A cleaner named Pilar dies of a heart attack while finishing touch-ups in the bridal suite. She falls among the rose petals on the bed and without time to close her eyes. When the housekeeper of the housekeepers discovers that in the most important room of the hotel she has the corpse of a worker, she chooses to move the body to a room that is not occupied by the guests of the wedding that is celebrated in the establishment. her. It is a starting point that places Las invisibles as the direct successor to Desperate Housewives, which also began with the death of its narrator, if it were not for its nature: the screenwriter Hector Lozano, instead of opting for acid comedy, wraps up his new creation in that of emotional fiction.
The first episode features an arsenal of women who, as the title indicates, are usually invisible: they are trained to go unnoticed as they move from one room to the next, always maintaining the privacy of hotel guests, and having to smile at any petition. Lolita Flores, for example, is Espe, whose whole body is already aching after 22 years in the business and with problems making ends meet. María Pujalte is Isabel, who disagrees with what happened to Pilar and who discovers that she has a brother of hers in a situation as precarious as hers; or there is Yoshira Escárrega as Gladys, who enters to replace the deceased and, because of her efficiency, she does not exactly enter on the right foot among her new companions.
Gladys does, in fact, have a plan. Perhaps motivated by the fact that she is in a relationship with a well-to-do lawyer and that she is still young and job opportunities are coming right under her nose, she believes that her duty is to improve the working conditions of hotel maids, who must clean rooms in less than ten minutes. The rest of her, however, will see her as a freak who asks for trouble, accustomed as they are to being ignored and, like Espe or Isabel, without a plan B if they are thrown out.
The first episode, the only one available at the moment on SkyShowtime, presents a recognizable series model that reminds us to what extent television today does not want to revolutionize but rather to look to the past in search of narrative efficiency. It presents the characters with respect but also from a very conventional structure, which lacks precision to finish off the tone of the scenes. There are potentially funny situations that do not commit to comedy and, with so much presentation, both the tender and critical dimensions are also diluted. He asks for patience to see where this choral cast leads in which Pujalte, Flores and Escárrega are comfortable.
The most promising aspect of Las invisibles, however, lies in the responsibility of delving into these characters and their conflicts. De Merlí, Lozano's masterpiece, was criticized for his lack of tact when dealing with female characters, the working class or the Latino community and here, on the other hand, these groups are precisely the protagonists. The author commits himself to a reality made of difficulties, without a cushion to cushion life's blows, but without giving in to the pornography of misery or condescension. He tries to find the balance between social denunciation and the positive emotion offered by the friendship, camaraderie and understanding of these women, who are the hidden face of the tourism industry.
At a time when the economic model of Catalan and Spanish society, so based on tourism, is being questioned, it is worth remembering what kind of exploitative and low-paid jobs businesses like the future Hard Rock in Tarragona tend to generate. Lloret de Mar, which is the poorest town in Catalonia, shows that all that glitters is not gold and Las invisibles wants to make visible both a group of women workers and an exhausted and deceptive tourism model.
