Antonio Machado used to say that “One of the two Spains must freeze your heart”, and for a time it was a precious phrase to understand the beginning of the 20th century in our country. Sadly, everything has happened and will happen again, and today we all perfectly understand the term “the two Spains”, more divided and fragmented than ever in democracy. ‘Garcia!’ It is not born, as other current products do (eh, ‘Malnazidos’?) with the intention of unification, but to be a narrator of its time. And all this with the necessary dose of adventure, humor and pulp to honor (and in what way) the work it adapts, expanding and improving it… even if it’s not to everyone’s taste.
The Francoist Captain
I feel sorry for those who were excited about the promotion that HBO Max did on networks and on a canvas in Madrid, but ‘Garcia!’ he does not hide his political leanings at any time. That does not prevent him from treating the main character, a Francoist supersoldier, with surprising respect, focusing on his lights and shadows: he is a murderer, yes, but he also has charisma to give and take, and now he is rediscovering himself and the life he has lost.
The first contact we have with the series is, in fact, a serial clearly inspired by ‘Roberto Alcázar y Pedrín’ that in the original comic Manel Fontdevila drew and here it is transformed into an absolutely comical and hilarious blockbuster, pure Spanish pulp with Nazis, charismatic phrases, fights and super soldiers willing to sacrifice.
Although ‘Garcia!’ seems to deceive at first with a realistic and everyday tone about the future of a trainee journalist, it doesn’t take long for her to change and become an absolute fantasy that may not be to the taste of the average viewer: There are supposedly papier-mache sets, supercomputers from 70’s science fiction and crazy scenes that fit perfectly with what the series wants to do but that may be too much for a certain type of audience that rates it too quickly, like one more nonsense. Spoiler alert: it’s not at all.
Under the Valley of the Fallen there was a superhero
Set a superheroic Spanish fantasy in the Valley of the Fallen It’s just as fun to read it in the Bustos y García comic as it is to see it on screen. Not many people would dare, because of the possible political consequences, to place an explosion-packed thriller on the spotbut just as the badass ‘El felino’ did in its day, the HBO Max series dares with everything.
The production level is frankly superb in every way: the photography is great, the visual effects perfect, the costume and set department have done their life’s work… You can tell that after ‘Garcia!’ there is desire, ambition and, above all, an attempt to make a different series in our country everything that has been done so far.
It is true that in some scenes it falls a bit in a mood more similar to ‘The José Mota hour’ than to a series of this caliber, such as the one that takes place in the Valley itself between a group of tourists and another of Francoists. It’s fun, but it feels a little out of place in a series that gets just about everything right, from the choice of lead actor (a fabulous Francisco Ortiz) to the well-managed plot twists that extend and enhance the original experience. And that is saying.
boy demon
I could say many things about the first two episodes of ‘¡García!’, but I’m going to stick with the general feeling it leaves behind: it’s devilishly funny. Instead of trying to indoctrinate about the two Spains (although, I repeat, it is not even remotely apolitical and will always anger the usual), builds on the concept, creates a consciously over-the-top fantasy story but at the same time it is a most beautiful emotional journey. Instead of trying to make Antonia or García look ridiculous with clichés about their ideology, he treats them as characters rather than caricatures (a privilege that, by the way, some of the sidekicks don’t have).
If you like “fish out of water” movies in which a character has ended up in a time that is not his, ‘Garcia!’ It’s your series. Because, in addition to priceless scenes (the moment in the subway), it explores the psyche of a person who has lost absolutely everything what could keep him going: his friends, his love, his work. Only the mystery and the friendship of Antonia remain, a young woman who should not fit in the least with García. And yet it happens. About.
It must be said that Veki Velilla, although she is a priori perfect as Antonia, it doesn’t end up being convincing, and some of its dialogue falls on deaf ears for the lack of conviction of the actress. They are touchy flaws for a series that was born knowing that it would cause conversation and debate but that really has a vocation for to be a simple pulp fun based on our past that makes us better understand our present.