Simple
Promotional poster
Spanish	Fácil
Created by	Anna R. Costa
Based on	Lectura fácil by Cristina Morales
Screenplay by	Anna R. Costa Cristina Pons
Directed by	Anna R. Costa Laura Jou
Starring	Anna Castillo Natalia de Molina Anna Marchesi Coria Castillo
Country of origin	Spain
Original language	Spanish
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	5
Production
Producer	Sandra Hermida
Running time	30 min (approx.)
Production companies	Movistar Plus+ Destrucción y Salvación
Original release
Network	Movistar Plus+
Release	1 December 2022 (2022-12-01)

Simple (Spanish: Fácil)^[1] is a 2022 Spanish comedy television series created by Anna R. Costa for Movistar Plus+ based on the book Easy Reading [es] by Cristina Morales. It stars Natalia de Molina, Anna Castillo, Anna Marchessi, and Coria Castillo as four women with functional diversity trying to live in an apartment in La Barceloneta.

Plot

The plot concerns about the mishaps of four women with functional diversity (Nati, Marga, Patri, and Àngels) trying to live in a supervised apartment in La Barceloneta.

Cast

Production

Simple is based on the book Lectura fácil by Cristina Morales.^[6] Consisting of 5 episodes featuring an average running time of 30 minutes, it is a Movistar Plus+ original series, produced in collaboration with Destrucción y Salvación.^[7] Sandra Hermida is credited as producer.^[7] The series was shot in late 2021 in Barcelona, including locations such as La Barceloneta Beach [es], Rambla de Catalunya, el Raval or the Montjuïc Cable Car.^[8]

Release

The series was presented at the 70th San Sebastián International Film Festival on 20 September 2022.^[9] It will debut on Movistar Plus+ on 1 December 2022.^[6] Beta Film nabbed the international distribution rights.^[10]

Reception

Enric Albero of El Cultural pointed out that the series ("a luminous comedy that reduces the ideological feverishness of the original") comes nowhere near the incendiary nature of the source material, even if it incorporates some political (anti-establishment) charge via the characters of Marga and, particularly, Nati, with the series otherwise managing to balance points of view and display an "agile" pace.^[11]

Reaction by Morales and answer by Costa

The author of the original work, Cristina Morales (using the pen name 'Crispina Modales') denounced the whitewashing of the institutional violence exercised by social services (represented in the series by the character portrayed by Bruna Cusí) in the series so the latter could "reach the great democratic public, that great public that endows social services with messianic powers of integration in the shitty capitalism in which we live and that deliberately conceals the true nature of social workers" and derisively renamed the series as 'Nazi'.^[6] Costa explained that instead of the case of Morales' original work of all the characters working in such institution being "evil", she was interested in something "radically opposite" since the inception of the series.^[6][12] In Costa's vision, "institutions are one thing and the people working in them are another [different one]", thereby justifying the deviation from the original work by Morales.^[3] Upon the harsh criticism of the series by Morales, Costa also said that she "sincerely believed" that Morales' stance was "purely aesthetic", and claimed that Morales had previously told her that she had enjoyed the series and laughed a lot with Marga even if she did not agree neither with the portrayal of Nati nor with the absence of institutional violence.^[6][2] Costa also told that Morales "can shove the Nazi thing [down/up/in] wherever it fits her".^[13]

Accolades