it whatsoever, it counts as a hit. Which is a bit nasty really, considering the squares are big enough to trigger a hit without the guy actually being near.

      Reply
  14. Greg

    After trying over 100 proxy and 2 VPN decided to try Internet Explorer and the first proxy worked fine (but would not work on Firefox)

    91.121.108.69 port 3128

    Very enjoyable new series i have to say, love all the changes

    Reply
    1. Craig

      I have no idea about how these Proxys work or what a VPN is! Can anyone help? 🙂 Pretty please?!

      Reply
      1. Ianfrontier

        On IE go to tools then internet options then Connections.Click on LAN settings then tick the box for proxy server and enter as Greg said 91.121.108.69 as the adress and port as 3128 ok it and it should allow you to view it.For me it only allowed me to view it on the France 2 fort boyard site and not pluzz

        Reply
        1. Ryan

          Thank you very much!

          Is there a way to skip to later parts of the video? I got through half of the show last night and would love to see more w/o having to go through it again. Not complaining if I have to though!

          Reply
          1. Ryan

            I did get it to work that way… it’s just that it took about 10 tries so I wasn’t sure that I could get it to work.

            However, enjoyable episode all around. Didn’t really like the Minute to win it blueprints though.

    2. The Banker's Nephew

      Greg, you are my new favorite person ever. Thank you so much!

      Reply
    3. Brig Bother Post author

      I’m pleased your diligence paid off! If ti still works next week, have 20 Botherpoints as it means I can cancel my VPN and save myself a few quid.

      Reply
      1. Greg

        Oh don’t worry i will find a way of watching it for free even if it means proxy bashing again. I will be sure to post my results also. At least i know not to try Firefox next week may save me some time.

        Reply
  15. Brig Bother Post author

    If you can’t watch it, looking up Fort Boyard and seaching by upload date does at least show you the new stuff.

    Reply
  16. Gizensha

    Checking Abandoned Cabin and The Stretcher out – The later, while working in a dark comedy sense, is /missing/ something for me. Meanwhile I can’t help but look at Abandoned Cabin and think ‘this is what Distraction should have been like’

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      I think it’s worth pointing out as the nastiest game the fort has ever had although I agree there’s not much to it. For me, the real interest is in the refreshing of the elements – ideas have been remixed.

      It was a shame we didn’t get to see The Sewer get played properly – if anybody is wondering where the transparent pipe got to, well there it is. I think it gets played properly next week.

      The fun of The Abandoned Cabin lies in the timing. Pere Fouras’ riddles have generally followed the same rhythm and timing for the last twenty years, and the dropping of the cockroaches plays on that a little bit

      Reply
      1. Alex

        I reckon they deliberately lowered the time limit of the sewer to 2’00 when they realised she wasn’t going in. But then again I don’t know how long the tunnel actually is.

        And it can only take up the space that Billard took up, although I THINK from the description that a there-and-back trip has to be done.

        Reply
        1. Alex

          Also I reckon the nastiest game on the Fort has always been Tete chercheuse, especially since they added the worms.

          Reply
        2. Lee

          based on the fact that the tunnel is dark im also guessing they have to go back to read out the numbers

          Reply
          1. Brig Bother Post author

            This is my understanding of it as well – you have to get out to be able to read the code on the ball.

  17. Lee

    looks like the underwater house is back in the next episode

    Reply
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  19. Qusion

    Do they now only need one vase in the baskets in the chopsticks game – despite this teams ineptitude that seemed like a very harsh time limit to get two.

    Reply
    1. Alex

      However, they are easier to carry vases now.

      Also it appears that Lady Boo is a pretty bad fighter.

      Reply
      1. Qusion

        Lost two out of two so far, not a great record. Although at least she put up a fight in (luminous green) mud wrestling. Quite enjoyed the rocking ship room although I think I prefer to see a game won, or almost won, on its first appearance to give a good idea of the gameplay.

        Reply
      2. Brig Bother Post author

        I think the wrestlers actually always tended to lose generally originally, the only real exception was L’Homme Fort in the capstan push where he rarely lost.

        Reply
        1. Alex

          Just checking on F-B.fr:

          Cabestan win rate: 29%
          Lutte dans la boue win rate: 45%
          Poutre win rate: 62%

          Reply
          1. Alex

            I’m not particularly surprised, but then again I remember more of the UK version and how the win rate in that seemed pretty low.

        1. Lee

          2.9 mil for this episode. Thats about the same as last weeks. so steady

          Reply
    1. Peter

      Has anyone got a link like the above to the first episode?

      Reply
        1. Brig Bother Post author

          Right, fun question – I don’t know if it’s just not possible or it’s just my IE9, but is it possible to right click and “save as”?

          Reply
          1. Brig Bother Post author

            Actually it may not matter, episode one has just turned up on newsgroups, if you know how to use them.

  20. Lee

    I should be able to link all the episdoes like this on sunday morning

    Reply
  21. Brig Bother Post author

    Sorry, if you posted something re: proxies on this thread recently it got caught up in the Spam filter. I’ve approved them.

