In the Press

DATE BLIND
Country: Argentina
Channel: 7
Time: Tuesday to Friday at 11 p.m.
Direction: Juan Taratuto
Production: Rosstoc, Dori Media Group
Script: Marta Betoldi
Cast: Muriel Santa Ana, María Abadi, Fabián Arenillas, Lidia Catalano, Silvia Montanari, Boy Olmi, Osvaldo Santoro, Nicolás Mateo, Hernán Jiménez, Sebastián Wainraich, Silvina Luna, Alejo Ortiz, Brenda Gandini, among others.

The youngest sister, who is the nicest and mom's favorite, announces her wedding. Far from getting happy, the eldest sister, a 30-year-old slightly over-weight journalist, gets desperate: she has no one to take to the wedding. She accidentally eavesdrops on a conversation between her mother and sister, who bet Lucía will attend the wedding alone, depressed and "dressed in black". Indeed, she gets depressed and wolfs down a lemon-pie, but soon finds out not everything is lost: she has 258 days to find a "normal" boyfriend, shush her wicked mother and prevent herself from becoming the hopeless spinster her mother assures she already is.

Date Blind is a story that was born in a blog created by Carolina Aguirre. It later became a book and now is Channel 7's new series, which narrates the story of Lucía González.

The challenge of finding a partner for the wedding party makes Lucía embark on a countdown to find a candidate, and along that path, she sees a potential suitor in every man she comes across. That is how, in a comedy tone, a glimpse of the different male stereotypes and the illusions and failures of her first encounters is depicted. An interesting cast, lead by Muriel Santa Ana –who does a wonderful job– gives life to those characters that wander around the editorial office where Lucía writes the horoscope, the bowling place that serves as after hour bar and the family house she left some time ago where Manucha (Georgina Barbarossa) calls the shots, always seconded by her sister (Silvia Montanari), both fascinated with the wedding preparations.

With the integral direction in the hands of film maker Juan Taratuto (No sos vos soy yo, ¿Quién dijo que es fácil?, Un novio para mi mujer), Marta Betoldi's scripts (Socias) and backed by Gastón Pauls' production company, Date Blind is the channel's strongest bet, in fact, a completely innovative program for the channel. It is pleasantly surprising to find a firm set, an elaborated staging, certain details about the lightning, a balanced cast. Leaving the program quality aside –which is found in almost every genre– it seems that the challenge has borne fruit: in its first broadcast, the series reached a peak of 2.6 points, quite a number for that Channel. So, little by little, together with Diego Capussotto and his videos, the state-owned channel is recovering an audience it has not had for long. And this is very good news for national TV.

Facundo Falduto
Translated from Spanish
© Perfil (Argentina) 2009