After El minuto heroico, the documentary series that denounced the abuses of Opus Dei against the women who were part of the organization, now Mònica Terribas repeats the exercise with the men in El buen espíritu (HBO Max). This second production is, in large part, a consequence of the first. At the beginning, some of the witnesses refer to the impact that listening to it had on them. The good spirit works, formally, in the same way. The victims of Opus Dei sit in front of the camera. Men of different generations, nationalities, and statuses. This characteristic allows one to observe the enormous reach of Opus and the perfect synchrony with which it exercises its power. The sectarian pattern is reproduced in all of them in an almost exact way. The voice of experts in religion and psychology is also included to explain with rigor the mechanisms of oppression and manipulation. Recreations are used to represent in a more explicit way the past life of the witnesses, when they were under the control of the organization. The possibility for the protagonists themselves to witness and participate in the construction of the fictional sequences, helping the actors, has a very interesting cathartic and emotional component. The recreations do not only have an explanatory function for the viewer, but they have a therapeutic value for the protagonists. They recover a mirror of their past upon which they have been able to build a psychological distance.Just like in El minuto heroico, the first two episodes focus on recruitment and the manipulation process. It is a devastating account that evidences the degradation of the individual, their dehumanization, the annihilation of personality and emotions. Surely, this ability to isolate and psychologically block its members and castrate any empathy has to do with the sect's power to keep captives those members who do not recognize themselves in these testimonies. The third chapter is what the viewer is wishing for after such raw stories: the moment of leaving the institution and the process of rebuilding their lives. At this point it is inevitable to compare the two series. Taking into account the stark machismo of Opus Dei, the atrocity of El minuto heroico regarding the mistreatment, exploitation, and physical kidnapping of women is much more distressing. This becomes evident, above all, in the contrast of the stories about the moment of leaving the institution. On the other hand, El buen espíritu, although it does not produce the same impact because you have already seen the first part, can be more precise when explaining the hierarchical and economic mechanisms that sustain Opus Dei. The series takes advantage of the undisputed influence it has had within the religious and ecclesiastical sphere to sound an alarm to the Vatican and Pope Leo XIV. The problem is that the viewer confirms such a consolidated and powerful structure that they end up settling for its capacity to challenge and help more victims.

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.

The Sense ficció this Tuesday on TV3 was a good comparative exercise of the economic models of Catalonia and Madrid. It did not claim anything more and the title did not deceive. A brave documentary because in prime time it dared to delve into an area that can be dense and cumbersome for the audience. On the other hand, it had the virtue of being clear and enjoyable despite the attention to the screen that it required. In an era where television increasingly trains the audience in infantilization and content based on short messages, Catalonia-Madrid: the truth of the two economic models raised the bar. There are still professionals who trust the viewers. However, the title had a pretentious veneer. Selling the thesis of "the truth" as the definitive achievement of an absolute fact is a bit bold. The Sense ficció was also ambitious, and the proof is that the following day the news programs recovered fragments of the broadcast. In a metaphorical sense, the documentary was a kind of Barça-Madrid transferred to the economic sphere. Taking into account the historical and political rivalry of the two communities, the economic models of Catalonia and Madrid presented an alluring narrative with narrative tension. The participation of the two presidents, Salvador Illa and Isabel Díaz Ayuso, accentuated this, especially considering that Ayuso's cynicism is always morbid to listen to. Even more so if she puts herself for the first time in front of TV3's microphones. Her condescension and moral superiority in the analysis showed her in her essence. The Illa-Ayuso confrontation also emphasized another dichotomy: that of left and right. The PSOE-PP axis built the mental framework of the bipartisanship that always limits reflection. On the other hand, the testimonies were well chosen and the selection of experts in economics added a more choral argument. The dossiers full of data that they shared on the table served to define the topics and the rigor.Another strong point of Sense ficció was the direction, editing, and post-production. It was what gave structure to the narrative, and it did so, furthermore, with an exquisite visual quality. An audiovisual production of reference thanks to the attention to detail and the treatment of the image, which was noted in symbiosis with the analysis. The image listened to the content. At a time when television operates by inertia and with the most conventional resources, this Sense ficció demonstrated much higher demands. The documentary had the virtue of developing a serene discourse, but one that did not confuse a good tone with equidistance. It posed concrete questions and offered arguments with very clear answers. Mind you, where they were most ambiguous was when it came to resolving whether the 'Procés' had harmed the economy of Catalonia. The comparison between Madrid and Catalonia has always generated a lot of noise and tension. But, for once, arguments and figures took precedence over demagoguery and cunyadisme.

