Few programs have marked Spanish television so brutally and at the same time imperceptibly as ‘Who wants to marry my son?’. The program presented by Luján Argüelles it changed the way we in Spain had to deal with reality shows: Your editing team was so good that the format was copied a thousand times but never equaled.
The phrases taken out of context, the sound effects, the constant comedy, the mocking and nihilistic tone faced the rest of the realities head-on: while those claimed their place on television as a serious entertainment alternative, in Cuatro they accepted their status as bullshit and exploited it to the fullest to become one of the key comedy pieces to understand the future of Spanish television humor in the 21st century, much less recognized but just as influential as the chanantes.
Unfollows and heartbreak
Now, five years after the last episode of ‘Who wants to marry my son?’Luján Argüelles returns in a dating reality show clearly indebted to him from his own title in the form of a question, as a kind of spiritual successor but with much less bad milk and charisma: ‘Who likes my follower?’.
As they said in the ‘Insiders’ promo (probably the best thing to come out of that), today’s contestants know what they are going for. There can be no surprises because they have watched a lot of television, they live in social networks and they are aware of what to say and do to get fame and recognition. The outbursts of the Cuatro program, with the fabulous Mari Carmen in the lead, are here transformed into transgressions very measured and without any grace.
The editing team does what they can to try to bring the spirit of ‘Who wants to marry my son?’, but, unlike that, you can see the seams. Beyond a couple of really inspired running gags (the jingle of ‘The psychologist’), the program, beyond a good pilot with better intentions whose tone immediately gets muddy. By the time the final episode arrives, Netflix is right to ask “Are you still there?”, because much of its audience will be gone.
a blurry photo
We live in a time when become famous for your self-confidence more than for your talent is the order of the day, and ‘Who likes my follower?’ knows it and exacerbates it: reality show contestants, as much as they vehemently affirm that they are going to look for love, what they are going is to look for a gateway to the world of the famous and scratch a few likes, without realizing that the contestants of Netflix reality shows, with few honorable exceptions, are disposable.
Where ‘Who wants to marry my son?’ it seemed, as far as it goes, real (that great moment to the rhythm of ‘El tango de Roxanne’ from ‘Moulin rouge’), the Netflix program is a sample of the times that touch, with some artificial protagonists who do not even pretend that they are looking for love: what they are looking for is fame at all costs, and for this they do whatever it takes, including pretending to be interested in three people who are not capable of contributing much to the casting disaster. Y I’m not saying this because of the affective-sexual diversity that it boasts and that it will throw out the most stale of the place: that is great and, equally, a reflection of the times in which we live.
Luckily, even from this cast of wannabe influencers, modern society’s worst nightmare, they are able to get some phrases that serve as recurring jokes (“I’m perfect”), but it seems that the show’s team is afraid of hurting the contestants and cuts to the editing. So much so that in the end there is a decaffeinated coffee with a lot of sugar when what we wanted was to return to the strong coffee of the original program. You know what he wants to do, but also that someone is constantly saying “Oh, poor thing” and cutting out the most painful jokes.
A scentless flower
Let’s not fool ourselves: ‘Who likes my follower?’ has better intentions and finished than the overwhelming majority of shows airing on traditional television right now. It has a montage, a script, a surprising and unique way of joining the recording: being able to make a transcript of ‘La isla de las tentaciones’ or ‘Love island’, on Netflix they have preferred to go to a program with a much more niche. It is, basically, a love letter to the fans who asked for the return of ‘Who wants to marry my son?’
And they almost succeed. He just needed to have a better cast, more bad-tempered editors and an expert editing team that knew how to get the best running gags. The first episode, yes, is a fantasy, especially if you have never seen the original program: although it lacks its hallmarks (the abrupt cuts, the sound effects, the crazy graphics) it is noticeable that it has the DNA of a television that existed a few years ago and to which other poorer formats in all senses ended up being eaten.
I can’t recommend, being honest, ‘Who does my follower like?’ nor as the last redoubt of a type of reality television that is no longer made: the program burns too soon, it lasts too long and none of the characters that swarm him are interesting or charismatic enough to hold each episode in their hands. In the Big N they wanted take a perfect format and redo it, but without the innocence of the mothers and the wild montage, this is not the same and ends up feeling weird and awkward. I hope they take note and improve it in case of a second edition. Potential has.