A short selection of free Catalan series to endure lockdown
To fight boredom, we provide you with a small sample of gems that are unknown to the general Catalan-speaking public.
Those of us who do not provide essential services and can afford the luxury of teleworking will have a few days of lockdown, of being locked up at home for hours on end. In a situation like this, it does not hurt to find a way to spend one’s time, to get distracted from the constant flood of information about the coronavirus pandemic. Those fortunate enough to have Netflix, HBO, Amazon or the Disney range have already started to watch some series comprising a dozen or so seasons, including Catalan suggestions, such as the world-famous Merlí. Others may have chosen to dig out the classics of Catalan public television, such as Les teresines or Plats bruts. If you wish to explore new horizons in terms of Catalan series, here is a list of productions from the Catalan regions that you should not miss:
This series from Mallorca, which was broadcasted as of late 2017, tells the story of Neus, a young woman who, after losing her job as a trainee in London, returns to Palma after spending seven years in the United Kingdom. Returning back home is not easy at all: the protagonist of the series is also in the midst of an existential crisis, as she finds out her former friends have grown up and have got it made. The multi-award winning series, directed by Joan Fullana and Lluís Prieto and scripted by Joan Yago and Fullana himself, fully portraits the crisis of the 1930s that will surely not leave you indifferent.
And from Palma to Castellón through La Vall, the story of a small town located in the Serra d’Espadà that, in order not to end up disappearing, offers some of its uninhabited houses to new neighbours. This fiction lies halfway between the thriller and bucolic picture of a town that hides many more secrets than its remote location. The first season of the series has about thirteen one-hour episodes. The series premiered in 2018, and each chapter had a budget of around €100,000.
For a younger audience, the Spanish public TV’s (TVE) Playz platform has been broadcasting Drama for some months now, created by Dani Amor and starring Elisabet Casanovas, who is known for her role in Merlí. Casanovas performs the role of Àfrica, a girl from Barcelona who becomes pregnant, but does not know for sure who the father is: this is the thread of a story that goes through the issues experienced with each of the men the girl encounters in her life through the use of flashbacks. As a way to provide the story setting with credibility, the characters in the series, among which actor David Solans stands out, alternate Catalan and Spanish.
If with Mai neva a Ciutat you have fallen short of the crisis dosage of the 1930s, you may check out Les molèsties, a six-part series directed by and starring Roger Coma about the lives of three couples with children living in Barcelona with certain similarities to Woody Allen’s filmography. A series contribution that is sustained by finely-tuned dialogues that narrate the tension between the impulses of a fading youth and an adult life that tries to make its way while assuming responsibilities. A bit like Manel songs.
For an elderly audience, you have the adaptation of the Galician public television series Padre Casares. Premiered in 2011, this Valencian production describes the arrival of a new young rector at the imaginary village of Sant Antoni de Benifassem. Senyor retor did good enough in terms of audience figures over the two seasons of thirteen chapters, each broadcast on the no longer existing Channel 9. It is well worth a try!
If we get back to the younger audience, Oh my goig is a suggestion halfway between fiction and teaching purpose, a kind of Catalan version of the popular Netflix series Sex Education. This show has been used as a teaching tool, as has happened with TV offers such as InfoK, which emphasizes the emotional and sexual dimension of young people. To carry out the series, producer Camille Zonca relied on a 17 to 20-year-old “advisory committee” that help increase the realism of this suggestion.
Do you know more free-access suggestions in Catalan that you think are worth listing? As Maite Bassa, the protagonist of the Mercè d’Horta series (still at a pilot stage), says, if we cannot go out, we may always find inspiration in every corner of our house, and these series can inspire new Catalan-speaking audiences to live, feel, love and put on a good drama in Catalan.
