The problem with pamphleteering is not pamphleteering. Narrative can be put at the service of any cause (it has been done since Homer put the Muse at the service of Achilles’ wrath), but it must be done well, because botched propaganda undermines both art and the cause it defends, however just it may be. Garbage pamphleteering strengthens those on the opposing side. If the series Breathe (Netflix) is the great defender of public health by the television platform, we can give up on public health. With defenders like this, there is no need for liquidators.
The reproach to Breathe It is not that it is a plea in favour of public health. The reproach to Breathe It’s such a bad argument, it causes so much embarrassment and it makes me want to rescue some of the cast members, whose talent soars stratospherically above the series. In particular, I feel like reaching out to the screen, taking Aitana Sánchez-Gijón’s hand, making her some hot chocolate and telling her not to worry, that we’ll delete Breathe of his filmography. We’ll pretend it never happened.
It will be harder for us to forget that Valencian president who could only have a passing as a puppet in a falla. The character of Najwa Nimri refutes the idea that reality surpasses fiction, and it will not be because in Spanish politics we are short of puppets and implausible blunders. I will not spoil anything if I say that the president discovers in her own breast cancer the importance of that public health system that, with Cruella de Vil’s cruelty, she wants to get rid of (it is not clear why either: it seems that because she is very posh and the poor disgust her). I wish that those who question free universal coverage were as simple and cheap: even the scatterbrained residents of Breathe —that make those of good Grey’s Anatomy— could thwart their evil plans.
They will say that it is not that big a deal, that it is just a series, and it does not even seem like a series that is going to take off. It will surely get lost in the quicksand of the Netflix catalogue, which sucks everything up mercilessly. Maybe. But it has set a tone, like the tuning fork that sets the tone, and it will condition those who come after it, dissuading them from the effort. Maybe there was someone out there capable of making a good fictional argument about public health, but after Breathe no one is going to trust him.
