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Smiley Review

Smiley is a Spanish romantic comedy series that premiered on Netflix in 2022. It’s a clichéd, but entertaining show.

Alex is heartbroken because he has just suffered a heartbreak. After asking for an explanation by voice mail, he mistakenly sends it to Bruno, whom he doesn’t know. This innocent mistake changes Alex and Bruno’s lives forever. This is such a throwback to romantic comedies, especially those from the nineties that it felt antiquated and charming at the same time. The clichés abound, but still a lot of charm can be found here throughout.

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My main issue with this show is that it features that tiresome premise that demands the two protagonists to be absolutely horrible to their partners, so that they would end up with each other at the end. That resulted in them being quite atrocious human beings and it’s difficult to care for them when they behaved this badly.

Speaking of the two, Alex is the hotter one of the two while Bruno is the more intelligent one. The two are polar opposites, but their love for movies bind them together. Those movie references were endearing, but also quite cheesy at times. These characters both were memorable and the actors’ chemistry was electric, but again neither one of them was likable at all.

The show also features a couple of other storylines. There is a lesbian couple that is falling apart. Through these two, the show explored the inadequacy of open relationships and disintegration of longer relationships and how heartbreaking that can be. They needed a bit more screen time to get properly developed, but still they were strong characters.

The straight storyline also worked surprisingly enough. Bruno’s best friend is married with children and he is disillusioned with family life, but eventually he comes to the realization that this life is great and that he should appreciate it more. Thankfully, the series made that message clear as it is hugely important especially in this era where marriages fall apart left and right. There is also a drag queen character and he was the kindest soul. His relationship was also very heartwarming.

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Smiley is short at just thirty minutes per episode and it doesn’t do the best job exploring any of its themes due to its overly lightweight tone that still was in dire need of more memorable humor. What the show does right is the visual style that features many unique cuts and edits with the finest one being the screen being split into smaller screens featuring many different characters. Whenever the show did that, it thrived.