Nh3

For most people, fiction, in any form, is a way of scaping reality. When doing this we tend to prefer scaping upwards, to the unknown and more 'elevated'. There is, however, a tendency in Spanish cinema and series of portraying the daily routine of the 'popular' class (understanding popular as tacky, loud and uneducated people) and doing it again and again. Thus, Antonio Resines is not unemployed, shows like "Manolo y Benito" exist and "Manolito gafotas" is a film.

Aida is the quintessence of this kind of production. A bunch of stereotypes are clumsily put together and told to act in an histrionic and contrived way. How people find this funny remains a mystery to me. Is the audience laughing at the caricatures of the low-class? Are they better?

The concept and production of this thing annoy me beyond limits. It has already been sued for its degradation of midgets, hopefully more protests will follow. Hopefully, too, the show will be canceled soon.

The show clearly started as a vile 'Friends' copy, whoever denies this should pay more attention, some plots and scenes weren't changed at all. But the 'Friends's stage only lasted a couple of years, the post-coma plot disappeared and the series became a standard comedic show. Once there it became repetitive and bland. The kind of humour in this show was formulaic and predictable, just awful. A short conversation always preceded the punchline read by an angry character to the 'dumb' one followed by the canned laughter. Later, they included political jokes, giving a 'political' dimension to some characters, this was, in my view, a mistake.

The cast significantly changed throughout the years, and not for the better. I deeply respect Javier Camera and Amparo Baró's performances but I can't say the same about the rest of the cast. People like Eva Santolaria, Guillermo Toledo or Santi Millán should be kept miles away from a camera.

The success of the show can only be explained with the lack of competition and the abyssal level of Spanish TV.

This film is basically a bad idea, you keep wondering whether there's some kind of message or anything behind the obvious, but no, there isn't. It's simply the story of a man who is helped by a cheeky angel when he is in plights. He spends most of the time meeting national-stereotype secondary characters all over Paris without doing anything worth telling in a film. American citizen? Quite implausible and the USA embassy passage was probably the most unnecessary part of the film. I have enjoyed other Debbouze's works but here he just isn't the right actor, I disliked him and the character he performs intensely. Avoid.