On Monday evening TV3 premiered Gènesi, the six-episode series that, through a biopic of the chef Ferran Adrià, explains the gastronomic revolution that El Bulli represented. So far we have only seen two episodes, and what is most striking is the performance of actor Miquel Fernández stepping into the chef's shoes. He finds the optimal balance of the character without making it a parody or falling into a free reinterpretation that distances us from the protagonist. He imitates him so well that we don't understand him when he speaks, as has always happened with Adrià. But he also achieves a facial expression with which he does not need to open his mouth for us to recognize the genius of the kitchen. The performances of the rest of the cast are uneven, but the physical resemblance to the originals is commendable. The images in the final credits are a wonderful idea.The series is infected by Ferran Adrià's ambition. It forces the television production to live up to it. There is one aspect in which Gènesi could not fail: when it came to showing the food and the gastronomic creations. It is difficult for food to be appetizing on television, for boxes full of fish to seem like attractive treasures and for each dish to seem masterful. It requires an advertising meticulousness that the series achieves successfully. The viewer must want to taste what they see, they must feel tempted and seduced by the culinary proposals. All this also demands rigor in the documentation to be faithful to the history of El Bulli. The locations are in tune with this approach. Not only are the spaces recreated very well, but a visual elegance is achieved in the production. Beautiful places and settings with a desire to establish a poetics between the landscape, the product, and the mood. It is the materialization of the gastronomic experience that goes beyond the palate to produce sensations. Representing this through the image demonstrates the importance that the series wants to give to the act of thinking, which has a lot to do with the essence that is intended to be highlighted about Ferran Adrià. There is a moment when Juli Soler reproaches the protagonist for not talking much. And this is where, perhaps, this psychological ambition goes a bit overboard. The supreme intellectuality and the genius of the chef are boosted so much that at times the series errs on the side of being pretentious. The direction is very affected and affects the framing and the rhythm. The lyricism and the message between the lines are forced so much that you distance yourself from the story and remember that you are watching a recreation. The emotional intention of the music is so explicit and brazen that the soundtrack seems more manufactured than composed.The secondary plot of the Canabachs loses interest due to being imaginary and by simple contrast with the power of the desire for truth that attracts the viewer. The great appeal of the series is, at the same time, its main flaw: being based on real events (with a significant dose of sweetener). This has a very elementary problem: there is no plot conflict to resolve. That it is based on a true story awakens the audience's interest. If it were pure fiction, it would hardly hook us.

This Sunday, 30 minuts analyzed the new generation of forest fires in the midst of a climate emergency: more active fires, of extreme virulence, which spread faster and with behaviors that are increasingly difficult to predict. Circumstances that make them more devastating for the territory and that overwhelm extinction devices.The report addressed it based on the major fires that have broken out this summer in Catalonia and Northern Catalonia, which demonstrates a good journalistic reaction. The 30 minuts team returned to the burnt areas while the land and trees were still smoking, and toured the terrain with some of the affected people. The testimony of the couple who lived in the Gavarres massif and distinguished the remains of their home among the ashes was impactful. The contrast between the before and after, with a photograph of the house, was devastating. Also chilling was the car journey accompanying the Councilor for Security of Sant Miquel de Llotes to verify that the town's evacuation had been completed, with the added surprise of finding an elderly man alone in the middle of the deserted village.The program set aside the causes of the fires, a delicate topic in the case of the one in Empordà. At some point, responsibilities will have to be clarified. The goal of the report had more to do with prevention measures and the way to minimize the destructive power of these fires. Of course, the testimony of the expert firefighters clarified many technical aspects. The images recorded from the sky, with helicopters, which showed the burnt landscape were very revealing. There were moments that seemed recorded in black and white due to the grayness of the ash and so many hectares devastated by the fire. Distinguishing a small spot of color in the middle of the landscape made you realize the enormous reach of the fire.The Molla family, farmers from Calonge, were key witnesses in the report, due to the clarity with which they presented their arguments. Especially the statements of Núria, one of the daughters, who on the night of July 3rd, with the flames on the horizon, cried in front of the TV3 microphone: “The world is burning! The earth is burning! We have to change the way we live, the way we do things! We have to do as our grandparents did! The earth is speaking! It is incredible! The environment is hot!” Her desperation went viral. And the 30 minuts, a few days later, recovered her voice and that of the whole family with more calm. Also magnificent was the forcefulness of her sister Montserrat. Her explanations about the behavior of fire and the importance of agricultural work were more enlightening than those of any firefighter. The best thing about 30 minuts was how their words were combined with the aerial images of the area, in such a way that the viewer understood perfectly the authentic potential of prevention. There is that litany that is said every year in the midst of the catastrophe: “Summer fires are put out in winter.” Let's see if those who are supposed to be in charge watch the report.

