In the imaginary of television fiction in the Catalan language, Cites was seen with sympathy. Pau Freixas, Ivan Mercadé and Miguel Ibáñez Monroy took a British format and took it to Catalan public television with close, fresh stories and with actors who put the public in their pockets. They took advantage of the attractiveness of Barcelona and even raised the British bar based on perseverance and some characters that, whether the stories were more or less correct, were always interpreted as close. Cites was, together with MerlÃ, that kind of series that marked the role model for Catalan fiction on TV3, although the obsession with infotainment, political news and the eternal budgetary problems of the Catalan Audiovisuals Corporation led to despise these successes of the department fictional.
This context is important to understand why Cites: Barcelona, ​​which arrives this Monday on TV3 and lands on Amazon Prime Video on Tuesday, has a sore point. While the first two seasons kept Catalan as a transversal and vehicular language in society, which was appreciated taking into account the number of times that Catalan speakers have had to hear that “Catalan is not good for fucking”, now the footage is mostly in Spanish.
The two seasons of Cites broadcast between 2015-2016 worked well on Amazon and, when the platform has put up the money to revive it, it has taken a toll on a public television that, as happened with Merlà Sapere Aude when it went to Movistar, leaves that their steps forward in the normalization of the language become setbacks. Before, even Eduardo Noriega flirted in Catalan and now, on the other hand, not even Aina Clotet does.
Once the elephant in the room has been discussed, what the Anglo-Saxons would say, it must be recognized that Cites returns inspired, at least in the three episodes that I have been able to see before the premiere. The first, for the record, is not the best example to present this creative resurrection. Having two actors with such a commercial profile as Carlos Cuevas and Clara Lago as the first romantic candidates, I suppose it was inevitable to use them as a hook to seduce the public.
Their date, which takes place on New Year’s Eve after being dumped by their respective partners, is well constructed, moving from less to more as screenwriter Eric Navarro reveals his cards, what he wants to tell and where he has hidden the joke. It’s a pity that the same cannot be said of the meeting between Pablo Rivero and Manuela Vellés, who have another improvised intercourse via app. She suddenly reveals herself to be hysterical. And, while it can be understood that the script wants to take the character from the extreme to the center through empathy and humor, the leap of faith that is asked of the viewer is excessive. Nor does Vellés contribute to giving humanity to a character with a very thick initial outline.
But, when the following episodes arrive, Cites marks a creative sprint: when the topics that the quotes address are not encouraging, effective playful dynamics are offered, interpretations to frame or that city of Barcelona that has never been so beautiful in the audiovisual. How comforting it is to move away from realism and that a fiction allows us to live a Barcelona without rental problems, with precious hydraulic floors, floors with pictures on the wall, where young people can afford rooms at the top of the Vela hotel and splendid service ! What a good show Freixas!
In the second episode we have Carmen Machi and Gonzalo de Castro having a mature date that, in addition to talking about the insecurities of returning to the carnal market at a certain age, emancipates itself from the commonplaces of this subgenre of romantic comedy. It is powerful and the idea of ​​empowerment appears from the understanding and not from the empty slogan. The stage chemistry between Machi and de Castro is also captivating, with Machi asserting himself as a whirlwind of natural grace, as he tends to do every time he steps on a set.
In parallel, the viewer can see another dinner where age is important: David Verdaguer invites a university student played by Berta Castañé. She, who had worked with Freixas in Everyone Lies, surprises with her angel, with her way of seducing both the character of Verdaguer and the camera, while the audience finds themselves in an uncomfortable situation. Can a 40-year-old guy’s date with a girl who has just reached the age of majority be processed as a romantic comedy? Is the episode to be interpreted as a very free reimagining between the first date between a certain television presenter and his now ex-partner?
And finally, Eric Navarro finds the perfect balance between an appointment with a more dramatic background with Joana Vilapuig and Pol Monen and the homage to the film romantic comedy with Ivan Massagué and Belén Cuesta. It is appreciated that Ivan Mercadé, producer of Cites and Selftape, contributes to the rebirth of Vilapuig by letting us see her outside of her excellent autofiction exercise. Of course, it would be unfair not to mention the comic work of Aina Clotet in that same appointment: she appears with a secondary role but she is hilarious.
It is better not to reveal anything about the date between Massagué and Cuesta, except that Eric Navarro has fun with wit taking an iconic rom-com as a reference. It is a burst of inspiration that automatically places this meeting on the particular podium of Cites, and it is as much for its originality as for Cuesta’s character. As is the case every time the Javises dedicate a role to Cuesta, the creative team understands Cuesta’s outsized talent as a comedic actress, how she works best, and they write her lines of dialogue so that Cites is gold every time she opens the mouth.
Cites, now that it is called Citas: Barcelona, ​​perhaps no longer acts as a structural pillar of audiovisual television in Catalan with these new episodes. It is a hurtful situation for those of us who valued this function. But, in terms of its quality, it must be recognized that it has come back revitalized, fun, playful, sharper in the search for chemistry and more conceptually worked. It is a full blown match.
