Daniel Krauze, the fan of Luis Miguel who ended up writing the series of his life

-Because we Mexicans tend to be pedantic with our own pop culture. I do not know the relationship between Argentinians and their popular culture, but in Mexico we like to believe that soap operas, programs of the 80s and pop singers are not subject to badysis … as if nothing of our psyche could reflect it. . It seems to me – it always seems to me – that it is a mistake. The gringos know it very well: pop culture says a lot about the country that consumes it. Do you want to know Mexico: its faults, its clbadism, its attitude towards women? Take a look at many of our most successful soap operas, where all actors are blond, being rich is the main goal and women are all victims. The same thing could tell you about our advertising, by the way.

Luis Miguel is, for several reasons, a character worthy of a serious and thoughtful badysis. I have always believed it. And I dare say that, if it were not the case, the series would not have the success it had in my country.

– What have you forgotten about the 80s and that the series has brought you to rediscover?

Good question! That yes, they did not do it to me. What I can tell you is that the fact that the series was produced in the eighties forced us to think as if we lived in this world. You have no idea of ​​the number of problems that writers have had because in this decade there were no cell phones, for example. What we ended up doing was incorporating the devices of the decade into the plot of the series itself. In other words, we use the fax for some important discoveries in Chapter 2 and Chapter 9, for example. And we had to be creative with the use of beepers and other technologies of the time. Personally I am a guy who has a tendency to nostalgia, and I have a good memory of useless data, so from the outset I suggested to put references from the 80s like Nintendo, World Cups and telenovelas of those years.

According to you, what are the fibers that the series played among the millennia, who did not even know who Luis Miguel was?

-Other good question, much more difficult to answer. I think the key is not only in the success of Luis Miguel, but in that of Stranger Things a series that connects with an audience that was not even born during their first The Goonies The thing Aliens and so on, as much as the young audience that Luis Miguel sees was not born when he created ] Romance . I think nostalgia is a very powerful hook because it works like a very obvious escape. For an hour, every Sunday, we can all escape another decade, where the world is easier to understand … in part because EVERYTHING is easier to understand through the rearview mirror. The future causes us anxiety and we prefer not to think about it. Thinking of the past, however, is very comforting. Although it's not even a past you've lived.

– Have you received comments from Luis Miguel with the operation of the chapters?

– I always felt that he was letting us do our job.

– Have you had any pressure on the stories of alcohol consumption that there is about Luis Miguel?

Not at all.

– How did the character of Luis Miguel? Have you ever felt that he was a bad guy become too kind or lovable?

-We never wanted him to be a complete villain. The last chapters that I wrote, from the 10th to the 13th, had to close their bow and transform the character, turning him into an almost tragic man, very different from the confident man, at the top of the world, that we see in the line of the past. Obviously, the scripts are of little use if you do not have someone of the size of Oscar Jaenada to bring the character to all those discs. His interpretation is astonishing, precisely because he comes close to two or three different things at a time by Luis Rey, especially towards the end, but also in the early chapters, whereas in the past he is a desperate man to save his family and keep it afloat.

– How do you think that a series made in Mexico, but at the same time is sold to everyone Hispanic?

-To do this, a number of factors helped. Carla González Vargas, my showrunner, is Mexican, as is Pablo Cruz, producer of the series. But that does not mean that the series did not depend on the talent of people who are not from my country. Flavia Atencio, who was in the writers room and co-wrote two of the chapters, is from Argentina. And Susana Casares, writer and co-writer of seven episodes, is Spanish. Both were crucial when it came to describing the Argentinean and Spanish characters. On the other hand, the team of the series also reflected the rest of the Hispanic world: Nicolas Scabini, Isabel Lopez Polanco and many others. And the actors of course helped enormously to give a specific identity to their characters. This undoubtedly made Oscar Jaenada with Luis Rey and, of course, the great Caesar Bordón with Hugo López, who had to correct, for example, when my scripts did not sound Argentine (if I remember correctly I insisted to put "chabón" instead of "boludo", among other inaccuracies). What I want to tell you is that the series has traveled well because it was made by people who accurately reflected the very diversity of the characters in the series. We did not have to make an effort not to make it Mexican because people from many countries were working there

"It was the best creative experience of my life"

– Beyond working alone and in a team, what are the other differences between writing a novel and writing for TV?

For Luis Miguel, I have lived different stages in the same project. At first we were four writers, led by Carolina Rivera and Fernando Sariñana. These four months have been pure collaboration and brainstorming, planning the series arc and writing more than half of the episodes. Later, for a few months, the remaining scripts were in the hands of Susana Casares and me. Finally, I worked on the results and polishing scenes throughout the production . This last step was most similar to the writing of a novel, based on the relative loneliness that the work involved. And I say relative because Carla González has reviewed all the scenes of the week exhaustively and sent me daily notes to prepare them for the next day. It also involved writing new scenes or new versions and dialogues, sometimes on the set.

In a novel, you obviously do not have this collaboration, and you do not have a showrunner that reviews what you write or tells you what you need or with whom you are exchanging ideas. In a novel, you go at your own pace. It's less exciting, the truth. Writing for Luis Miguel, the series was the best creative experience of my life.

-On the other day I read this badumption about the success of the series: "We are saturated with the sober realism of peak tv [19659036]: they gave us a hard melodrama (stylization, archetypal characters) and we die in love, are you in agreement?

– I think that, indeed, the series is a melodrama, and I think, indeed, that it works as an escape valve to another The two elements influence their success, no doubt, but, aside from modesty, I think that it also helps to get it done right, it never ceases to amaze me of all the work that entails.

– Always Rumors Rumors that the series was part of a strategy of Luis Miguel's Revival … What's the Truth?

– Nothing, if the series worked, it's because there is no cynicism behind it , at risk of seeming corny, I have never seen anything that is not a total dedication to the project so much Diego, Óscar and all the actors c as production and management. The delivery I'm talking about was to the equipment. The love was for the story we told. Never, in one meeting, have I heard the word revive. There has never been talk of advertising, record sales, future concerts of Luis Miguel. Never, really.

– What can you anticipate in the second season?

-The only thing I can tell you is that I would like to write it.