Public television should not compete with the worst of commercial television. Call me deluded, but I think it should be a space that brings us closer, instead of distancing us.
There was a time when I thought I would never laugh again. It was the saddest time of my life, and because of those unexpected references that come to you in the moments you least expect them, I remembered Carrie (Bradshaw’s, not Stephen King’s, although I take the latter in my heart and I usually invoke her many times).
She said she remembered Carrie when in the first Sex and the City movie, after being stood up at her wedding with Big and seeing herself on her honeymoon in Acapulco but without a boyfriend, she asked Samantha: Will I ever laugh again?
There I was, one night in the empty house that served as a painful refuge without knowing if something of what had been would ever live in me again. And then a monologue by Marc Giró jumped out at me on YouTube. It was old, from when Marc collaborated on the Buenafuente program, and he reviewed the film 50 shades of gray. And so, without warning me, like those waves that treacherously catch you and roll you to the shore, it appeared.
A laugh burst out of my chest, the kind that sounds loud even if you’re alone at home (which are the best), and then I knew. Despite the pain that tears you apart, the absences, the failures, the grief that drags you to the depths, you would laugh again, and that would be something to hold on to.
I spent two hours straight watching Marc Giró’s monologues and I declared my eternal love for him.
I think I also understood something: laughter saves us and brings us closer, and in turbulent times, we need it more than ever. But not only that. We need spaces on television in which words circulate without the violence to which we are sadly accustomed, spaces for conversations, for ideas, for the exchange of opinions without everything having to seem like a war. Honestly, I think we are tired of this unbearable weather.
While social networks reward harassment and insults, television in recent years seems to have made an effort to enhance this same noise. Information turned into entertainment, the spectacularization of debates, analysis and thinking replaced by a battle of jokes, shouts, hoaxes, the fast, what stuns us.
Public television should not compete with the worst of commercial television. Call me deluded, but I think it should be a space that brings us closer, instead of distancing us.
After years separated from her, last year I found myself sitting in front of the television with the same excitement as when I was little. Tuesday nights were my particular enjoyment on TVE’s La 2: the wonderful program Electric Sheep (please, if any TVE executive reads me, listen to my pleas, renew it) followed by Late Xou. Were my eyes really seeing that? A very funny and interesting program about literature in prime time? My beloved Marc Giró on national public television? Where had this programming model been hidden for so many years?
I then remembered a forgotten feeling, that of turning off the TV at night and going to bed in a good mood. That of commenting with family and friends the next day: “Hey, did you see this?”
It seems that Spanish Television has begun to opt for a change in its programming and I think about how important it can be for all of us in these crazy times we are experiencing. We need spaces that allow us to breathe, that give us laughter, that take away the desire to kill ourselves. Betting on quality public television is a commitment to a society that deserves less shouting and more conversation, less toxic reality and more culture, more women, more diversity, more listening, more calm. Hopefully.
As I write this, I read that Marc Giró moves to TVE 1. I smile. Turns out there were many of us.
#good #humor
