Catalan actor and producer Joel Joan reaches his creative maturity with this original and intelligent TV series that resembles life itself. Similarity with real life is fine-grained in details like the inner workings of a TV talk show, fictitious commercial products and scientific jargon. The series contains explicit references to classic and modern cinema and TV, both through dialog and through the use of camera movements or camera lenses (for instance, the funny use of a wide angle lens in a "thriller" episode). The screenplay is very skilled, with many narrative lines intertwining and meeting in superb "focal points". Veteran Catalan actress Mercè Sampietro plays the role of a Catalan actress (very different from herself) who does not exist but who really could exist in the cultural context of Catalonia (another example of the screenwriters' talent to grasp reality) and young actors and actresses show their great potential.
2 Reviews
Porca Misèria, an innovation for Catalan TV in many aspects
xabieruk24 January 2006
Porca Misèria is a mature series by the team that signed the brilliant comedy series "Plats Bruts". The characters are just above thirty and have very different attitudes to life; there's a scriptwriter for a TV show, his posh businessman of a brother; a female cancer researcher (! yeah, no kidding), etc.
I think the music is a major element of the series, and we must thank David Bustamanet and Andy Willys for this; there is a combination of songs taken from albums and music specifically created for the series that works very well; the album songs tend to close the chapters, and really give the overall tone.
But there are two other aspects that I find remarkable; one political and one linguistic.
1.- politically, Joel Joan explained in a talk he offered in Lleida that SONY had offered to pay for the production of the series (when it was just a project), but they wanted to impose a casting, and... the Spanish language. They wanted the series to be film in Spanish, and then dubbed into the minor languages of the Spanish State. Joal Joan, a declared independentist, refused and took all the risk. He just couldn't understand SONY's attitude, because the series had Catalan characters, was based in BArcelona city, and so on 2.- linguistically, it's refreshing to hear American characters using English, Latin-American characters using their dialectal Spanish, and so on. In Catalonia we are used to an ultra-protection i linguistic affairs, as if listening to too much Spanish or English would pollute our ears.
I think the music is a major element of the series, and we must thank David Bustamanet and Andy Willys for this; there is a combination of songs taken from albums and music specifically created for the series that works very well; the album songs tend to close the chapters, and really give the overall tone.
But there are two other aspects that I find remarkable; one political and one linguistic.
1.- politically, Joel Joan explained in a talk he offered in Lleida that SONY had offered to pay for the production of the series (when it was just a project), but they wanted to impose a casting, and... the Spanish language. They wanted the series to be film in Spanish, and then dubbed into the minor languages of the Spanish State. Joal Joan, a declared independentist, refused and took all the risk. He just couldn't understand SONY's attitude, because the series had Catalan characters, was based in BArcelona city, and so on 2.- linguistically, it's refreshing to hear American characters using English, Latin-American characters using their dialectal Spanish, and so on. In Catalonia we are used to an ultra-protection i linguistic affairs, as if listening to too much Spanish or English would pollute our ears.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
