In the Press

"Yesterday, I should have killed my mother and my sister, but instead of stabbing them, I ate half a lemon pie and cried". That's how Lucía's story begins. It was first told in a blog, then it became a book and now it can be seen on TV. The plot trigger was a painful surprise for Lucía: the day her younger sister announced she was going to get married, Lucia overheard her mother saying something like this: "If Lucía doesn't go to your wedding alone, depressed and dressed in black, and if she goes with a normal boyfriend, I'll pay for the party".

Right at that moment, hurt and depressed, Lucía made a decision: defeat her mother, no matter what. For that purpose, she had to date as many men as necessary in order to find a "normal boyfriend" to take to her sister's wedding.

A Funny Production

Two production companies were the ones that decided this story was worth telling: Rosstoc (Gastón Pauls is one of the owners) and Dori Media Group (Lalola, among others). Together with scriptwriter Marta Betoldi (Socias) and Director Juan Taratuto they got down to work.

La Nación could witness that the cast has a great time when shooting. At the head, there's Muriel Santa Ana (Lalola) as Lucía, the protagonist; Georgina Barbarrosa as Manucha, her mother; and María Abadi (Montecristo), as Irina, her younger sister who is about to get married.

The cast also includes Silvia Montanari, Hernán Jiménez, Osvaldo Santoro, Lidia Catalano, Fabián Arenillas, Boy Olmi, Nicolás Mateo, Sebastián Wainraich, Rafael Ferro, Nicolás Pauls, Silvina Luna, Alejo Ortiz, Brenda Gandini, Luz Palazón, Luis Ziembrowski and Lionel Campoy. In the different episodes, new men will take part as Lucía's suitors (among them, Gastón Pauls, who will have a special participation).

The series is shot in a very detailed set where Gustavo Luppi -the Floor Director (the son of actor Federico Luppi)- and Daniel De Filippo -the Exterior Scenes Director- work together with a team of about one hundred people.

During shooting, Muriel Santa Ana talked with La Nación and she summarized her view of Lucía, the character she plays: "The conflict has to do with Lucía feeling uncomfortable with the world, with her body and with her whole self. She is not a fan of marriage, she has a job and she is a loner. Along the path to defeat her mother, she starts becoming the woman she wants to be, but she is trapped in Manucha's censuring look, although she resembles her a lot: she is prejudiced, she is not supportive, she is mean," Muriel laughs. "She loves her younger sister, but she questions and criticizes her.

One of the scenes takes place on a typical Sunday; Lucía is home alone, eating and depressed. Three cameras shoot Santa Ana in her pajamas and slippers, rather disheveled and wearing no make up. The actress does not mind showing that image, she looks relaxed. "I know I don't meet the usual standards of the heroine. If I lost ten kilos, maybe I would. But I don't see myself as the "fat one". Although for many magazines I might be. I wear some extra padding for the series because Lucía looks fat, she doesn't mind what she eats, she has no one for whom to keep fit. Nevertheless, she is an attractive woman and she is sexually active. She has a distorted image of herself and her mother is also to blame for that," she says to La Nación.

Barbarrosa, always funny and smiling, describes Manucha: "She discriminates against people, she is sectarian, she compares her daughters, she criticizes a lot and she has many flaws," she roars with laughter. "In fact, she is a poor woman, she is pretentious and superficial, but she wants the best for her elder daughter. She thinks that in our society, if you are blonde and slim you can do much better".

To Manucha, Irina is the successful and almost perfect daughter, even though the young girl does not feel successful at all, Abadi says. "She's insecure, she does everything her mother wants her to do and she feels comfortable in that position. She is basic, her world is made up of her boyfriend and the gated-community life. She admires her sister for being independent and for knowing what she wants, unlike herself, who gives too much attention to what people might say," says the actress.

To all three of them, Date Blind talks about prejudice, about how important looks are in our society, about double talk and about what is left unsaid.

Despite the painful and confusing situations that will take place in the series, many people will find the characters and the scenes that will be on TV as of October 20^th to be hilarious. The episodes showing the path this girl in her thirties has to go along to find a steady boyfriend have the form of short stories with an almost cinematographic, day to day and credible structure.

The story that was born in the cyberspace
Journalist Carolina Aguirre (author of "Bestiaria" and "La peleadora" blogs) wrote another blog called "Ciega a Citas" (Date Blind) in first person and under the pen name Lucía González. The blog was online from November 2007 until June 2008. Lucía, a 30 year-old single journalist, found out that her mother had bet that she was going to attend her younger sister's wedding party alone, fat and dressed in black. From that moment on, she set her mind to winning that bet. She reached 15.000 daily visits in her last chapter, 1000 comments per day and 2800 fans on Facebook.

The Numbers
120: the number of episodes the producers are planning to air.
258: the number of days Lucía has to find a "normal boyfriend" to take to her sister's wedding.
100: the number of people that make up the technical team and the production of Date Blind.
25: the number of actors and actresses in the series.
15.000: the number of daily visits the blog reached in the last chapter.
1000: the number of comments per day the blog reached.

Date Blind: A co-production by Dori Media Group and Rosstoc.
Channel 7, from Tuesday to Friday, at 11 p.m. Release: Tuesday, October 20^th.

Paula Gingins
Translated from Spanish
© La Nación (Argentina) 2009