Merlí

This show is a very enjoyable, the characters are very easy to connect with and get attached to. If you have free time and you need something good to watch, I recommend this show for you.

Sadly it's not in English, it's in (Catalan?). So if you speak English(or anything else) you'll need to find subbing for the show.

Overall, this show does a good job and developing it's characters and plot. It is a bit rushed and all over the place, but it is one of the best shows I have watched in awhile, possible one of the best shows I have ever watched. If you decide to watch this I hope you can enjoy it as much as I have.

At first when i accidentally saw a thumbnail in a video sharing website about two young-good-looking boys looking at each other (probably in love) i thought it's going to be a soap opera cliché contained young gay story who are closeted, with its typical conflicts. I was wrong. Merlí is a 'rich' soap opera, whenever i watch the episodes it feels like i'm taking a class, studying Philosophy, and it is actually teach us about it indeed. Almost everything about this series is super, the directing, the acting, the soundtracks, plot, you name it. I really hope they will be released officially with English subtitle, but you may not be worried if you understand Spanish or Catalan because you can watch them in TV3's website. In summary, Merlí is a classy soap opera which highly recommended to watch. Salutació!

No reviews to date? Seriously? One supposes that is mainly because it speaks a language (Catalán) with which relatively few Europeans or Americans are familiar. Yet it appears regularly on YouTube with Spanish and even on occasion badly translated English subtitles. No excuses, however. A splendidly scripted, acted, and filmed TV series like this deserves better attention.

The narrative centers on a teacher and his philosophy class in a contemporary Barcelona high school. Each episode follows the teacher's life both at home and in the context of how he interacts with a specific set of acquaintances drawn from that milieu. No punches are pulled where the tone and depth of such relationships are concerned; fine and coarse language intermingle freely, as do sexual tensions involving all the characters.

But the most surprising aspect to me is how thoroughly expert and technically adept an obviously low budget film from a region lying at the northern extremity of its EU country succeeds in every way at generating a first-class production. I like everything about it: the musical track, the use of lighting, the camera work, and the direction. It is equally startling to discover in a minor TV series actors of all ages and kinds delivering top performances. Any language barrier fades away, almost as if it were a silent film with subtitles barely visible.

Now in its second season, this one should be a "must see" for the avid film fan.

I'd bet that if a commensurate TV series like Merli (Merlin) was in a more familiar European language or an American TV series, it would be a huge hit. It is in Catalan, a language spoken by about 10,000,000 people, most in Barcelona and its surrounding area. The concept is ingenious, but there are lots of ingenious concepts. What makes this a great show is that the realization of the concept is wonderful. Don't take my word for it. The series has already been optioned in the U.S., France, and other countries. A non-conforming high school philosophy teacher (philosophy in high school?) brings classroom learning to life, but also becomes a central agent of change in the lives of his students, their parents, and the other teachers. Life changing is not always positive. Merli is not a do-gooder. He is clever, deceptive, even desperate at times, but he knows who he is, and knows how the world works. The entire cast is terrific. The scripts are so smoothly written that the actors seems to just ease into the action. There is rarely a wrong note in the series. It's nothing like American TV shows about high school students that portray them as brats or goof balls or stereotypes. It's available with English subtitles. If you know a Romance language, you will probably catch some of the dialogue. Catalan seems a mix of Spanish, French and Italian. I am waiting for season two to be available. I binge watched the first season in four days.

There is definitely a before and after watching Merlí in my life, or plenty of reasons. First of all, everything on it -but Merlí itself- It's completely down to earth and very easy to identify with, both characters and plot. There is no quest, no good and eveil, no heroes and villians. Merl'i is about ordinary people struggling with problems of ordinary life (and not for that easy). Characters are deeply developed, with complete absense of stereotypes, and yet, we all know a Pol, a Berta, a Tania, a Bruno. We also know someone dealing with financial problems, or whose parents are getting divorced, or that feels very unsure of their sexuality: Again, all people and problems that hit us just in our heart, because this sh¡t happens to us and in the end, it's what life is about. Merlí himself is the only extraordinary aspect of this show. An unorthodox, rebelious teacher that gets his pupils to really do philosophy. Not just learning names and concepts by hard, but actually thinking, questioning and approaching their daily life from different angles. He is in some way similar to Mr. Keating from the Dead Poets Society (actually the whole show is a bit like the movie). Plus, he has many flaws, what makes him an ordinary man, although he is one of a kind. Each episode has te name of a different philosopher or school and explains basic concepts to us mortals who never read any of that before. It hooked me, and now i'm interested of learning more of it. I felt over and over reflected in characters, relationships and situations in a way that touched me deep inside, as very few books or movies did before. Everything in this show seemed very real, very close to me and very dear. It made me feel i was a teenager again and I started re-thinking many questions we usually ignore. What am I doing with my life? Am i happy with myself? Should i settle with my reality? And on and on. I really wish i could time travel and show this series to my 17 year old me. I would have bolder and crazier decisions, but i would have been happy too. As Thoreau said "and not, when i came to die, discover that i had not lived"