When reality overwhelms, we seek to understand it in fiction

The first thing that many Spaniards did as they recovered the electric current was to look for series and films related to blackouts. If possible, of Spanish or European nationality. In addition to robbing us in An extraordinary phenomenon That has just happened, there is a psychological explanation for this act: fiction comforts us and explains reality. Above all, that part of the reality that we do not understand or that we are great.

‘Broady’ goes from that. In 2022 Movistar Plus+ premiered ‘blackout’a miniseries of five self -conclusive episodes led by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Raúl Arévalo, Isa Campo, Alberto Rodríguez and Isaki Lacuesta. It started from a catastrophic event (a solar storm causes a global blackout, leaving society without electricity or telecommunications) to reflect, in each episode, a human phase in the face of the crisis: denial, emergency, confrontation, survival and balance. The series, realistic, is one of the main search trends the day after the blackout. People want to see a fiction that tells him what would have happened if the events had been even more serious.

It is not the only one. Of course, there are more series on blackouts. In ‘Leave the world behind’ (Netflix), two families have to manage a mysterious blackout after a cyber attack. The French ‘The collapse‘He did not give many reasons for the collapse of society, showing the despair that emerges when the basic vital conditions disappear. The recent ‘zero’ (Netflix) blames a cyber attack on a global blackout and describes the consequent government response. Also a cyber attack is responsible for the disaster in ‘Blackout’, which leaves central Europe without electricity. Each with their tone and style, all of them agree to portray and explain an inconceivable situation.

Explain the inexplicable. The narratives help us to understand what exceeds the boundaries of the rational: it is a catastrophe of such magnitude that it exceeds with great domestic space, be they transcendental questions that question the existence of, for example, an ultraterrene life. Those stories, whether religions, urban myths, rumors or, simply, films, help us put limits and tie by the plausible and the rational what we do not understand. That is why we approach series as ‘Blackout’: they help us understand what happened in days like yesterday.

Beyond the blackouts. Of course, this phenomenon goes far beyond yesterday’s blackouts. A few days ago we talked about how ‘Conclave’ was reset With all the honors in cinemas, time to accompany the funeral of the Pope: a film explains us better than any documentary (because the emotion of fictions implies) the intestine weaves of the Vatican to succeed the deceased. And if we are going further back there is no more remember successes like ‘Contagion ‘during pandemic: A 2011 film that became suddenly relevant when it demonstrated an absolutely hechizing fortune teller (and reflexive).

The Simpsons predicted it. Of course The Simpsons predicted what happened Yesterday, in an episode in which a mass blackout forced people to return to traditional forms of life. This mechanics of using the legendary animation series To explain everything Not only does it have a logical and material explanation (many years of stories, sharp satire of the present, acute and very observant scripts), but to connect with what we said above: we have a natural tendency to seek significant patterns and connections between facts, even when they are the result of chance. These patterns are marked by narratives, series and movies.

It sounds to me. The familiarity of the fictitious It allows us to explain reality, and that is why the day after a collapse of the entire electrical system of a country (which is said soon, because we have not stopped to think about it), we go to series and movies that help us digest it with plots and subtramas, with characters with which we identify and with turns that we have already seen in dozens of occasions. When we immerse ourselves in fiction, neural networks are activated similar to when we live real experiencesand we integrate them into our own memories (although distinguishing them as fiction). And that helps us overcome them and turn page. Until next catastrophe.

Header | Movistar Plus+

In Xataka | While almost all Spain immersed in chaos, a place continued to function normally: Mercadona