This photograph is, practically, a betrayal. It is a large outdoor sound installation created by the French composer Pierre Sauvageot. It is titled Harmonic Fields, Harmonic Fields, a musical play on words that also appeals to the landscape that surrounds it. There are hundreds of instruments that no musician plays. It is the wind that makes them sound. Bamboo flutes, triangles, bells, chimes, propeller sirens, drums, and the entire bowed string family gently release their voice with the tickling of the wind that this week has blown on the hills of Baildon Moor, north of Bradford, in Yorkshire. It is a traveling event that, since 2010, has adapted to landscapes throughout Europe. Pierre Sauvageot, specializing in creations in public spaces, always experiments with landscapes and cities and encourages human interaction. Nature, everyday noises, objects, and atmospheric phenomena become part of the orchestra.In this backlit image, the silhouettes of the instruments can be distinguished as if they were an unusual plantation. Imposing trees that make the human figure look small. The woman in the photo is a wind farmer, a wind cultivator. They move slowly among the installations, activating and adjusting the sound. Sonic agriculture. It is as if they were working a field to improve a harvest that is intangible. The strength and direction of the wind determine the rhythm, volume, and the instruments that play. Nature decides whether the orchestra plays pianissimo or at what moment a gust of wind will cause an sforzando that will sound like an esoteric moan in the middle of the moors. The photograph conveys spirituality and has something ancestral about it; it looks like an offering to the gods. The music we cannot hear must be like a language to communicate with them. Laments or prayers that rise towards the sky. Music is, in principle, a human act. It is people who control the instruments and the sound. But at Harmonic fields control is ceded to nature and left in the hands of the wind force.Photography represents precisely what it cannot show. The wind is invisible, but we sense it in the image. It is the great absent protagonist. Sound cannot be photographed, and yet, we notice its presence through the artifacts and the landscape. The sky, the clouds, and the elevated and free exposure of the instruments allow us to perceive this air that traverses the space. The image is a betrayal precisely because the creator advised against photographing his Harmonic Fields. The composer has always wanted to keep his work against the primacy of the gaze to prioritize listening. But, on the other hand, the installation has such an indisputable and powerful visual presence that it makes capturing it with a camera inevitable. We cannot prick up our ears, but the image helps us imagine the sound. Photography forces us to listen with our eyes.

This week Jordi Basté denounced, in his opening segment of El món a RAC1, the manipulation of the text of the play Dones de ràdio which was broadcast on Monday evening on TV3. At the beginning of the performance, the character of Rosa, played by actress Àngels Gonyalons, mentions that she works at RAC1. Basté's team, knowing the public television's historical reservations regarding the rival station, checked whether that reference to RAC1 had been respected. And they hit the mark. Gonyalons' intervention was mutilated. At the time of writing this article, the censored version can still be found on the 3Cat platform. If you retrieve it, you will be able to observe how, at the beginning of the play, just after Gonyalons' character explains that she hosts a radio program on one of the country's main stations, there is a cutaway shot of actress Sara Diego listening to her colleague that serves to make the cut go unnoticed.

On Thursday evening, actress María Valverde was the guest on La revuelta on La 1. During the conversation, the host, David Broncano, reminded her that during the previous stage of the program on Movistar+ –La resistencia–, her most viral video was the one of her answering the program's traditional uncomfortable question about the frequency of her sexual activity. They claimed that the video had more than twenty-five million views. She lamented that those statements haunted her for a long time, making her discomfort obvious. Broncano invited her to repeat what she said that day, but she avoided talking about it, letting him be the one to recall the facts. Even so, he asked her the two classic questions they ask everyone again: the money they have in the bank and sexual activity in the last month, scoring the different acts, in which intercourse is worth more points than petting or masturbation. Valverde also warned that that assessment made no sense at all.The questions in La revuelta have an evident component of coercion of the guest in which the limits of consent become ambiguous. In case of not wanting to answer, the protagonist is forced to refuse publicly, in front of the cameras. There is always the insistence of the presenter, which prolongs the tension. The refusal, furthermore, also allows for a public interpretation regarding the reasons behind it. It brings all the guests to the epicenter of a story about sex and money that not everyone can or wants to sustain. On the other hand, intimacy is subordinated to the media interest of the program. The program is aware that the answers guarantee virality on social media. La revuelta profits from people's sex lives. The possibility of answering the questions is also associated with a false idea of liberation and disinhibition. Or rather, not wanting to answer can be interpreted as a lack of transparency or sexual repression. And this can condition the guest's will. The public reacts to the answers by issuing a judgment on whether it is okay, too little, or too much. The virality of social networks causes a loss of control over the framework in which the dialogue was consented to. The guest accepts an interview limited in time, in a specific personal and social context, usually linked to the promotion of something. Virtual circulation causes an indefinite and eternal multiplication of the conversation, and their discourse is reduced to a thirty-second video. On the other hand, establishing a points scale for different types of sexual acts, in which sexual intercourse with penetration is the star category, confirms the most simplistic and retrograde heterobasic approach typical of the program.What La revuelta does, beyond promoting viral exposure at the expense of taboos and people's sex lives, is to normalize and encourage the judgment of people's private lives. These are approaches typical of the sleaziest and most vulgar tabloid press.

