Porca misèria

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.