Disney premieres 'La Suerte', a new series about a bullfighter from a small Malaga town

It has only just been released. But those who've seen it can't help but think that reality surpasses fiction with the unexpected farewell last Sunday of the famous Spanish bullfighter Morante de la Puebla at the Las Ventas bullring in Madrid. The similarities to this Seville-born matador, a leading figure in the bullfighting world, are evident in the plot of this just-released bullfighting series 'Fate: A series of coincidences' and even more so with the current events of the last few days. Morante was an artistic bullfighter, revered and respected by fans, superstitious and one who bore the name of his hometown throughout Spain, but who has been going through a personal crisis that pushed him to announce his retirement from three decades of bullfighting. Even the actor Óscar Jaenada, who shows a bullfighting spirit, bears a resemblance to this real-life bullfighter from La Puebla del Río. The story could also be that of any great figure in their twilight years, although the gift of good timing with Morante's most recent biography is evident. However, the character also has his differences, such as the fact that this bullfighter is originally from a small town in Malaga and that his "home" is La Malagueta bullring, where he learned to make his first 'muletazos', the swishing passes with a red cape.

The comedy genre that is halfway towards drama - it's close to that hybrid dubbed as 'dramedy' - and the half-hour episodes add freshness to this series, which delves into the bullfighter's personal crisis and doesn't shy away from the current debate that pits bullfighting fans against animal rights activists who reject this spectacle. What's more, the series makes the conflict between the old and the new the central basis of its plot, although it does show respect for bullfighting.

The tone that the directors and creators of the series, Paco Plaza (author of the horror saga trilogy 'Rec') and Pablo Guerrero ('Perdiendo el Juicio', [Losing the Case]), give to 'La Suerte' is blended with a road movie format that, like the bullfighting films of the '60s, follows the bullfighter from bullring to bullring, including the inevitable bullfight in Malaga, where this production was filmed, as well as passing through other bullrings and locations such as Talavera de la Reina, Zaragoza, Benidorm and Madrid.

At the time of filming, the working title of this series produced by Boomerang TV for Disney+'s non-children's content division, Hulu, was 'Maestro', which defines the central character of bullfighter Rafael Baeza Cortés (played by Óscar Jaenada). The lead character feels that now is no longer his time due to the drive shown by a new, much younger bullfighter, who goes viral and pushes Rafael's name off the billboards. At the same time, he experiences the growing rejection of his craft that is no longer understood by society as it was in the days of Juan Belmonte. His prospects become enmeshed with that of the story's other lead character, young David (played by Ricardo Gómez, who played Carlitos in the Spanish TV series 'Cuéntame cómo pasó' [Tell me how it happened]), a young bullfighting candidate and temporary taxi driver who brings luck to the bullfighter from Malaga, leading to him becoming overnight the chauffeur to the matador and his crew, touring around half of Spain.

We have to wait until the fifth episode in this six-part season 1 to see the Malaga locations in this series. They undergo some poetic licence, beginning with a somewhat fantastical, almost surreal tour of the provincial capital accompanied by David's father, the real owner of the taxi and played by Manuel Morón. Thus, in just a few seconds, the character, who is eating some barbequed fish in the picturesque El Tintero beach bar, gets up and walks along the promenade, appearing in a flash at Customs and then taking a tour of the city's cathedral, Chinitas passage and, finally, Ollerías, where the scene is set for a bullfighters' tailor shop and where SUR photographed the shooting of this series in November 2023. As a tourist itinerary, the walk would be pretty perfect, but for anyone who has walked from El Palo to the city centre, they'd know it to be pure fiction. Oh, the liberties taken by film and TV.

The Malagueta bullring is the other unmissable location for 'Fate', which had the support of the Malaga Film Office (Malaga city council's film production service) and whose premiere was spurred on by the sudden departure of Morante de la Puebla, who could well have been the inspiration behind this story. The series also features a bullfighter in the cast, Óscar Higares, a retired matador-turned-actor, who finds a fitting role here as the leading character's brother and sword-handler. The rest of the 'cuadrilla' crew is played by Carlos Bernardino ('Modelo 77' [Prison 77]), a histrionic subordinate who repeatedly says 'perita' to make clear the crew's Malaga origins, and Pedro Bachura ('Antidisturbios' [Riot Police]), as well as Jason Fernández ('Extraña forma de vida' [Strange Way of Life]), Óscar Reyes ('Aída'), Almudena Amor (nominated for Best New Actress at the Goya Awards for 'El buen patrón' [The Good Boss]), Almudena Cid ('The Secret of Puente Viejo') and Diana Peñalver ('Cristo y Rey').

The premiere of 'La suerte' has also coincided with the arrival to the small screen of three other productions filmed in the Costa del Sol province and released on the streaming platforms in the last four months of this year. Starting with the success of 'Dos Tumbas' [Two graves], a thriller about the disappearance of young women in a village in Malaga by Carmen Mola that, for several weeks, has been Netflix's most-watched, non-English language production worldwide. Internationally, last September Amazon Prime Video opted for domestic intrigue 'La Novia' [The Girlfriend], starring and directed by the American Robin Wright and which has accumulated 25 million views. Meanwhile, Movistar + has opted for gangsters in 'Los Amos de la Ciudad' [This City is Ours] , another crime thriller set in Liverpool and the Costa del Sol. All of them are now joined by 'La Suerte' [Fate], which in its first week has already positioned itself as the third most-watched programme on the Disney Spain platform.