This week marks one year since TV3 premiered the new set for the Telenotícies and launched the 3CatInfo universe. After a large financial investment and months of self-promotion, the renovation was sold as a turning point for the public television news programs. One year later, the results allow us to call that into question. The technical flourishes that seemed like something special have resulted in the same old inertia. There was talk of much more dynamic sets thanks to robotic cameras. The forty-meter screen was supposed to allow for more organic and natural movements from the presenters. After a few shaky tracking shots, the news programs are as static as they were before. Beyond a tacky zoom in the style of Lazarov to kick off the TN migdia, we see no relevant dynamism. To close the Telenotícies, they have to show us the cameras in a wide shot taken with a crane. It seems they show us those huge contraptions to justify the change and the expense. But, for the viewers, visually it has made no difference.While news programs from the most prestigious networks in Europe tend to create more diaphanous and lighter spaces, the new sets are cluttered. The vertical totems cause distortions in proportions, and the step to access them limits movement. A resource that, instead of facilitating the work, has complicated it. It has forced the recording of fragments of the Telenotícies in the news analysis sections because they do not trust that live dynamics can withstand the section without problems. It is logical: errors and blunders are frequent. It was said that the format would allow graphics to be more exportable to mobile screens. An insignificant aspect that is more of a sales argument than a practical and tangible reality. The graphic design has already become outdated and in the set there is a saturation of semiotics. They want to give so many messages that the set is nonsense. On one hand, the view over Barcelona. Above, planet Earth. On the side, the projection of orange human shadows that simulate a newsroom moving in an unsettling way behind the presenters. What sense does it make to falsify reality in a news program that must convey truth? It was also announced that in the new stage, the editions would be more differentiated. The TN comarques was supposed to have “more practical contribution and experiences that would inspire”. But, for the moment, we see almost the same thing as in the TN migdia. One of the two great stars of the Telenotícies, Raquel Sans, who was taking on a new role giving more weight to the weekend evenings, has disappeared for four months. She has been on sick leave after participating in La travessa VIP, a program with precarious audience. Robbing Peter to pay Paul.3CatInfo, meanwhile, conveys the poverty it was already dragging along. It still looks God-forsaken, with some poorly edited news bulletins and that feeling of a boring, inhospitable, and lonely workspace. A year later, the change does not seem to justify the investment. More smoke and mirrors than television results.

On Monday evening, the Atresmedia group counter-programmed itself with some symptomatic television offerings. On Antena 3, on El hormiguero, Pablo Motos interviewed the president of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas, to talk about the migration crisis. In the city, the local business community even organized giant screens to follow the broadcast collectively. Meanwhile, on La Sexta, the political satire space El intermedio interviewed Pedro Sánchez. It is a way of guaranteeing the satisfaction of the different ideological sensibilities of the viewers.In the battle of the ratings, in Catalonia they were secondary options, and the Spanish president came out on top. It gathered 206,000 viewers and Vivas 115,000. In Spain it went the other way around. El hormiguero was the second most-watched program of the day, with just over two million viewers, while Sánchez brushed against one and a half million.While Motos was stirring the pot of the Ceuta epic, El Gran Wyoming and Pedro Sánchez put the stones to sleep with an anodyne interview to go through the motions. Conscious of the political complexity of the moment, the host had a deflated mood and only on rare occasions added, out of a sense of duty, some humorous tag to the question. Pedro Sánchez dragged out his answers so much and Wyoming had so little desire to follow up or scrutinize the arguments that it became boring. The host had no desire at all to complicate his life or to complicate it for Sánchez. The result was unworthy of what current events demand right now. We need more attentive and sharp journalism, especially in front of a Prime Minister who escaped with evasions and a lot of rhetoric. Sandra Sabatés's desire for rigor was a mere facade. Paradoxically, the most necessary and concrete questions were asked by two citizens of Ceuta through a video. And even then, no clear and committed response was obtained from Pedro Sánchez. The most sarcastic questions were assists, short and to the foot, for the President to attack political opponents and judges. Wyoming's discomfort evidenced his compassion for the guest. At the end of the interview, the host thanked him with a circumspect tone and accompanied it with a dose of encouragement: “Strength, because morally it must be complicated”, he wished him with his head bowed. A strange farewell for a sharp humor program.On Tuesday, the news programs echoed the most prominent statements by Pedro Sánchez and Juan Jesús Vivas. Years ago, it was the comedy shows that followed in the wake of the political interviews conducted by the most seasoned journalists. Now it is the other way around. The news programs must feed on what they gather from comedy spaces. These are programs that do not conduct interviews with alternative content, but rather imitate the codes typical of the political genre. Neither entertainment could aspire to more, nor journalism to less. And all of this says very little for the political class, which increasingly avoids specialized professionals.

On Sunday, Salvados promoted with the episode El encuentro the meeting between a former ETA member, José Miguel Latasa, and one of his victims. In 1986, Latasa attacked Rafael Garrido, then military governor of Guipúzcoa. He blew up his car, and also killed his wife and one of his children. Forty years later, the program managed his request to ask for forgiveness from Fernando Garrido for having murdered his parents and his brother. One thing that Salvados did very well was to emphasize that the need for the meeting and the relief of forgiveness came from the former terrorist. It is important, in these situations, not to foster a symmetry between the two parties involved.These televised stagings can be delicate, because individual predisposition is often confused with a generalization to all victims and there is the audacity to interpret it as a global progress in social reparation. "Asking for forgiveness" is the new "condemning violence," a litany of a certain media impact that is repeated as if it were a demand to be achieved and that can pressure victims to have to accept it.In any case, Latasa wanted to sincerely express regret for the pain caused and admit his own wickedness without justifications. The personal temperament of both protagonists was optimal for an event like this, and the program was careful with the conditions they requested to do so. Garrido and Latasa agreed to ask that the meeting be private and without cameras. After interviewing them separately, we viewers only observed, without sound and from a distance, through a window, the initial moment of the encounter where both shook hands and sat at a table to talk. Salvados made the ellipsis of the wait explicit because we did not know what was happening inside that room. It was a good decision to do it that way, because it brings the power of the dialogue to something higher than a simple television showcase and to an emotional issue that has to do with intimacy and not with public impact. Garrido wanted to make it clear that it was a personal decision and that he was not doing it as a symbolic representation of any other victim beyond himself. He also refused to know details about the attack. He insisted that he did not want that meeting to have a political interpretation, although that is difficult to achieve.After the meeting, Salvados interviewed the protagonists again individually. It was indecent, by the way, the poor taste of La Sexta in how it managed the commercial breaks to create suspense. First, the ex-terrorist Latasa admitted to being very emotional and having experienced a feeling of tranquility. He had been especially moved to have the opportunity to hug Garrido. Garrido expressed that the encounter had been worth it and he could be seen as shaken by what had just happened: “Esta noche estaré hecho polvo”, he said. Certainly, despite the apparent sincerity of the gesture, the program left a bitter and sad aftertaste.

