“I would love for Iker Jiménez to like ‘The Other Side’ because it is made with respect to the world of mystery”

The comedian has dared to tell a ghost story sprinkled with drops of humor in this new series

Although he is known for his comedic side, Berto Romero He has always been passionate about the world of mystery. That is why she has dared to tell a ghost story sprinkled with drops of humor (and with many more underlying themes) in ‘The other side’his new series for Movistar Plus+ after the success of the three seasons of ‘Look What You’ve Done’. One of the characters inevitably remembers Iker Jiménez, so its creator and protagonist would love for the presenter of ‘Fourth Millennium’ to like fiction.

Why did he get on this ‘mystery ship’?

I discovered the mystery through two movies that I saw when I was 12 or 13 years old and they blew me away: ‘At the Bottom of the Stairs’ and ‘The Shining’. I loved them, but they scared me a lot, I understood that ghost stories were what scared me the most. When I was older I began to consume a lot of mystery radio, ‘The Wind Rose’, ‘Espacio en Blanco’, ‘Milenio 3’… I think I internalized his way of speaking, his prosopopoeia, and everything stayed in there until that the idea of ​​doing ‘The Other Side’ arose.

Although coming from you, the series couldn’t lack humor.

I bring comedy from the factory. Horror comedies are very old because there is a feeling that both genres are first cousins. Comedy and horror have a very similar part of their DNA. Surprise is sought, they are disruptive, they provoke a spontaneous sensation, a laugh or a chill. Trying to mix them as much as possible became an obsession and we are left with a very peculiar tone. Because you don’t burst out laughing at any point, because you’re in a ghost story, but it’s not very scary either because there are people who are continually degreasing the story and putting jokes in the middle. I think it works very well as a kind of paranormal ‘thriller’, like a ghost story, with investigation and strange, half-geek people.

TO Iker Jimenez Are you going to like the series?

I have no idea.

I say this because the character of Gorka Romero, played by Nacho Vigalondo, is inevitably reminiscent of him.

If in 2023 you draw a character who is the leader of the most important mystery show on television, you wouldn’t believe anything we would have done that didn’t remind me of Iker Jiménez. Both he and Jiménez del Oso are references on an aesthetic level. But the art team did not have to be told to reproduce a set similar to Iker Jiménez’s ‘Fourth Millennium’. They read the character of Gorka Romero and the program ‘Nueva era’ in the script and made this proposal to us, which fit like a shot.

So do you think Iker Jiménez will like it?

I would love for you to like it, for one reason: the series is made with a lot of love and respect for the world of mystery. But if he identifies with Gorka Romero’s character and doesn’t like it, that’s his problem. Everyone is free to identify with whoever they want or not. But the portrait of mystery journalism is done with great affection, because one of the stumbling blocks that we did not want to comment on was going in to make blood and laugh at it. I greatly respect the idealism of people who dedicate themselves to searching for ghosts, which is a very thankless job because they don’t usually come out when you look for them. But back to the question: I would like him to like it, but I doubt he will see it. I think he has more important things to do.

He says they don’t laugh at paranormal journalism. But in ‘The Other Side’, journalism, in general, does not fare very well.

I believe that what is going badly is the savage capitalist system that has made journalism precarious to turn the people who work in it into desperate people. No journalist wants to not verify a source or put a headline that he knows is unfair just because he is looking for ‘clicks’, but is forced by circumstances. That portrait is in the series applied to that sector, not because I want to do a thesis on journalism, but because it is very educational to see it in journalists and in the world of television. But that is affecting each and every one of the economic and labor sectors.

The character who does Good sourceDr. Estrada, not only serves to add a comic note, but also to talk about a masculinity that has become outdated.

In the series there is a catalog of masculinities. There are all kinds. There is the worst of all, which I will not say which one it is so as not to spoil the series, the one that is being deconstructed and does not know where and the one that Estrada represents, which is the world of our parents, the happy patriarchy in which it was played the ass of the ladies in the elevator. I find this debate about paternity and inheritance interesting, a story of ghosts and the ghost of machismo for men of my generation.

Was Buenafuente’s character written especially for him?

Of course. When I wrote it and gave it to the team I told them that I had written it for him, and everyone saw that it had to be that way. That Estrada and Nacho were Andreu and I resonated in a fun way, because you can also extrapolate a teacher and a student. Maybe Berto also gets some of Andreu’s stuff, and that thickens the broth a little.

Is there a second season planned?

I think Nacho’s character lives a very cool arc this season and it is very well closed, with nothing loose. Yes, we open that final door so that there can be more adventures, but at the moment I am not very sure if they need to be told.