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The Artists: First Strokesis yet another example of the dangerous trend of giving novelists control over series, whether they are adaptations of their novels or source material. But I wish that was the only problem with the series of Vix, the streaming service of TelevisaUnivision, available in Spain on Prime Video. If all the bad things about Los artistas: primeros trazos were María Dueñas, the thing would not be so terrible.

Starting with its unfriendly title, this series is a set of decisions made for an audience that probably exists but I do not finish defining. Or maybe I don't want to do it so as not to end up falling into a classism fed by prejudices. Prejudices against Latin American populachera television, so colorful and infantiloid, against its audience, as grateful as it is undemanding, and against the last years of Maxi Iglesias' career. You may have already done so with this last sentence. Oops.

Supposedly set in the art world and starring two supposedly charismatic small-time con artists (Maxi Iglesias and Ximena Romo), The Artists: First Strokes is a supposedly glamorous and supposedly adult fiction. And now change the "supposedly" to another less diplomatic adverb and let's all face the harsh reality: this thing is indescribably bad. And we can't put all the blame on María Dueñas' inexperience as a television creator. In addition, the author of The Time Between Seams is not a total neophyte either: the relationship of her works with television already has a long history. She is not the main problem of The Artists: first strokes, neither the only one, nor the most visible.

Apart from its sympathetic and surprising cast (we give this to you), the series is one shipwreck after another. If only it were a children's product... But no, that wouldn't save her either, because children's content is written for children, not for dumb adults (much less for silly children). The artists: first strokes is simply a fiction that has not passed any filter beyond that of, at least in Spain, two great names: María Dueñas and Maxi Iglesias. Dueñas is the popular author par excellence: it works a priori as a quality brand and, at the same time, as a promise that what you are going to see will not be too complex (see: best sellers).

Iglesias, on the other hand, continues to capitalize on his current media image of Latin heartthrob 2.0, gulf of good heart and good abs, blue eyes to get lost in them, if you liked Valeria you will like The artists: first strokess, etcetera, etcetera. With two such tasty ingredients, a big-name writer and a cover star, I understand this has been greenlit. But maybe it turns out that the fundamental component of any series is a script that does not seem typed by Derek Zoolander after having eaten two tons of industrial trinkets. The artists: first strokes is, in every sense of the word, nonsense.

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