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I begin with a caution: this wonderful series is currenly only available (as far as I know) in its original language, Catalan, and, to some extent in Spanish. More about that later. English does not yet figure in the options!
This has to rank as one of the best TV series I have seen in a long time. It is uplifting, funny and serious all at the same time. It's the story of a free-thinking philosophy teacher in a secondary school in Barcelona. Not every country includes philosophy among its subjects and Merlí would present a good argument for its inclusion. Philosophy also provides an excellent back-drop for the different story lines and, indeed, it is an appropriate subject for a rebel teacher.
The story-telling is first-class: the editing, photography, music, mixture of serious topics and great humour. The "Making of" reveals that serious time was spent on bonding the young cast before the first shoot. This is a series that has professionalism stamped all over it, made by a team that knows how to mix detailed planning with great flexibility. Each episode is self-contained to some extent with themes that run throughout the series. This multi-theme story-telling is very well managed by the "Previously ..." section at the start of each episode. Similarly, and I'm sure this was intentional, the character names are easy to remember.
One small flaw for me is that one character´s promiscuity is not well fleshed out (excuse the pun). It fits uncomfortably with other aspects of this individual's profile.
Having worked as an educator, I found the representation of school life quite authentic. Naturally there is some exaggeration and some developments happen a lot more quickly than they might in real life but it is a TV series, made for entertainment. The fact that it deals with an older student population (17-19) ideally sets the stage for all sorts of psycho-social development issues. That very fact would seem to pose a problem for the making of a third series but I'm sure they will find a way to deal with that.
I have just completed viewing series one on DVD using the Spanish dubbing sound track. Unlike a lot of recent video productions, the dialogue is exceptionally clear and the dubbing is perfect, as you would expect from a bi-lingual cast. On starting the second series on DVD I find that there is no Spanish soundtrack! Oops! Now whose idea was that omission? I do love hearing these actors in their native Catalan but the fast dialogue does not lend itself well to reading subtitles (currently in Spanish and Catalan). This series deserves a world stage and, for that to happen, all episodes need to be dubbed into the major world languages starting with English and Spanish. Merlí is fully deserving of a world-wide audience.
score 10/10
redisle 11 April 2018
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw4125217/ |
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9-10-2020 22:30:04