ABSTRACT

This chapter argues that analysis should go beyond this relatively limited canon of social-realist films, which, while widely studied abroad, is hardly representative of the Spanish audiovisual field as a whole. It focuses on two long-running professional series, El comisario and Hospital Central. Of all the social issues that have come to the fore in Spanish cultural studies, the one that seems perhaps the most urgent is the theme of the ethnic or immigrant other in Spanish cinema. Recent television scholars have argued for the medium's privileged engagement with the social life of European nations. The chapter examines TV drama that stakes a claim to being the true national narrative of Spain and the privileged forum for the working out of domestic issues such as ethnicity and immigration. The argument for the privileged status of Spanish television as an index of national life is also clear.