House of Flowers: a Mexican soap opera satire
Mexicans, along with Brazilians, are known to be amongst the best for making successful telenovelas, the never-ending soap operas that have kept Latin America in suspense for the past four decades. What is rather less well known is their talent for scathing humour.
The new Mexican series on Netflix, La Casa de las Flores (House of Flowers), is both a soap parody and a satire of Latin American society; in this case, the Mexican one. All taboos and curses that affect the country are tackled in a comical and caustic manner. For a start, it dares to go against popular superstition by including only 13 episodes! Each 30-minute sketch is named after a flower representing a value or emotion, for example chrysanthemum symbolising pain, dahlia gratitude, tulip hope or orchid lust.
Through this series, we follow the misadventures of a well-off family living in a posh colonia (district) of the federal capital, Mexico City. The de la Mora family yearns for perfection and conservatism, but step by step we see their family structure crumbling from fraud, corruption, racketeering, snobbery, elitism, prison, rumours, extramarital affairs, blackmail, homosexuality, bisexuality, gender identity, sexism, racism, drugs, trafficking, suicide, illegitimate children and so on.
What may well shock the viewer in this series is the lack of morality and political correctness in the family misfortunes, quite a refreshing change for Europeans who can be somewhat prisoners of right-mindedness. It is true that we Westerners quickly become uncomfortable when faced with the racist prejudice experienced by an African-American protagonist. The Jews are not spared either, being portrayed as rich and slightly exclusive. But having prejudices are actually a raw reality of Mexican society, like many others. What would be the point of hiding the truth? Sure enough, this approach has the desired effect. We find ourselves shocked despite the burlesque approach and to top it off, the absence of a happy ending thwarts our desire for good ethics.
La Casa de la Flores is a real visual treat and guilty pleasure. The performances of the main characters are remarkable, especially those of Verónica Castro (mother of the Mora family) and Cecilia Suárez (the eldest daughter, Virginia de la Mora). Also noteworthy are the performances of Darío Yazbek Bernal who plays the bisexual son and Juan Pablo Medina, the gay playboy lover and finally Verónica Langer, who plays the hypocritical bigot neighbour.
If you can, try to see this series in its original version with Verónica Castro’s singular and inimitable voice and intonation. Even the opening credits are impressive showing the protagonists’ portrait in Frida Khalo style accompanied by traditional Mexican music. Finally, if you study Spanish, the series will be perfect for immersing yourself in Mexican culture.
form-idea.com London, 13th October 2018.
Trailer
Follow Us