    Reply
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  23. Qusion

    Fifteen buckets of luminous green water, one treadmill and a cheerful French lady with no coordination, and a vital piece of elastic – what more do you need on a Saturday night?

    Reply
    1. Qusion

      Further to this, the abandoned cabin may be one of the best Boyard games ever. I haven’t laughed that much in ages.

      Reply
  24. Lee

    Episode 3 of Fort Boyard got 3.22 Million viewers. Best this year so far. Could it be returning for 2012?

    Reply
  25. Lee

    So as far as im aware. We got 4 more episodes of Fort boyard France.
    Fort Boyard returns in Sweeden next month with 4 episodes in the same week (Wed-Sat) and then saturday thereafter.
    Fort Boyard Norway is returning very soon because they been airing teasers for the past week.
    Algeria i have no idea. Probley some time next year.
    Our version is 2 series. I really predict it will be Summer and Christmas times. As that what will get the most audience. Not much been said about the version apart from its filmed. the kids enjoyed themselve. And passe partout and Muraille are not used.

    Recently just been seen is the netherlands are returning for a series which will be 10 episodes and is currently being filmed as we speak. its anouther 2 team version and will start being aired on 3rd september.

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      It’s quite interesting, they’re filming about 80-90 shows on the Fort this year which is up there with the show’s heyday years ago.

      Reply
      1. Lee

        82 episodes this year. Very good amount. and with it scoreing so well in france atm. There really good hope

        Reply
  26. Greg

    88.191.59.156 port 3128

    you can watch now on pluzz.fr using the above proxy, again i would use I.E to make sure it works

    Reply
  27. Lee

    Afraid to say no link as of yet. Looking at the ratings though its becoming very strong. An increase of nearly 500,000 from last week alone to 3,750,000. Thats also first place in the time slot.

    I think we can rest assure that there will be a 2012 series

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      Great news, although the France Television hosts episodes are always popular. Going to watch now!

      Reply
      1. Brig Bother Post author

        Brilliantly, just 15 series after it was first introduced, they’ve put guards up in the coloured ball memory duel.

        Reply
  28. Lee

    A drop in FB ratings by 900,000 people. Down to 2.85 million. Still second in slot tho

    Reply
    1. Peter

      Tis a shame. But I think all the ratings are low anyway, it’s probably due to good weather in France maybe?

      Reply
      1. Lee

        holiday season and apprently the other channel music shows always go down well

        Reply
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  30. Lee

    Just as a Warning. Episode 7 will not be aired on the 13th Aug due to a rugby match.

    As for the comment about the music. The only music i like is the Pont de singe music. So i hope they use it next week. I do get annoyed with the heartbeat sound effect. Its a new person making the music this year sadly.

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      I couldn’t believe they’ve got rid of the snakes music. By all means remix it and modernise it, but I think the music is much more important than people might think.

      Of all the new tunes that they’ve made over the past six or so years, only really the tunes for La Voile (the sail, now used in Pied Marin) and Radeau in 2009 have really hit the spot for me (although I don’t mind the tune they have for the underwater games now, but it’s no Parcours dans le Eau). I’m pretty liberal compared to lots of fans – I don’t fear change, as long as what’s being changed changes for the better. I *quite liked* most of the reversions they introduced in 2009, for example.

      Reply
  31. Lee

    i agree with you there. The music really does help to improve the show. As much as i don’t like the snakes game (or the music for the matter) it didnt feel right.
    And i prefer this new underwater music because i like it. I didnt really like the old one.

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      The new underwater music is probably the most traditionally Boyard-esque piece of recent years. I quite liked the old underwater music, but I’d accept that the souterrain innode is not quite as epic as it once was.

      Adventure Line used to do teriffic soundtracks for their shows – they released them for FB, Carte aux Tresors and Desert Forges and I’d buy them like a shot. Would I buy a Fort Boyard 2011 soundtrack? Frankly no. It’s just some noises! Bring back Paul Koulak, frankly.

      Saying this, now they’ve gone back to the more whimsical less overblown key game music I think the new stuff is alright, particularly the interactive cell.

      Reply
          1. Lee

            Na PK said himself. But there are lots of other people behind all the music. I know the guy who co wrote 2006-10 music isnt involded this year though.

          2. Brig Bother Post author

            That’s interesting. Where did he say that? I’d never have guessed. I assumed his name on the credits is there for the older stuff that gets used.

          3. Lee

            It was on a french forum when he was asked if he made any new FB music for this year. Hes a nice guy and sends music out to people regually.

  32. Brig Bother Post author

    Ratings on the slide for this last night for episode 6, unfortunately. No Fort Boyard next week because of rugby.

    Reply
    1. Alex

      A 200k drop isn’t a particularly big drop, but still, shame they didn’t break 4 million this series. Also next ep is the series finale :/

      Reply
  33. Ianfrontier

    Shame that Fort Boyard has been losing viewers.I hope that the figures earlier on in the series might secure a 2012 French series.

    Also currently hoping for either a working french proxy or Lee to post the link to episode 6 here soon.

    Reply
  34. Greg

    Sorry guys had not been checking here

    94.23.249.32 port 8080

    Working proxy for you just having watched last weeks episode myself

    Reply

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