Aahana Swrup
In ‘Flunked,’ a scam artist is sent into a high school under the guise of a math teacher as a part of a bigger police investigation at play. Eddy, a genius at numbers and faking identities, would never have chosen the path of an educator for himself. Nonetheless, he has no choice but to put on the persona of Mr. Martin, a substitute teacher at Charles Baudelaire High School, when he’s offered the chance to erase all his previous criminal record in exchange for a simple mission. Thus, while on paper his job is to teach a bunch of teenagers mathematics, his real assignment lies in finding one particular student who is believed to have ties to notorious drug lord Sagirov. The French comedy show uses the backdrop of the high school to add workplace hijinks into the narrative, while simultaneously highlighting the real-life issues faced by professionals in the education sector.
The Real-Life Establishment That Contributed to the Fictitious Depiction of Charles Baudelaire High School
Since the premise and narrative of ‘Flunked’ is a work of fiction, the elements within the series end up retaining a similarly fictitious status. This is true for the Charles Baudelaire High School as well, which remains at the center of the show’s storyline. In real life, there are multiple educational establishments sporting identical or similar names to the on-screen high school. This is largely due to the fact that Charles Baudelaire was a renowned poet of the 19th century whose work continues to have a pivotal influence on French literature.
Nonetheless, most such real-life institutions have no direct connection to the fictitious establishment that becomes the home ground for Lucie’s police investigation. The Collège Charles Baudelaire in Roubaix, France, is the one exception to this. The real-life academic establishment, located at 23 Avenue Le Nôtre, 59100, was employed as the actual filming location for the on-screen Charles Baudelaire High School. Thus, the classrooms, the teacher’s lounge, the cafeteria, and the hallways, which are frequented by Eddy and the other characters, all share real-life counterparts in the Collège Charles Baudelaire.
By using a real-life school as the backdrop for this fictional establishment, ‘Flunked’ ensures consistent visual realism throughout its narrative. It guarantees that the various filming locations feel real and lived in, allowing the comedy-heavy show to retain authentic, grounded elements. The series showrunner, François Uzan, was eager to infuse the fictional world Edyd occupied with as much realism as possible. For the same reason, he went the extra mile in his research and went undercover in a real-life school himself to gather as much information for the premise of his show. Reportedly, he completed this research at Lycée, or an upper-level secondary school, in France. Thus, this experience shaped the on-screen school’s realistic narrative while the Collège Charles Baudelaire informed the establishment’s realistic visuals.
Read More: Flunked Season 2 Plot and Cast Theories