Last Sunday, at the US Open, a new disturbance in the stands once again made the crowd the protagonist of the tournament. This time it was a spectator excessively uninhibited by the effect of some substance. Witnesses pointed to excessive alcohol consumption. In the image, a security guard approaches the individual to remove him. The man in the blue shirt, gesticulating, berates tennis player Jakub Mensík. The Czech was facing the American Learner Tien in the third round. Reuters photographer Jerry Lai captures the moment when some spectators, indignant, point at the individual so that he is expelled. Since the tournament began, players have criticized the public's behavior: Sabalenka, Mensík, Osaka, Mannarino, and Boulter have complained because the commotion in the stands breaks their concentration for the game: groups of influencers recording promotions and choreographies during the matches, fans making noise to distract their favorite player's rival, smokers ignoring the venue's prohibitions, or people moving up and down among the public to get cocktails. In the background, the stench of marijuana that spreads through Flushing Meadows and that the New York breeze carries to the court.

The return of El hormiguero this week has been very disturbing and revealing. The opening dance looked like that ridiculous Mojo Dojo Casa House from Ken in the Barbie movie: a virile reserve gone overboard. Six men were dancing and four were applauding them, and then they all embraced with that chest bump that reminds us of the origins of the species. A video summarized the migration crisis in Ceuta by attacking Sánchez's government for no reason. Next, Pablo Motos announced a shocking event. They had organized a parade of humanoid robots through a street in Madrid. A terrifying image. He placed himself at the head of that army, as if he were its leader, and ordered them to follow him. Then he addressed the audience: “Tu mundo va a cambiar”, he announced looking at the camera. He gave a speech about the transformation of the world, the attitude we must have towards technological progress, the difficulties in discerning between truth and lies, and the infinite possibilities of artificial intelligence: “No hay que tener miedo, solo hay que estar despiertos”. He assumed the role of a guru, giving advice on human existence with an alarming superiority and condescension. Motos is convinced that his wisdom can transform society.Then Carlos Latre appeared dressed as Pedro Sánchez. He was wearing a blazer and swimming trunks, and a float around his waist. Latre played a conceited, inept, and dim-witted prime minister while Pablo Motos reproached him for the “invasion” of Ceuta. Neither Latre's impression was accurate nor was the script good. But that staging placed Latre at the service of the presenter's ideology. Motos turned him into a puppet to endorse his political ideas. The humiliation, however, was not over. Motos invited the comedian to remove his makeup in front of the audience to ask him questions about the failure of his program, Babylon Show, on Telecinco. “¿Tú no crees, Carlos, que deberíamos explicarle a la gente los detalles de por qué te fuiste a Telecinco a competir contra nosotros y ahora has vuelto con nosotros?” It's been two years since that, and the audience neither remembers nor cares. “¿Qué pensaste cuando te volví a llamar?”, he asked him, emphasizing his role as a redeemer despite that betrayal. Latre kept thanking him for the gesture. Motos highlighted the public exculpation of his employee.The audience success of El hormiguero,added to the reactionary background of its ideology, has made Pablo Motos believe that he is a guru of the new times. He diagnoses society, feels empowered to manage truth and lies, points out ideological enemies, and assumes the role of a guide in the face of fear and uncertainty about the future. He uses humor to demonstrate his power as a leader. The man who pulls the puppet's strings. El hormiguero has become the staging of the moral authority of the right, with Motos acting as prophet, judge, and savior. And these delusions always end badly.

