Perfect timing to find an Argentinian comedy. My trip is closer, this finding is perfect to feed my nostalgia and warm me up for the visit. Thanks to the friend in the ESCORTSXP (the Argentinian forums) who gave me the tip.
An Argentinian comedy
We are talking about a Web TV series. The name is MIQVA, and it is only 8 episodes, each lasting between 10 and 15 minutes. This Argentinian comedy is available for free in youtube, with English subtitles if you need them. You can start by checking the first episode here, and then keep going in case you liked it.
SPOILER ALERT: if knowing the ending ruins your viewer experience, you may want to go and watch the show right now; then you can continue reading this post.
The setting is not original, but it is effective. Imagine a gay version of Waiting for Godot. Four gay friends (30 years old average) get together as they usually do, to learn that one of them is planning to attend his parents’ 33rd wedding anniversary. The big news is that he is hiring a male escort to play the role of his boyfriend during the whole week end at his parents’ house, and the guy is coming over anytime for his job interview.
The escort never arrives. He is just the excuse to give us an intimate look at the relationships between these four friends, and to allow these relationships to develop and deepen, providing us with an entertaining, intellectually engaging, and even educative experience.
An entertaining Argentinian comedy
If you are looking for just good old entertainment, you will love it. The acting, the script, and the direction are just excellent.
The action flows easily despite many dialogues loaded with a diverse array of theoretical rants. The interaction between the characters is natural and their conversation is filled with witty hilarious remarks.
There are of course several Argentinian pop culture references (I wonder how many people out of Argentina know who Cris Morena is) you may miss, but I do not think the viewing experience would be affected. At least I hope so.
An intellectually engaging Argentinian comedy
It is amazing the amount of theory you receive throughout the series. Buenos Aires’ culture is highly political and psychoanalytical, you can have a lot of fun figuring out the references in the dialogues.
Marx, Foucault, Freud, Perón, and many others are present. What makes it even more enjoyable is that this presence is not intentional. European social/political theories and psychoanalysis are just embedded in Buenos Aires middle/upper middle class culture. A porteño with an average education cannot think (and talk) without this pretentious, unique, and fascinating coctel.
An educative experience
Let’s be specific. Writing about an Argentinian comedy may be misleading. MIQVA provides you with a thorough insight of Buenos Aires’ culture, which is not representative of the whole Argentina. Let’s be even more specific. It provides you with an insight of Buenos Aires middle/upper middle class with college education. We have several learning entries.
You can have a lot of fun learning Buenos Aires’ slang, and the Rio de la Plata dialectal version of Spanish. Even better for most of you, you would learn the gay version. For instance, you should leave knowing what is a “paqui” in Buenos Aires.
You would learn about Buenos Aires politically and psychoanalytically overloaded culture. I made reference to this above. Let me just add one warning. Many of you may think that those dialogues are artificial and intellectually pretentious. Well, indeed they are intellectually pretentious because they are documenting reality. We are intellectually pretentious. Those dialogues are not artificial, that is how I talk to my Argentinian friends.
You would learn about Argentinian male friendship. This is national, not only from the Rio de la Plata. The intensity of our friendships is something hard to explain but easy to notice. The passion, the commitment, the unconditional loyalty, honesty, love and forgiveness, that distinguish our particular understanding of friendship are all well deployed throughout the story.
You would learn how the understandings and relationships around being homosexual are evolving in a sophisticated culture. Despite the homophobic core of Catholic poisoned Argentinian culture, Buenos Aires has been an extremely progressive and gay friendly area. Sexual minorities in Argentina have more legal rights than in the United States, thanks to the power of the biggest metropolitan area in the country.
Why is it so good
Argentina is a major producer of web content. After scouting many of the products available right now for free, MIQVA is not a trend. The quality of this Argentinian comedy is outstanding compared to other equivalent creations. Why?
The acting, the direction, and the script are excellent. However that is not what makes it special. Buenos Aires is an endless pool of acting, writing, and directing talent.
It is its creation process what makes this Argentinian sitcom unique. MIQVA is not the result of a writer sitting to create a comedy for the web. It is actually an unexpected evolution of a play performed for several years in different theaters.
The writer had hundred of performances to perfect and polish his script, the actors had dozens of shows together to develop their characters and their relationships. You mix that priceless advantage with a talented director and a good adaptation, and we enjoy this unique pearl.
The evolution of an Argentinian comedy
The original play’s name used to have a subtitle: MIQVA (Me Imagino que Vendrás Acompañado). It was written by Julián Arenas, who also directed it and performed one of the four characters. You can check an interview here where he tells the whole story.
The play’s cast changed throughout the years, only Julián remained from the original team. The other three actors in the last cast are Federico Fernández Wagner, Patricio Ramos, y Manuel Señorans. The first show was in 2010, being performed throughout the years with different actors and directors.
Noelia Lobo is the first female director, who takes the play in 2015 and adapts it to video format. Her job is outstanding, she flawlessly transitions from stage to camera keeping details from the original mise en scene.
It is interesting to check all the sponsors, I do not think you will see very often Manhunt with the Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
A gold mine
If you have the necessary talent and time, Argentina could be a gold mine.
The creative talent flourishing in the independent theaters of Buenos Aires, Rosario, and Cordoba is endless. If you can explore the little theaters and watch videos and movies coming from art schools and independent hubs, you will indeed find hundreds of pearls like MIQVA that can be easily adapted and fed to the big monsters of entertainment, hungry for new high quality content.
Soon I will be in Buenos Aires and hopefully will be able to report on some other findings. For sure I want to check Julian Arenas’ current performance, “Cruising”, in its third season.
Besides arts, of course I hope to report on more findings like the beautiful Joel.
Hasta la próxima pinga, amig@s!
