#merlí: sapere aude

[newlabdakos]

Regular and Recurring LGBTQIA+ Characters in series on TV & Streaming Video

These are characters who have first appeared or been revealed as LGBTQIA+ during the 2022/23 season, or whom I’ve recently learned about or whom I hadn’t mentioned in previous posts of this type (that is, on my old blog). Needless to say, this list is also highly arbitrary and incomplete.

Netflix

Shadow and Bone

Wylan Hendriks (portrayed by Jack Wolfe)

Merlí: Sapere Aude

Pol Rubio (portrayed by Carlos Cuevas)

Bruno Bergeron (portrayed by David Solans)

Ángel (portrayed by Carlos Índriago)

Axel (portrayed by Jordi Coll)

Dino (portrayed by Eusebio Poncela)

Half Bad / The Bastard Son & the Devil Himself

Nathan Byrne (portrayed by Jay Lycurgo)

Gabriel Boutin (portrayd by Emilien Vekemans)

Locke & Key

Brian Rogan (portrayed by Milton Barnes)

Continuing the tradition from my old blog (which has been unceremoniously deleted by tumblr without much of an explanation why) I’m doing daily posts during June to celebrate LGBTQIA+ pride by showcasing openly LGBTQIA+ celebrities and various content about or created by LGBTQIA+ people such as music videos, characters on TV shows, movie trailers, …

[amorordinario]

[k-wame]

[zanephillips]

Carlos Cuevas in Merlí. Sapere Aude 1x01

[wiha-jun]

MERLÍ: SAPERE AUDE La cigüeña

[cinematografia]

Série: Merlí: Sapere Aude

Ano: (2019 - 2021)

Onde encontrar: HBO Max

[siehstdudieleblosenaugen]

"Dass die Dinge sind wie sie sind, heißt nicht, dass sie nicht zu ändern wären."

- Pol Rubio zittert seinen Lehrer Merlí (aus der Serie Merlí Sapere Aude, Staffel 2 Folge 7, Netflixserie)

[oshieteacapella]

I'm watching Merlí Sapere Aude's 2nd season and really... the whole vih story makes no sense and believe me, I love drama for the sake of drama, I was raised watching telenovelas... but this... and the other characters?? They don't exist! Rai doesn't have a personality anymore, Oti is now bestie with Pol? What's going on? Axel, until now, it's the best thing happening. And yes, I'm not even going to start on how much you need Bruno in the story because i knew he wasn't appearing but it just- how can you have that story line and think... un yeah this makes sense and yeah no Bruno needed at all.

[mercifuil]

Picture this, it's summer. But you're stuck at the most boring job in the world and suddenly, you remember somebody from your past. Someone you knew. Someone who was dear to you. A love you wasted.

So I made a Merlí and Un Professore crossover back in 2022.

Not a lot of people really read it. I mean...It probably sounds gimmicky. But I'm very proud of it. So I'm going to take advantage of this new Un Professore season to redirect you all to it.

The story? It's Pol roaming the streets of Rome to look for Bruno. Along the way he bumps into Manuel who, similar to him, has hit a snag in his life. The two form an unlikely friendship and hopefully, along the way, find healing together.

Links:

WATTPAD 👉 ENGLISH | ITALIAN*

(Italian has some human translation in it care of some friends, some also has Google Translate chapters in it. Be warned.)

AO3 👉 ENGLISH ONLY

After reading, I also wrote a short story set in the same universe as Finding You: Wattpad, AO3

[useless-catalanfacts]

A Catalan series called "Merlí: Sapere Aude" has popped up in my Netflix recommendations. Do you know anything about this show? Wondering whether it offers a realistic or wildly distorted view on life in Barcelona.

Yes, this is a very famous show in Catalonia. "Merlí" is the 1st series (and better in my opinion) and "Merlí: Sapere Aude" is the spin-off sequel. Merlí has been one of the most popular fiction shows in Catalan TV of the last decade, especially among teenagers and young adults.

It's a show made by Catalonia's public TV channel (TV3), so it's not a foreigner's exoticizing view like in movies like the Cheetah Girls or most foreign movies/shows set here that usually only base themselves on Spanish stereotypes. I wouldn't say it's a distorted view of life, only that it's more gossip-worthy. It's distorted in the same way that any high school drama from the USA is a distorted view of life in the USA: it's a drama show, not a documentary, so people watch it for the drama. The main reason I'd say it's not realistic is beacause teenagers (in Merlí) and most young adults (in Merlí: Sapere Aude) don't get laid nearly as much in real life lol. Later in the show they went over the top on the sex scenes, though there aren't any more than in any average USA/English-language high school show. For the rest, it's quite accurate.

