Once, when I was working as a receptionist in a medical practice, an American patient told me that she did not feel identified by the audiovisual that came out of Hollywood. She was from Texas and she was struck by details such as the fact that the characters often conversed while talking on the street. “In my city there were no sidewalks! Nobody walks! ”, She argued. But not all television fiction sells a distorted and marketable version of reality.
There are series that challenge the most exportable mentality and, in doing so, provide a look at the most open society, which comes out of the most cinematographic cities or uses them from a new point of view; or they delve into parts of the culture of the United States that are interpreted as internal. Be that as it may, here we recommend eight series that, because they deviate from the standardizing norm or trends, are more stimulating. One of the downsides? That, because they do not adapt to the canon, some of them are not legally available.
A small town in Georgia. A family business that consists of devising, organizing, interpreting and choreographing wrestling matches at the local level. After Arrow, Stephen Amell gives himself body and soul to this family drama set in an America of houses that need a tent of paint and a closed accent, designed by Michael Waldron, screenwriter of Rick and Morty, Loki or Doctor Strange and the multiverse of madness.
Heels is quite a surprise that has its incentives in the presentation of a world unknown to the audience and the treatment of family drama, based on the rivalry between the brothers played by Amell and Alexander Ludwig (Vikings), anchored in the present verisimilitude and the American system mentality of not having a safety net if things don't work out.
That Sam's (Bridget Everett) town is called Manhattan is a statement of intent. It is the town where he grew up and where she has been stuck ever since her favorite sister, whom she returned there for, died of cancer. The scriptwriters Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen, taking Bridget Everett's character and profile as a reference, write an intimate, costumbrist comedy with dramatic doses that moves, warms the heart and shows the way of socializing in the United States, without glamorizing or the houses or territory. Somebody Somewhere is like walking (with the car) through any town far from the American coast.
Hollywood was just resuming activity after the pandemic when a series that obsessed critics landed on American television: P-Valley, a drama about the workers of a Mississippi strip club. "With a clear understanding of stigma and the boundaries of race, class, and color, showrunner Katori Hall has crafted a story that turns the microcosm of a very specific type of sex work into a path to empathy," they highlighted in Vulture.
Among the finds of the second season? Show how the restrictions and prohibitions on the right to abortion affect the most vulnerable African American community.
There is not an occasion that is not a good one to promote Friday night lights, one of the great series of our time but which, in addition to being too American to have been successful on this side of the pond beyond a sector of criticism, on top of that It has a youthful cast. They are the players of the Dillon Panthers, the American football team from a depressed area of Texas.
In Dillon, the only way out of worldly boredom and a life without aspirations is to enjoy the games of this team, whose members dream of getting out of there. Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton, like the coach and his wife, suffer from the pressures of the population, which does not forgive a mistake or an outburst in who should lead them to victory. The final season, the fifth, took the Emmy for best script and best actor in a drama for Chandler.
Before creating Ray Donovan, Ann Biderman captivated critics with a police drama that, instead of joining the convention of showing murder investigations, aimed to show the day-to-day lives of Los Angeles officers: the pressure, their harsh attitude when dealing with citizens, the dangers of working on streets full of gang members.
Michael Cudlitz, Ben McKenzie or Regina King, who would win three Emmys later (for American crime, Seven seconds and Watchmen), are some of the policemen who allowed us to see a cruder face of the genre, more along the lines of The wire but with the less stylish face of Los Angeles as a setting. Warner Bros, what are you waiting for to include SouthLAnd in your catalogue? Too American for it to be profitable to put it in the catalogue?
In the case of Queen Sugar, which has never aired a single episode in Spain, perhaps there is another compelling reason why it is inaccessible: it focuses on the black experience in the United States. However, beyond the racial reading that can be made of its plots (and the way in which the characters are influenced by both their social situation and the way they see life), Queen Sugar can be described as a kind of This is us… but better.
The protagonists? Three brothers from a rural area of Louisiana, the Bordelons. Nova (Rutina Wesley) is a journalist, activist and has a highly developed spirituality. Charley (Dawn-Lyen Gardner) lives the good life in Los Angeles as the wife of a professional athlete until he is accused of rape. And Ralph Angel (Kofi Siriboe) is a single father having trouble finding a job after being released from prison. When they inherit the land of his father, who grew sugar, their lives cross again.
Docu-series fever brought a genius to Netflix: American Vandal, a faux docu-series about penis graffiti someone did on cars in a school parking lot. The search for the truth by Peter and Sam (Tyler Alvarez and Griffin Gluck), two students who treat the case as if it were a murder, offers a sharp x-ray of both the teen genre and American education.
The second season, in which they investigated a case of massive diarrhea from the poisoning of students at another center, was just as hilarious.
And finally, a more commercial concession. Parks and recreation had problems getting to Spain in conditions. It could be a direct heir to The Office, which for a reason Greg Daniels and Michael Schur came out of there and was set in a work environment, but its humor linked to the operation of local American politics made it less exportable. The protagonist was Leslie Knope, played by Amy Poehler, an enthusiastic worker in the parks and gardens department of Pawnee, the most obese town in the country, where her efforts fell on deaf ears.
The humor derived from the contemplation of public services as a waste of money and a violation of the freedom of the citizenry by some, but not only fell in love for the jokes: also because of Knope's obstinacy to do the right thing, despite from irritating, it was contagious. Seven almost splendid seasons: the first one can be skipped. And luckily, Parks and recreation has been gaining a faithful parish over time.
