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SÉRIES MANIA 2025

Series review: Mariliendre

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- With Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo, Javier Ferreiro directs a dramatic comedy brimming with colour, covers of millennial hits, drugs, “chills”, harnesses and even a funeral

Series review: Mariliendre
Blanca Martínez in Mariliendre

Have you ever visited Chueca, Madrid's world-famous LGBTQ+ neighbourhood? Don't know which dating apps are popular among homosexuals? Never been to a “chill”? Don't worry, Mariliendre, a series directed by Javier Ferreiro (previously a short filmmaker and screenwriter for the series Vestidas de azul) which closed the recent Málaga Film Festival and has just been presented at Séries Mania, offers you a complete queer catalogue, and other surprises.

For example, the role of the protagonist's bitter mother is played by singer Nina, the first director of the reality show Operación Triunfo, a programme that took Spain by storm. The only hit by one of her students, Beth, titled Dime, which reached Eurovision, is covered in this musical which, unlike Emilia Pérez [+see also:
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, renounces the original songs to revive tracks by, among others, the Mexican Paulina Rubio, Bebe (Ella) and Sonia y Selena (Yo quiero bailar—an unquestionable anthem of hedonism). A great selection of hits to fill the dancefloors of any proudly queer club, much like the series itself. All the gay-friendly weaponry on display in its episodes, starring a textbook “fruit fly” who lives up to her title of “queen mother of homosexuals”, as she only parties with boys who sleep with other boys.

But when the death of her father shakes her inane life away from her “polydrugged dwarfs” (as she calls them), Meri Román (played by Blanca Martínez) discovers that that good man (Mariano Peña) kept a “little secret” in the closet. Without hesitation, she decides to investigate, having to enter that little world of debauchery he left behind.

With nods to porn cinema and pop culture, Mariliendre is as irregular as it is light and inconsequential. It goes from moments of explosive humour (thanks above all to the phrases that the scriptwriters Paloma Rando and Carmen Aumedes - together with the director himself - have reserved for the main character) to delirious scenes without an ounce of humour. The series, which will not go down in history like other productions by Suma Content, the factory of the Javis (Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo, who were also teachers on Operación Triunfo), such as La Mesías [+see also:
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and Paquita Salas –a worthy reference here–, dares to be bold, insolent, fresh, excessive, coarse, irreverent (in the funeral scenes or in its exaltation of drugs), frivolous, superficial and vulgar, like burning the midnight oil in the Chueca clubs that its characters continually mention.

A colourful music video energetically choreographed by Belén Martí and a brilliant episodic mirror ball, Mariliendre sparkles during its viewing leaving little hangover – something that probably doesn't matter to these “boys in the band”, who have enjoyed writing it, celebrating it and filming it. A series that will make the Javis' fans and friends dance to their favourite songs, but is a bit excessive and crazy for the rest of the audience.

Mariliendre, consisting of six 45-minute episodes and featuring an all-star cast of young talents like Omar Ayuso (Élite) and Martín Urrutia (also from Operación Triunfo) is a production from Atresmedia Televisión in collaboration with Suma Content, which will be available in Spain on Atresplayer from 27 April. Atresmedia TV International Sales will be in charge of its export.

(Translated from Spanish)

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