On the afternoon of September 11, TV3 dedicated a special to live coverage of the demonstrations for independence throughout Catalonia. After half an hour of preliminary news, they sent viewers who wished to remain connected to the Diada to 3CatInfo. TV3 prioritized the broadcast of the apocalyptic film El rastre del llop, a Catalan-produced dystopia that transported us to the end of the world. The vaccine from a fascist government had made the population sick amidst a desolate landscape destroyed by a terrible drought. It seemed like a way of telling us that there is always something worse. Meanwhile, just in case, a sign with huge letters kept scrolling across the bottom of the screen reminding the audience that coverage of the demonstrations was taking place on the news channel. At eight in the evening, TV3 recovered the spirit of the day with the live broadcast of the institutional act of the Diada from the National Theatre of Catalonia. It was a very elegant and poetic gala, well calculated, which paid tribute in a very pertinent way to the fifty years of the Sant Boi day of 1976. The ceremony even included this year's breakthrough artist, Naim Smaili, author of the Mambo d’en Patufet. The organization did not dare to commission any of his versions of the traditional songbook and he read us a poem by Josep Vallverdú.But either the people in charge of the institutional gala fell short or those at TV3 miscalculated the end time of the event. When it ended, there were still thirteen minutes left until the start of the Telenotícies vespre and the channel did not seem to have the continuity prepared. We viewers spent almost a quarter of an hour mesmerized by an endless festival of advertising. We swallowed up to fifteen promotions for the channel. We saw the long self-promotion ad for 3Cat twice in the same break. We also saw the promotion for the 30 minuts episode on Ceuta twice. They broadcasted the promotion for the Oscar-winning films of the summer Saturdays twice, which was already a bit out of season. And they advertised the broadcast of the play Dones de ràdio on Canal33 up to three times. It was as if the public television had become stuck in a kind of infinite self-referential loop. In thirteen minutes, only six commercial ads to cushion that strange impasse of self-promotions. The return of Raquel Sans to the Telenotícies after many months without the presenter had a disturbing prelude, in which the channel seemed to have lost control. These are circumstances that convey a certain neglect of the broadcast and little capacity for foresight. A television station that is not very precise in its live broadcasts and leaves a feeling of internal lack of coordination, where unforeseen events and blunders are increasingly common. Just like the country, TV3 has seen better Diades.

Netflix has a secret archive of celebrity interviews recorded with the intention of broadcasting them, exclusively, just after their passing. Famous last words has just premiered its third edition featuring journalist and landmark activist in the history of feminism Gloria Steinem. Writer and screenwriter Brad Falchuk is responsible for conducting the conversation, which emanates a certain spirituality. The interview has a different aura, due to the tone, the staging, and the lighting, which distances it from a typical journalistic dialogue. The veneer of confidentiality, as no other member of the team has access to the content of the conversation, contributes to emphasizing the viewer's feeling of accessing a valuable moment. It is like witnessing that person's symbolic testament. Normally, the guest's personal trajectory is reviewed, but seeking a more emotional approach. At times, the interviewer's desire to bring out the protagonist's vital motivations leads him to pose questions as a therapist might. With Famous last words, the impact of the news of a celebrity's death has a small subsequent ripple when, hours later, their interview appears in the platform's catalog. It is a metaphorical way of being resurrected, an opportunity to say goodbye. The set becomes an intermediate space between life and death, a fruitful, pleasant, and slightly ghostly limbo. It is as if they were speaking to us from the beyond.In the case of Gloria Steinem, her delicate state of health is apparent. There is no revelation that causes surprise. When speaking about her legacy, she insists a lot on the idea of personal singularity, that which makes each of us unique, as something powerful that we must take advantage of. Falchuk, who demonstrates very careful research about the guest, asks her about the other great figure of feminism in the United States, Betty Friedan, to delve into the competition that has always been intuited to exist between the two. Steinem distances herself from this rivalry, although she admits that at the time she was hurt by the lack of support or recognition she received from her. She underlines, as a critique, the importance of never wanting to appropriate the feminist movement. And she makes an important revelation: she talks about a very kind letter that Friedan's sister wrote to her, where she revealed some facts that helped her understand this situation of tension between them both. This is a crucial moment in the conversation.In the final minutes of the program, Falchuk leaves the set and leaves Steinem alone in front of the camera so she can deliver her final words to the audience. It is a very powerful moment for the viewer: a very powerful and unusual magnetism is produced in front of the screen. It is the magic of posthumous interviews, because they bring us closer to death with great delicacy and a sense of peace.

On Tuesday, Sense ficció premiered The Survivor, a documentary by Kike Maíllo and Markos Goikolea about Alícia Esteve, the woman who posed as a 9/11 victim under the fake name Tania Head and ended up managing one of the most important survivors' associations in New York. A story that, like Enric Marco's, provokes fascination. These are such extraordinary cases that it is inevitable for the viewer to be hooked with absolute predisposition, especially after the magnificent Oswald. The Forger,, by the same director.But La supervivent causes disappointment, both in terms of the research work and the narrative approach. The fact that the documentary begins with the director's voice talking about himself already anticipates a presence that will become invasive. The device of recreating the protagonist through the figure of an actress is understandable to complete the missing voice, but it ends up seeming like a method to disguise lame and timid research. La supervivent has an excess of theatricality and not just because of the actress who plays Tania Head. Maíllo's voice-over is too rehearsed. His presence is affected and artificial: with his coat on and collar turned up, he has an almost police-like and intimidating attitude. This demeanor does not fit with a story that, as it progresses, lowers the pretensions of its objective. No witness from Alícia Esteve's past shows their face. Not one. And the recreations of her statements lose authenticity. The stock footage of Barcelona hints instead of explaining.The chronology of the events and the New York stage provide few new details compared to previous productions such as The woman who wasn’t there by Angelo J. Guglielmo Jr. (2012). Furthermore, there is a certain informational regression when facing the dilemma of the right to privacy. In La supervivent, it is disconcerting that Alícia Esteve’s face is pixelated in images that have already been published and that her real surname is censored in the newspaper archives. Even that a beep is added when someone pronounces it. As the investigation evolves, we discover that, in reality, there is no investigation: “I think it is better to leave her alone,” says her mysterious boss. And the documentary obeys. Then, the only way out is to turn the production into a kind of philosophical reflection on lies and the need to invent a life for oneself, with conclusions as weak as “what makes a lie work is our willingness to believe it.” They throw in the towel and all that remains is to justify themselves by taking refuge in compassion for the protagonist: “We have reached the end of our search and, almost without realizing it, we have left behind the need to judge her.” It is inevitable to wonder if this prudence and extreme care to protect the fraudster would have also been applied to Enric Marco. If they were so concerned about her privacy, they should not have started looking for her. The viewer reaches the end with the feeling that the directors knew much more than they wanted to tell us and, therefore, as an investigation, it turns out to be another hoax.

