I don’t know to what extent we could talk about trends, but it is true that in the last couple of years we have come across a handful of Spanish series who have wanted to portray a bit what is called “lost generation”. People in their late twenties / early thirties who see that it is time to “settle down” but their life is disastrous. Shit.
‘Cardo’, the Atresplayer series, whose first two episodes premieres tonight Antena 3, could be one more of those that we have seen in these years (from ‘Todo lo otro’ to ‘Por H o por B’ passing through ‘Valeria ‘). But it is not one more. And in their difference, In not resembling anything, he finds his main virtue.
Co-created by Claudia Costafreda and Ana Rujas and starring the latter, we follow the story of Maria. About to turn thirty years old, the girl is disenchanted, almost broke, helping out at the neighborhood flower shop and spending her free time with drugs and sex. It will be a serious motorcycle accident that will put her face to face with a harsh reality and the prospect of going to jail.
Honest and raw
‘Thistle’ it is shown as an honest and somewhat crude portrait of youth. And this is where Rujas and Costafreda do not give their arm to twist in the, so to speak, viscerality of the proposal. So used that we are to the things of the Javis, producers of the series, the absence of optimistic light is somewhat unsettling.
The first episode, in fact, is a litmus test. To hate him or want to know more. I admit that the story in this chapter left me a bit tepid because less convincing than both the direction and the cast. Already the second everything is taking a better shape, a greater presence, to the point of dispelling doubts completely.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about ‘Cardo’, and what distinguishes it from other Spanish proposals that we have seen in the last couple of years, is the fact that the protagonist is not only self-destructive, but also has no choice but to face something from which he will not be able to flee. An inescapable responsibility, perhaps for the subject that is too literal, but inescapable after all.
Of course, the script does not want to deal too much with this aspect of the plot and prefers to expand on the spectrum, the torment that it entails. As much as you want to move on, that has happened; As much as you want to be distracted, everything is inevitable. Thus all fiction is channeled towards that concept of inevitability (responsibility, maturity) as the last opponent of the youth allergic to the adult life.
There is quite a pretty and fascinating contrast here, because the world of ‘Cardo’ is full of that Spain stopped in time. Those green awnings, traditional neighborhood bars, some religious imagery (and the soundtrack of Easter marches) give it an extra layer of down-to-earth series, in the homeland reality.
In short, ‘Cardo’ aims very high as an author series that it is and, although it is not always right, it manages to come out quite well in the portrait of a broken toy that it proposes. You may like it more or less (I have been very much in favor) but, of course, it is as authentic as it is brave.