A country of funny people

Wednesday is the day for Catalan self-esteem on the TV3 schedule. In prime time it broadcasts the contest Soc i seré, which evaluates the participants' knowledge of Catalan identity, and, subsequently, it broadcasts País d’altura. The documentary format is a kind of Catalunya des de l’aire that has evolved in line with the times we live in. It is no longer necessary to hire a helicopter to see the country from a bird's-eye view because now we have drones, which lower the cost. Nowadays, seeing the landscape from the sky no longer surprises us as much as it did thirty years ago because technology has democratized the possibility of observing the territory as if we were a celestial entity. Both fiction series and true-crimes and documentaries have generalized this visual resource to provide spectacularity. It always has a component of fascination, of a privileged gaze. Adjusting to the title of the program, the image includes small signs on the landscape that indicate the meters of height above sea level, a piece of data that provokes more indifference than curiosity. To break up the aerial flight, interviews with people linked to the area are included. The background music is like a cheap commercial report and there are moments when the editing gives the image little room to breathe and the landscape is fragmented with too much haste.The differential factor of High altitude country is the script. If thirty years ago the voice of actor Jesús Ferrer was limited to providing an informative description with moderate epicness, now humor has been incorporated. Actor David Verdaguer is in charge of reading a text that forces him to be funny in every comment and, of course, in the first person singular. If stories are not told from the 'I' now, it seems they have no value. Navel-gazing is the new proximity. In front of an extraordinary landscape, Verdaguer's slightly cocky intonation proclaims: “If I saw this from the toilet, I wouldn't look at my phone while taking a dump”. Just the image we needed to imagine. Or when flying over the Empordà wetlands, he clarifies: “They are one of the main wetlands in Catalonia, along with the Ebre delta, the Llobregat delta and my father's pillow, which he drools over every nap, which is saying something”. To highlight the beauty of the area, the sentence is forceful: “The Baix Empordà and I have the same problem: we are very attractive”. How funny. We are a country of high altitude and funny people. The script treats us to jokes of such caliber as “Joan de Serrallonga is the Robin Hood sketchy” or “More blocks have been made in La Selva than in the NBA”. The landscape ceases to be the protagonist and the one who conquers the territory is this 'I' of the friendly narrator. It is a very symptomatic aspect of current television and the concept held of the audience. It is this tyranny of humor in the face of the terror that everything might turn out heavy or dull. This need to liven everything up with childish silliness as the only alternative for the viewer to be able to swallow the content.