That television revisionism was going to arrive could have been predicted by Fernando Arrabal in The world by monterathe Sánchez Dragó program where he coined the phrase that has made him unfairly popular —the fame he deserves should go in other directions—.
The recent television prestige of “based on real and well-known events” was born with the first season of american crime storyBased on the OJ Simpson trial. Each of the three seasons of the series is based on a book. The reason is obvious: the times of TV make it difficult to carry out the exhaustive investigation that a series of this category needs if it wants to be done well.
We now have broadcast Pam & Tommy and brand new Who is Anna?, the first Netflix series created by Shonda Rhimes. Both series are based, in addition to real events, on the reports that unraveled them. After publishing her investigation into Anna Sorokin, the fraudster who swindled some unsuspecting millionaires in New York, journalist Jessica Pressler was flooded with offers to buy the rights to her article and she sold them to Rhimes.
Here we are not in the habit of crediting either the non-fiction articles or books on which some of our series are based. the extraordinary Madrid burnsfor example, would not have existed without drink life Y Big time: the great life of Perico Vidal, both by Marcos Ordóñez. There was no bad faith in its creators, Paco León and Anna R. Costa, who, although they did their own research, recognized from the beginning the help of Ordóñez’s books. No one bought their rights because real life in Spain is often interpreted as international waters. The border between documentation and adaptation is sometimes blurred. That is why it is worth discussing.
You can follow EL PAÍS TELEVISION on Twitter or sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.
Exclusive content for subscribers
read without limits
#series #sounds