On Monday at noon, the two quintessential weathermen at TV3, the most veteran of the channel, did not fully share the forecast for the week. Tomàs Molina and Francesc Mauri agreed on the drop in temperatures and the change in weather, but not on the day the rains would arrive. With an hour and a half difference, both used different graphics to inform the audience. On Tot es mou, when Helena Garcia Melero hinted to Molina that his forecasts did not coincide with Mauri's, he acknowledged it: “I don't know who of the two will be right, whether Mauri or I. But from here on [pointing to Friday] we agree,” he justified himself. Melero asked him to specify what they disagreed on. Molina pointed out that he believed the rains would arrive sooner on Wednesday and Mauri, more towards Thursday. But, paradoxically, the graph of the week he had behind him represented it the other way around. On Wednesday, the map of Catalonia appeared quite sunny, with showers only in the Lleida Pyrenees and with temperatures quite high. On Thursday, on the other hand, the map was already packed with clouds, lightning, and rain, and the temperature line took a significant drop. That is to say, the graphic did not align with the conviction expressed by Molina. This happened when there were four minutes left until two in the afternoon.An hour and a half later, after the Telenotícies, it was Francesc Mauri's turn. At half past three in the afternoon, the map had already changed. In the weekly progression chart, Wednesday appeared full of clouds, most of which were dumping rain and lightning over Catalonia. A drastic drop in the temperature line was also indicated, which went from orange to blue. Thursday, on the other hand, unlike the Tot es mou map, the country appeared sunny again, beyond a few clouds in the Lleida Pyrenees.It is very disconcerting. Minister Espadaler already justified it by arguing that meteorology is not an exact science. We can understand that meteorological evolution is constant, that maps are open to interpretation, and that experts do not have to agree on forecasts. But he who has two watches does not know what time it is. And there are times when, instead of clarifying what the weather will be like, it seems they play at confusing people. At the very least, this way there is always someone who gets it right.Another bewildering broadcast was that of the twenty-fifth anniversary musical gala of Catalonia raises the curtain. The common thread was the supposed trajectory of an amateur who, over the course of a quarter of a century, became a professional actress and a successful protagonist. The show kept improving, but it made one suffer. The theater inside the theater it is already hard to swallow, but if it is also broadcast on television it can become a torture. Anyway, break a leg...

Salvados kicked off the season this Sunday with a posthumous portrait, in two acts, of Rita Barberà, mayor of Valencia for 24 years, marked above all by the era of the pelotazo of the PP, and a key figure of the party in the times of Mariano Rajoy. The program began with Mozart's Requiem, anticipating the dramatic end of the protagonist, while alternating fragments of paintings from revolutionary and Napoleonic France as a metaphor for her political progression: from the most obscene power institutionalized and respected by the elites to popular agitation and the final lynching.Gonzo interviewed friends, party colleagues, and political rivals to explain in detail Barberà's trajectory. The two parts of the program used the folklore of Valencia to represent the two stages: the mascletà, about the great explosion and peak of the mayoress, and the cremà, to refer to the descent into hell of the protagonist betrayed by her own party. Barberà's inner circle – with Francisco Camps, José Manuel García-Margallo, councilwoman Mayrén Beneyto, and journalist María Consuelo Reyna – built a hagiography of the character that was a bit difficult to stomach from the current perspective. Beneyto and Reyna, moreover, spoke with the frankness of someone who no longer needs to make political calculations to choose their words. The emeritus king was portrayed in history as the main instigator of placing Urdangarin in the cribs of that opulent Valencia that organized regattas, Formula 1 races, and whatever was needed to line one's pockets. The program was filled with archival images that recovered the delirious politics of arrogance and corruption, with Barberà's greatest hits, her "caloret faller" and the Louis Vuitton bags.The shadows of Rita Barberà served to portray the fratricidal struggles of the PP during the party's collapse, with Rajoy at the helm. From the noise of the firecrackers and the smoke that covered everything to the stench of scorched remains. But here the program seemed more interested in recalling all the internal rot of the party and the low morals of its leaders than in delving deeply into Barberà's political legacy and the aftermath for the city of Valencia.It was inevitable to wonder why now, almost ten years after her death, the figure of Rita Barberà was being recovered to kick off the television season. At a time when all the private channels dedicate a large part of their schedule to attacking Pedro Sánchez and the PSOE, it seemed like an approach to compensate for the back-and-forth of the media right. On the other hand, the program about Barberà once again highlighted the journalistic inertia of delving into major political episodes when it is already too late. It is true that it makes it easier for witnesses to speak with more frankness, but journalism and the citizens' indignation have already transformed into the memory of an era.

Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, a few minutes from Washington D. C. Donald Trump and his assistant, Natalie Harp, step off Marine One, the helicopter of the President of the United States, to board Air Force Onebound for Houston. The photograph shows a scene very typical of presidential routines. These are iconic moments of power representation: the epic of the leader preparing to act, to demonstrate his strength. The photograph does not seem to have any particularity. However, the political context makes the image not innocent. Trump walks in the foreground, moving across the tarmac with his heavy gait. But Reuters photographer Kylie Cooper makes him appear blurred. Instead, she focuses on the secondary character: Natalie Harp. A former television presenter turned advisor and personal secretary. Her silhouette is perfectly defined, her confident smile is visible and the vivid green of the dress catches the observer's eye. She walks gracefully and with a firm step, in the background. On the day of the photo, August 27th, it had been only two weeks since the Washington Post had revealed that Trump, on his trip to Turkey, secretly abandoned the official plane at Ankara airport by hiding in a catering truck. He flew secretly in another aircraft while Air Force One, with journalists and part of the cabinet on board, served as a decoy in the face of a supposed dangerous situation due to threats from Iran. The press, which believed that Trump was traveling on the same aircraft, received the order to lower the blinds to prevent the light from inside from making the plane more visible during the flight.The Washington Post revealed that Natalie Harp was one of the few people chosen to accompany the president on the secret flight. Faced with a great threat, Trump prioritized his assistant over higher-ranking politicians. The opposition has taken advantage of this proximity of Harp to the president to make sexist insinuations about a possible sexual affair. On social media, images have circulated accusing her of being the trigger for an argument between Trump and Melania.Power, information and influence

The photographer has captured the moment when Natalie Harp walks under the large 'United States' sign, personifying that idea of dominance it represents. The secretary witnesses confidential conversations and meetings of the president. For some time, the press has dubbed her "the human printer" because she is the one who selects and provides Trump with emails, messages, news, and documents, always in paper format. In the image, Harp is the only one carrying a black bag that seems very full: the zipper does not quite close. She holds it tightly by the handle. The symbolic weight of the information she manages.This photograph hints at an influence that has nothing to do with official hierarchies. Despite her angelic pose and advertising-style beauty, the photographer points out the woman who holds great sway over Trump. Or perhaps a new weak point of the President of the United States.

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The 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks has generated premieres on platforms to commemorate, above all, the victims. There are affected and tearful tributes, such as the one proposed by Netflix with Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror, a production that tries too hard to argue that a transformative social legacy remains from that tragedy. They are interviews with young people who were children on the day of the catastrophe and also survivors and relatives of victims who explain how their lives changed. A dispensable option for being forced and sensationalist.The Disney+ platform has released a three-episode series from National Geographic. Each 9/11 anniversary, this label seeks an alternative approach to the attacks. 9/11: One Day in America retells the experiences of the Twin Towers and Pentagon survivors in a very emotional way. It encourages the reunion between rescuers and the rescued amidst the chaos and panic. Each episode collects several unheard-of stories, those that make one shudder but have a, at the very least, moderately happy ending. Each witness separately explains the hours leading up to the catastrophe, remembering what seemed like it would be a normal workday until the planes crashed into the building where they worked. The stories will intersect in the midst of the desperation. There are incredible ones, where you notice how the most insignificant detail becomes a providential fact for the resolution of the drama, such as a window cleaner entering the elevator of one of the towers at the last minute. The reunion after twenty-five years brings a bit of comfort to the harshness of the tale. The insistence of the music, which tries too hard to underline an emotion that does not need embellishments, is unnecessary. It is very likely that you will need a few tissues before finishing each episode. In the documentary, a psychological emotional response that runs through all the productions commemorating the tragedy appears repeatedly: survivor's guilt. An irrational reaction that the protagonists often mention as an aspect that has hindered their ability to recover. Despite this, 9/11: One Day in America has the ability to speak to us about the possibility of rising from trauma through real examples. In the productions, terms like jihadism, Bin Laden, Mohamed Atta or similar are never mentioned, so the trigger for it all is deliberately erased.If you are still in the mood for more air disasters, Netflix has released this summer the British miniseries based on true events Lockerbie. An excellent recreation of the 1988 terrorist attack that blew up a plane flying from London to New York and crashed over the town of Lockerbie. A key precedent for understanding some aspects of the management of 9/11. The rigorous reconstruction of the investigation, the clarity with which the events are exposed, and the actors' performances make the series an addictive option that, furthermore, manages to provide a humanistic reading of great tragedies in a very pertinent way.

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