Despite the fact that if we look back it turns out that there are examples, the server admits missing more fictions based on real events in Spain on less serious issues. Perhaps it is because of the bombardment that we have from the Anglo-Saxon worlds, but sometimes something is missing to cover that gap outside of crimes or historical facts in capital letters. So you don’t know how grateful I am for the arrival of ‘Christ and King’.
Created by Daniel Écija (‘I’m Alive’), Atresplayer premieres this Sunday this series that narrates a whole major episode of the social chronicle (or pink, as we call it now) of Spain: the relationship of Barbara Rey and Angel Cristointerpreted for the occasion by Belén Cuesta and Jaime Lorente.
With a first episode, set in 1979, the series throws us fully into two beasts and how they met in Spain during the transition. The Spain that wants to modernize at a forced march and remove the image promulgated for years by the No-Do.
This clash with the new times is the starting point of ‘Cristo y Rey’, which begins with the best tamer in the world seeing how he is about to lose his beloved beasts and his circus. As a last resort, convince the diva of the moment to save her passion.
A no-holds-barred production
The first thing that draws attention is how “forward” the script is when it comes to presenting its characters and what surrounds them. In fifteen minutes we have a brief who’s who on television and show business in which they not only present the friendship between Bárbara and Chelo García Cortés (Adriana Torrebajano), but also, directly, they do not walk with ambiguities around the identity of the lover: the now emeritus king Juan Carlos I (Cristóbal Suárez).
At the script level, the story unfolds well. It is a tone that, without being entirely light, is pleasant and invites you to play with what you know about history, even if it is only from what has been transmitted in the social chronicles of the last forty years. I admit that I am a fan of namedropping and the cameo, and this has enough. Although it does not always correspond.
In addition to anachronisms here and there —the filming of ‘I feel strange’ (with Rocío Dúrcal) took place two years before the events of the series—, Écija’s intention is not to make an exhaustive biopic. Nor is it too necessary, since the elements that make up this convulsive love story are powerful enough on their own to take their artistic license.
In this way, this first presentation episode meets expectations very well: with a captivating story and a very successful and highly magnetic cast. However, what ‘Christ and the King’ suffers from is some uninspired dialogue that further highlights certain tropes universals of the subgenre and that runs the risk of losing the discourse.
For example, the “enemies at first sight, but give them time and they’ll fall in love” step is very manual. just like that representation of the Angel Christ by Jaime Lorente as the summum of masculinitywho hides his tender heart under his tough-guy appearance.
Belén Cuesta, goddess
This does not mean, at all, that the distribution is not achieved. On the contrary, Lorente shows that Denver’s times are behind us, while Belén Cuesta manages to embody, without falling into a mere imitation, a sexual myth in an impressive way.
Also in the visual section I find a few buts. Not because of the CGI used for the beasts of the Russian Circus, which sings in the few scenes in which it is used, but for a somewhat flat realizationwhich tarnishes what on the other hand is a fairly careful production in general.
In short, ‘Christ and King’ achieves what it promises: keep us waiting for next Sunday to see more of this turbulent romance with a notable biographical drama about a story that, despite not being well known, is no longer interesting since it speaks volumes about the Spain of that time and its resonance in today’s.