I wouldn't recommend watching Merlí: Sapere Aude before watching the original series Merlí. I think the original is on Amazon Prime and on Topic (depending on what country you're watching it from). It's also on TV3 a la carta for free but it doesn't have English subtitles there.

There should be some way to pirate it with English subtitles because when it came out I remember there were foreigners watching it and it even had a fandom here on Tumblr, but some of the links they provided don't work anymore.

[advanced-procrastination]

Oh. Wow. Talk about a season premier.

[k-wame]

CARLOS CUEVAS as Pol Rubio 2019 · Merlí. Sapere Aude · dir. Menna Fité · S01.E08

[gameswithaed]

We need more media that says: 

HIV is no longer a death sentence. 

[peatbogbody]

this is the most penises i've ever seen in a show about philosophy

[siehstdudieleblosenaugen]

"Ich verstehe, dass wir so glücklich wie möglich sein wollen und Momente wie diesen genießen sollten aber die Realität sieht anders aus. Das Leben ist viel schwerer als sein Studium zu absolvieren."

- Pol aus der Serie: MERLÍ Sapere Aude, Staffel 2 Folge 6, Netflix

[unpopularly-opinionated]

I’ve been watching this Catalonian show called Merlí. Sapere Aude, super cute, dubbing is a bit off at times, or at least I assume it is. I don’t speak Catalonian, or even much Spanish, but there are times where what is said in the dub makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, it’s strange. It doesn’t help that the show is also written kind of like a soap opera with characters having completely out of nowhere and overly dramatic outbursts of emotions, but you get used to it I think. It makes the show feel quirky. Apologies to any Catalonians if that’s just generally how your TV shows are, this is the first I’m seeing.

If anyone’s interested, both seasons are on Netflix. I can’t speak to the second one yet since I’m just starting it, but the first was pretty good. It’s definitely more gay-oriented, but also works if you’re bisexual, or just open-minded about sex, I guess (everyone kinda fucks everyone). And if it wasn’t obvious by that last sentence, there’s a fair amount of sex and nudity in it. I would say the main focus of the show is Philosophy, as it’s about a bunch of college students in a Philosophy class, but as college kids tend to do, they fuck, drink, and have parties a lot.

I’m going to spoil the major thread below so if you plan to watch it, don’t read further but I wanted to geek out over something I thought the show did really well that I’ve not seen done well in any other media before, personally.

One thing it does that I don’t think I’ve seen any other show do, least of all a US show, is show unrequited love properly. Every single time I see unrequited love done in a show it happens the same exact way: Person A has a crush on Person B. Person A and Person B have a “heart-to-heart” where Person B tells them plainly that they do not see Person A as anything more than a friend. Maybe some unnecessary added drama from Person A to pad the runtime. Person A gets over their drama, and resumes their friendship with Person B. Person A seemingly no longer has a crush on Person B, at all, almost like they never did.

It always feels incredibly cheap and like just a quick narrative byte to draw in shippers with false hope. And don’t get me wrong, this show definitely draws you in with what I can only really describe as false hope, but it’s sort of a good false hope. Like, you want Rai to like Pol back, but at the same time you maybe relate to Pol better because Rai doesn’t like him back. Or at least I did, maybe I’m projecting there lol.

I loved that even after the big reveal where Pol admits his feelings to Rai, and Rai shuts him down, those feelings are still evidently there. That’s not the end of the narrative. Pol still has a crush on Rai, only now he knows the heartbreaking, gut-wrenching feeling of rejection, and now has to find a way to cope with simply being Rai’s friend.

And I also LOVED how it didn’t just make Rai a flat character. Even though I almost wish they took this bit just a tiny bit further, I was glad that they showed that Rai was somewhat suffering from this revelation too because he knows he’s hurting Pol by not loving him back. He just want to be Pol’s friend, and nothing else, and it really sucks that feelings are getting in the way of that. And most importantly, it’s not Pol’s fault, but nevertheless it’s still stressful and saddening.

Having been someone who was/is crushing on someone who, despite rejecting my feelings, is still a close and dear friend, this show hit me and it hit me hard lol. Granted, I didn’t get to kiss my crush multiple times like Pol ends up doing, but whatever we’ve hugged so that’s good enough I guess.