The state of journalism is so bad that I don't even know how bad things are in the world of journalism. For starters, there's the dilemma between print and online publishing, which has been around for centuries. Funding has always been a problem for media outlets that have published honest information. But with more and more companies collaborating with politicians, it's difficult for publications to secure advertising, as politicians can use wealthy CEOs to avoid entertaining those who don't write advertising pieces for a particular political party.
Because of this phenomenon, many news agencies are cutting out the middlemen and accepting government announcements directly, thus becoming mouthpieces for the party in power. So, when anything happens—and I mean literally anything—that might cause people to question those in power, the media simply steps in and obfuscates the truth before it reaches the masses. Added to all this is the presence of AI and all those strange changes in search engines, which are crashing websites even after a successful transition from physical to digital media. The first 10-15 minutes of Legado Podrido will make you think it's going to address this complicated topic, while the rest will make you wonder why you chose to watch this series.
Creators: Pablo Alén, Breixo Corral, Carlos Montero
Stars: Jose Coronado, Belén Cuesta, Diego Martín
Legado Podrido, by Pablo Alen, Breixo Corral, and Carlos Montero, whose episodes were directed by Eduardo Chapero-Jackson and Carlota Pereda, tells the story of the Seligmans. Federico married Lola and had three children with her: Yolanda, Guadalupe, and Andrés. In his professional life, Federico founded the newspaper El Báltico, which pioneered the fight against all the problems facing Spain and criticized the government for its actions. The publishing house had its fair share of controversies and complications, but the Seligmans continued to prosper: Yolanda became the owner of an entertainment channel, Guadalupe entered politics, and Andrés took over the editorial staff. Federico and Lola later separated, and he married Isabel and had a daughter, Lara, with her. When Federico was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he moved to the United States with Isabel and Lara, leaving the reins of his media empire to his three children. Upon his return, fully recovered, he realized that all three had become completely corrupted, prompting him to remove them from their respective positions. This internal war attracted the attention of the family's current rivals and former enemies, who were quick to seize the opportunity to dismember it. The crux of the story lies in whether all the Seligmans will survive this chapter of their lives.
The Rotten Legacy writers undoubtedly had a lot to say about politics, family, and love, but since everyone was talking at once, it was a little hard to decipher what they were trying to convey. Journalism was the central focus of the show, and I suppose they were trying to illustrate that being objective and honest is difficult these days unless you're willing to compromise. Did we really see the journalistic standards the Seligmans were trying to uphold, or were the writers so busy talking about it that they forgot to show it? Spoiler alert: it's the latter.
The interpersonal dynamics between Federico, Yolanda, Guadalupe, and Andrés were understandable enough, but everything else was so undefined that I struggled to understand who wanted to say what to whom. For a long time, I couldn't understand the relationship between Andrés, his wife (or ex-wife), and her second husband. I couldn't figure out when Guadalupe and Manuel were getting a divorce and when they weren't. And the less I say about Yolanda's open marriage subplot, the better. Furthermore, the portrayal of politics and law enforcement was so convoluted that at some point I assumed the writers had no idea what they were trying to say and had simply padded the script with a barrage of dialogue so the audience wouldn't have time to process what they were seeing.
The only good thing I can say about Rotten Legacy's visual narrative is that every frame was properly graded and corrected. Beyond that, I didn't get any artistic value out of it. To be honest, I was surprised the directors didn't think they should put more effort into each scene, since each episode had so much dialogue. They just shot each scene from multiple angles and edited them haphazardly. In fact, they put more effort into the few sex scenes than into the characters' endless conversations. You know what? Screw the rest of the show! I want to delve into this growing trend of sexualizing teenagers.
Aside from this show, I've recently watched Secrets We Keep, Your Friends and Neighbors, MobLand, and Bad Influence. With the exception of the Danish series, all the other IPs seem to agree on depicting them as creatures whose actions are defined by their carnal desires and nothing else. Sure, teenagers have hormones, but they have other things to do. They need to study. They need to earn a living, or at least prepare to do so. They definitely think about things other than fornication. However, it seems that today's artists are hyper-focused only on the subject of sexual relations, as it gives them the opportunity to choose adults and fetishize their physical appearance. This phenomenon isn't new, by any means, but it's strange that, even after widespread criticism of this practice in shows like Euphoria, it refuses to disappear.
Netflix is full of shows about wealthy societies or families that disintegrate for one reason or another, for example, Secrets We Keep, Trapped, One Look, Miss You, Hound's Hill, 1992, Echoes of the Past, and… the list goes on. So I'm not surprised that Rotten Legacy exists. Either there's an organic demand for these types of family crime dramas, or Netflix has developed its audience's tastes to such an extent that they now crave these dramas.
But if you take a look at that exhaustive list, you'll realize that only a few of the entries in this genre are legitimately good, while the rest are so trashy they don't even deserve to be used as background noise while you do your homework. However, since Netflix's algorithm is based on views, thumbs down, thumbs up, and double thumbs up, there isn't much room for nuanced discussions about the status of the narratives being written off. Thus, the supply chain of mediocre "content" continues to operate. When will things improve so we don't have to watch this kind of nonsense week after week? I don't know, and at this point, I think I should stop caring and keep covering this filth in the name of journalistic integrity.
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