Real society and online are increasingly going hand in hand in that they work from bubbles with different codes. The success of reactionary and far-right parties is compatible with the development of more open communities of thought, morally inclusive, sexually comfortable, and sometimes there may even be an intersection between the different mental frameworks. One only has to remember the recent case of the Popular Party politician who had been trained in gay porn (an example, it must also be said, very contradictory).
Now, as I explained in Què Fem last week, anonymous citizens earn a little money by showing their bodies, masturbating, having sex in front of a camera or exploiting their sexual preferences before a virtual audience willing to pay a monthly fee like someone who has Netflix. There are those who are doctors during working hours and exhibitionists in their free time.
Executives who enjoy sending photographs of their feet to third parties, aware of what they are going to use that material for. Teachers who, after teaching classes, meet up with professional or amateur porn actors to sweat together and raise the dust in their respective networks. Affiliations and preferences are no longer a kind of sin that is carried in silence but can be carried with pride and empowerment and Zorras de Atresplayer is the humorous, casual and current response to this reality and this way of expressing sexuality.
It begins with Alicia (Andrea Ros) who has an unrewarding job in Montgat. When she has sex with her boyfriend, the humidity on her ceiling is even more interesting to her than the intercourse she feels. So, when a company in Madrid is interested in her for a well-paid community manager position, Alicia hardly hesitates to give them an answer: she packs her suitcase, settles in the state capital and goes to the interview. She then discovers that there was a mistake, that she is not qualified for that position and she finds herself asking almost on her knees for a job in the same company so as not to have to return.
Luckily, when he goes out to drown his sorrows when he sees that he will have a boring job again, he meets Emily (Mirela Bali?) and Diana (Tai Fati). With them she finds an instant complicity that allows her not to feel alone and, after visiting a fetish club, Alicia discovers that she is interested in sadomasochism after ending up hanging from the roof of the club through the Japanese art of shibari. So they create a chat room called Zorras where they can stay in touch and agree to help each other fulfill their respective sexual fantasies.
The series, which is based on the novels by Noemí Casquet, takes a position in the culture war with a nice but false impudence. It’s not that Vixens is a contradictory show in the sense that it’s hip and actually demure. The script tries to convey the freedom of its characters and does not hide at any time that, beyond their fast-paced friendship (yes, their presentation is a bit rushed to have fun with their dynamics), sex is important. It’s time to talk about what vanilla sex is, shibari, squirting.
However, when addressing these concepts or practices in a somewhat expository way, the script by Estíbaliz Burgaleta and Flora González Villanueva loses its naturalness: it does not seem like a series written from within (from affiliates, clubs, familiarity with BDSM) but from outside. And, for the record, it hurts to say this when Burgaleta precisely stands out for the naturalness of his scripts (Skam Spain) and the grace of his characters (You are not special) and González Villanueva had participated in that waste of cockiness from Nacho.
Zorras has a theme and some characters that could place the work at that comfortable point of the most authorial television fiction, in half-hour formats with original plots, clear voices and a certain hunger to shock the staff (in other words, Lena Dunham’s School for Girls), but it settles for being accessible entertainment for those who laugh nervously when they enter a sex shop. Braver steering would have helped remove this harmless patina.
Perhaps it was time to adjust the expectations about the series, since in this trial there is a bit of wishes from a server and ignorance of Casquet’s books, but the title hinted precisely at a more provocative tone.
