Summer technically doesn’t end until September 23rd, but in our practical lives it often ends when sleepy faces return to the urban pavement first thing in the morning. It is the arrival of September after weekends of queues to go to the beach. And, while the serial news was marked by the strikes of Hollywood scriptwriters and actors (with their consequent lack of news that did not have to do with this paralysis of the industry), the channels and platforms left enough series to comment on. These are the good series (and others not so good) that summer has left us.
Little Faith by Montero and Maidagán is a hilarious x-ray of normal existences, which could be erroneously defined as mediocre by those who are unable to recognize themselves in the characters played by Raúl Cimas and Esperanza Pedreño. Her José Ramón and her Berta are a married couple without children, without hobbies, who are as desperate for the favoritism of Berta’s parents for her sister as they are for the dry shortbread they got for Christmas or the need to fit into the coolest circles. that they usually frequent (which, in short, are the family and the bar on the corner).
Customary, absurd, ridiculous, close and empathetic: Little faith is like a kind of miracle with 15-minute episodes, which vindicate the normal and the working class with brilliant jokes, from the adoption of a forgetful grandfather to the appearance of a portrait of Franco in the family home (and what to do with it). In Movistar.
Madeleine Larouche (Anne Dorval) is about to die. She had been mayor of her Quebecois town but, after holding a privileged position, her family fell out of favor. When she passes away and her daughter Mireille (Julie Lebreton) appears in time to embalm her, the four Larouche children must face her current misery and especially the past events that prevented them from having the life they wanted.
Xavier Dolan, the independent filmmaker, signs his first series: a thriller that dissects what is dysfunctional in the family, with the characters at the center and that expresses his extreme dramatic sense with sophistication. The night Logan woke up is on Filmin.
In the United States it must be recognized that the undisputed winner of this summer, the one that has garnered the most attention and fascination, is precisely a veteran series. Suits, which was fired between 2011 and 2019 on conventional television, has topped the list of the most watched streaming series after its first eight seasons hit the Netflix catalog. Its producers do not even rule out that it can return in some way after seeing the consumption data.
In reality, perhaps the debate should be different: in these times when platforms produce short series (both in number of episodes and seasons), the viewer finds value in finding an easy-to-watch title with more than a hundred of episodes. Maybe you should cancel less and think about the ability of these titles to retain the public for hundreds of hours?
Julie (Eili Harboe) tries to access a house. She did what she had to do: get a good degree and have the predisposition to earn her place in society. But, while she serves coffee in an architecture office, she comes face to face with reality: she cannot afford to live anywhere and she has no choice but to rent a parking space with curtains as a home.
This Norwegian series, available on Filmin, only needs four twenty-minute episodes to offer a poignant X-ray of the times, with apartments built from scraps but with a population that cannot access them.
Nick’s (Kit Connor) challenge was to come out when he saw fit and at the same time prevent this personal circumstance from affecting his relationship with Charlie (Joe Locke), who was patient. Those of the second season of Hearstopper, however, were different: that the series did not suffer from having brought the protagonists together on a romantic level and having to give more prominence to the secondary characters. And while creator Alice Oseman delivered an even more sugar-coated Netflix series, the ability of her work to offer a refuge to audiences, whether adolescent or adult, should not be underestimated.
On more than one occasion we have commented that Netflix has difficulties to replicate the success of Spanish productions such as Money Heist or Elite. A perfect story, the third adaptation of a novel by Elísabet Benavent by Netflix after Valeria and We were songs, has captivated the public: it has been among the four most watched series in non-English for four weeks, it led the ranking for two weeks and, in addition After accumulating 63 million hours watched for its five few episodes, in its second week it had 6.8 million viewers.
The critics are not on the side of the romantic comedy, but the effective chemistry between Anna Castillo and Álvaro Mel as an heiress to a hotel empire and an anonymous and naive boy have indeed made the public fall in love.
The first season of The Bear, which is broadcast by Disney, was unanimously applauded. The thirteen Emmy nominations are just proof of this endorsement. This means that when Carmen (Jeremy Allen White) re-enters her chaotic restaurant, the series-loving audience will be waiting to see what comes out of that kitchen.
The ten new episodes have focused on the works of the premises and the training of the workers, who had to adapt to the new kitchen concept of the restaurant. And, despite having a failed experiment (that excessive, redundant, unnecessary and directly annoying family dinner), The Bear overcame the pressure of the second season with a change of tone and an immaculate fixed cast, where Ayo Edebiri stands out. .
And, while The Bear, A Perfect Story or Heartstopper were broadcast all at once, another one knew how to take advantage of its weekly status: And just like that, which after a first season as consumed as it was criticized, this summer was in a state of grace, becoming the recurring conversation on social networks for gay men and women, why lie.
The keys? The house-porn, the symbolic cameo of Kim Cattrall, the return of Aiden’s character or a tone and some plots that at times reminded us of the usual Sex and the City, even if this And just like that has always wanted to be something else. On HBO Max.
And, after a second season of experiments that didn’t make Just Murders in the Building cohesive, this mystery comedy returned in full swing with Meryl Streep as one of the prime suspects. The character of Martin Short, the theater manager, finds himself resurrected on Broadway when the lead in his play, played by Paul Rudd, is murdered on opening night.
The writing team of John Hoffman and Steve Martin know how to use Streep’s talent and biography, here imagining her as an actress who never managed to break out on the New York stage, precisely the place where the three-time Oscar winner received her first opportunities.
Add in an outstanding cast headed by Short, Martin and Selena Gomez with the usual chemistry, a nostalgic portrayal of New York through Broadway, a playful sense of mystery, and scene-stealing Streep (and with a gorgeous nanny), we have Possibly the best comedy so far in 2023 along with Platonic or Little Faith. Only Murders in the Building is on Disney.
