Did you enjoy “Respira” on Netflix? Creator Carlos Montero, who also created “Elite,” pulled out all the stops to give the platform’s subscribers a visceral experience in this medical series.
Number 3 in Netflix’s top viewing figures, this series is one of the new sensations coming from Spain and we owe it to Carlos Montero, the creator of Elite! The latter took on the challenge of writing and producing his own medical series like Grey’s Anatomy and it gave us Respira.
In 8 episodes, this fiction immerses us in the daily life of the Joaquín Sorolla public hospital in Valencia where lives are saved every day. Doctors and residents work hard, at the frenetic pace of the emergency room, where tensions, emotions and even desires shake the hearts of an increasingly exhausted staff.
The complex situation of the health system leads to an unprecedented situation…
In the cast of Respira, Netflix subscribers found familiar faces like Najwa Nimri (Money Heist), Aitana Sánchez Gijón (Parallel Mothers), Blanca Suárez (Cable Girls), Manu Ríos (Elite), Borja Luna (Cable Girls), Ana Rayo (Mercado Central) and Alfonso Bassave (Un Dos Tres, Grand Hotel).
A series with a strong message
It is not for nothing that Respira begins with a strike by the medical staff of the Joaquín Sorolla public hospital, without minimum service to protest against the disastrous working conditions.
“I wanted to contribute to the whole debate on public health,” Carlos Montero told SensaCineThe creator’s aim was to highlight the difficulties and pressures experienced by this profession in crisis.
“I believe that public health is one of our national treasures and many of us fear that it will be distorted and dismantled, because it is in a moment of crisis. I think this is my first series like this, with such strong political and social content.”
Netflix
A great lover and consumer of medical series, Carlos Montero is completely moving away from his previous projects – such as Physics or Chemistry, Elite, After You, Chaos – with Respira, a fiction that he had wanted to do for a long time.
And this prolific showrunner finally had the opportunity to mix his expert sense of drama with the medical genre, which is conducive to twists and turns and questions of life and death. By adding a realistic societal and political dimension, supported by numerous discussions with health professionals about their working conditions, Carlos Montero takes his art up a notch.
“I know it can be a controversial topic, but I’m not afraid of it because I try to be honest, respectful and bring out all points of view. Obviously, the show has ideological content, but I think I have a lot of respect for all other points of view.”
Showing the reality of a hospital in a raw way
If Respira is realistic in its subject, it is also realistic in its raw staging. The scenes in the operating room during operations, in emergency rooms or during simple medical procedures are filmed as close as possible to the bodies, the blood and the technical gestures for an organic and visceral sensation of authenticity.
Citing the British fiction This Is Going To Hurt as a model, Carlos Montero wanted to emphasize this raw side and hide nothing of the reality of the profession. “It seems very hypocritical to me to talk about life and death and go into an operating room, and not show blood.”he explained.
Netflix
“I needed to see it and I think the current trend in medical series is going in that direction. We have the means thanks to Netflix and thanks to the special effects that we already have in this country, we can afford it. I know that sometimes the public covers their face and I do too, but I prefer this kind of reaction.”
Netflix then classified Respira as “not recommended for under 16s” and warned its subscribers about its content with keywords like sex, drugs and suicide, to alert them to the content of the series. And while it is very raw and crude, it is still very addictive and has everything to be another success for Netflix, and Carlos Montero.
“I am very proud of this series”he concluded, “The series is much better than the script because we went beyond that with a team that, through its talent, made it better than I could have hoped for”. Since its release, Respira has quickly risen to the top of Netflix viewing figures. What are we hoping for for a season 2?
The series “Respira” is available on Netflix.
