It seems like yesterday when, in 2015, a small Catalan series began to attract attention beyond its regional sphere. ‘Merlí’, the series created and written by Héctor Lozano and starring Francesc Orella, did not take long to spread to other media, being broadcast on various free-to-air networks, achieving very good results on Netflix and even having a sequel by Movistar+: Merli: Sapere Aude.
teenage philosophers
The story follows Merlí, a cynical philosophy professor that, being homeless, he is forced to return to live in his mother’s and, in addition, he will have to take care of his teenage son who used to live with his ex-wife. Faced with such a precarious situation, Merlí He agrees to work at his son’s institute where he will gradually win the hearts of his students for his unusual methods of teaching philosophy.
What does ‘Merlí’ have so that he managed to penetrate as much as he did? On the one hand, he did know bring a certain freshness by introducing the philosophy into the equation, explaining different philosophical thinkers throughout the chapters. It worked as a bring adolescents closer to these concepts and the intention of encouraging the youngest to think for themselves was there.
Also appreciated is the attempt to delve into adolescent concerns: bullying, sexual orientation, doubts when choosing a career, domestic problems, various love affairs… Without forgetting that he discovered actors like Carlos Cuevas or Elísabet Casanovas.
Salseo without complexes
Although the starting point of these aspects was fine and the intention was good, their development is somewhat lazy for what your aspirations are. The chapters always start with interesting theories from philosophers but then the “teaching”, so to speak, remains anecdotal or even contradictory at times.
What really matters here, in the end, is who is getting involved with whom, who has spoken ill of whom, who has lied… come on, what comes to be a series of teenage salseo of a lifetime. In that facet, it does work like a charm because, despite the fact that in the development of these plots, coherence is often conspicuous by its absence and they give rise to scenes that border on the embarrassment of othersis precisely that what hooks and always leaves you wanting what will be the next thing they will dare to do.
We could say that Although they try to sell it as a ‘Dead Poets Club’, it remains a ‘Physics or Chemistry’. Now, once you accept the type of series that it is, with its limitations (it’s surprising how quickly it has aged in certain aspects despite being so recent), you get the point and easily end up watching several chapters in one go.
In short, ‘Merlí’ is a really entertaining guilty pleasure who you end up seeing his charm and taking affection for even the most embarrassing scenes. Although he does not fly as high as he would like, he is a good option to bring philosophy closer to the youngest and perfect to liven up a weekend marathoning his three seasons. You have it on Amazon Prime Video, Filmin and RTVE a la carte.