ZAPPING: Calendario is Not a Fairy Tale

ZAPPING: Calendario is Not a Fairy Tale
Fecha de publicación: 
27 May 2023
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Those who await the final chapters of the soap operas for the ending (happy or not) of all the stories will have been left on embers with the closing of the second season of Calendario: a good part of the plots were at their most critical points, waiting for a third season that seems to be the last.

And they are not exactly minor conflicts. If the series directed by Magda González Grau has not done something, it’s to sugar coated conflicts. Complex issues have spinned, avoiding extremism and morbid gloating, but without escapingwith heavy implications.

It might seem that there’s too much intensity, too much dramatic concentration in so few plots: it’s as if an attempt was made to cover a very broad spectrum of problems in a single series. But the way in which the plots unravel consolidate a coherent framework. The narrative is never overwhelming because the adventures are well distributed.

And the commitment of interpreters to their characters and stories helps a lot. The direction of actors has achieved a common tone, in perfect correspondence with the clarity of the scripts.

Another virtue has been to keep the didactic and instructive calling at bay, at least in its most explicit manifestations. In other words, the claim to highlight universal values is not ignored, but it’s done avoiding commonplaces, pre-established discourses...

The features in the dramatic framework, in the conception of characters, in the search for solutions to certain dilemmas... guarantee the credibility of the approach.

A teacher cannot solve the problems of all her students (she cannot even solve all her own problems), but she can help to deal with them, through solidarity, interest, commitment, enthusiasm, love... and so on. It’s what one would like all teachers to try... although it sounds like a beautiful utopia.

That’s what it’s all about: in a nutshell what for many continues to be a utopia: the usefulness of virtue... which is not a pristine virtue. And that's why the main character is subjected to this flood of challenges. That’s why it’s required to position itself in the face of dissimilar attitudes. That’s why she tests her sense of ethics and calling. Professor Amalia embodies a symbol. From that symbol the fictional pact is established.

The second season of Calendar has left more questions than answers... and don't expect fairy tale solutions. We are expectant…

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