My husband, Alan, and I share a dream to retire abroad and live in France. To prepare, I should study French like Alan is doing. Instead, I’m watching French television shows.

Alan and I blasted through Standing Up, Spiral, and The Bureau. All were great, but I have to recommend The 7 Lives of Lea. The show begins when Lea, a seventeen year-old girl who contemplates suicide, stumbles upon the corpse of a teenage boy who died thirty years prior, back when Lea’s parents were in school. The next morning, she wakes up in his body—the week before he dies. I expected a weird mix of Freaky Friday and Back to The Future, but it was French, so I was willing to try it.

Wow. So glad I did! Compelling characters. An intriguing mystery. A deep personal journey. But what I really appreciated is how the show breaks stereotypes. There are characters that we, the viewers, think we know—the class bully, the bitchy girl, the rebel, the drug addict, and the victim. Yet every time Lea is exposed to each character’s life, we learn how complex each person is. The show’s brilliant storytelling inspires me to explore character perspectives more often in my writing.