*Premise spoilers.*
Revisiting this show for Y tu Luna también, and episode 1 is already reminding me how much I like it. While Diego Luna isn’t in this show, he created it and directed all eight episodes. Let’s get into it!
Julia and Ruy are preparing for a custody hearing over their daughter Andrea. How did they get to that point? We rewind three months, seeing them when they were still living together and, on the surface, functioning well as a family unit. But as they all work to juggle their individual and shared plates, everything comes to a head at an engagement party for Julia’s brother.
The show paints a strong picture of this family and its members very quickly. Julia is a feminist artist from a well-to-do background preparing to “sell [her soul] to the corporate devil” in an ad campaign. Ruy works for a radio station that’s equal parts music and political discourse, where he’s much too familiar with one of his female subordinates, constantly ingratiating himself too close and being too forceful in “helping” her out. Between them is the delightful Andrea, who has nightmares about evil chickens, wears Iron Maiden T-shirts as pajamas at her dad’s behest, and cracks her tooth on candy she’s not supposed to be eating.
“Start in the middle, then circle back” is a popular narrative approach, and it’s really effective here. We open on Ruy and Julia separately answering questions for a “psychobiographical profile” ahead of their custody hearing, so we know from the first scene that they’re splitting up. When we jump back in time, we see what appears on the surface to be a messy-but-cozy family, with Julia and Ruy both nonchalantly comforting Andrea after her nightmare, and a hectic morning routine where everyone’s running late, but they somehow make it work anyway.
But during these “happy times,” we see the cracks too. We glimpse little moments of tension between Julia and Ruy, showing that not all is smooth sailing, and this tension builds significantly in the last third of the episode. We also see some important distinctions in their parenting. For instance, when Julia is late dropping Andrea at school in the morning, she’s clearly rushed, hurrying Andrea along while still doing her best to be responsive to her daughter. Meanwhile, when Ruy is late picking Andrea up in the afternoon, he breezes in, brushing off any concerns with, “Hey, I have until 2:30.” Little moments add up in significant ways.
My first time watching Everything Will Be Fine, I knew I was going to like it when I got to a scene where Ruy takes Andrea to the dentist. The office is closed for fumigation, but Fausto opens it up especially for them, and after watching all of them of them get progressively more bothered by the chemical smell, we cut to them in the parking lot, with Fausto working on Andrea’s tooth while she sits in the open hatchback. It’s a really charming moment that feels indicative of the inventive streak that’s threaded through the show’s overall grounded feel.
Luna doesn’t have a specific teleplay credit on any of the episodes, so I’m not sure how involved he is on the writing side of the show, but the series is his creation. His direction is effective and stylish, slipping us nicely into the lives of these characters. Their apartment feels lived-in and their morning chaos feels natural. I like how claustrophobic the camera work feels when Ruy is coming on too strong with Rebeca at work, and there’s a neat little breakout monologue from Julia about the history of marriage, complete with accompanying graphics, that feels like a more cynical version of the type of flourish you might find in a Jean-Pierre Jeunet film. I love this line: “That’s the thing. Marriage, by institutionalizing love, killed it.”
First impressions:
Recommend?
In General – I think I would. The first episode gets the series off to a strong start and introduces the characters well.
Diego Luna – Yeah. This show was my first look as Luna’s work as a director, and he does a really nice job with it.
Warnings
Language, sexual content/references, drinking/smoking, and thematic elements (including sexual harassment.)
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