TV

The Happy Ending Project: Flozmin

What is it about South American telenovelas and happy endings? I don’t know, but I like it. This week’s happy ending project takes us to Argentina for the third time as the telenovela “Las Estrellas” reaches its conclusion on January 19th. The show is about the lives and loves of the Estrella sisters: five women from different mothers who find out on the death of their father that in order to access their inheritance, they must run a boutique hotel together for a year. The set-up for the show is small-scale: almost everything happens within the Estrella Hotel: the sisters fight with each other in and about the hotel, some of them date the hotel staff, live in the hotel, etc.

Flozmin” is the pairing Florencia Estrella (Violeta Urtizberea) and hotel cook, Jazmín del Río (Julieta Nair Calvo). (Trivia: Flor’s sister Carla Estrella is played by Natalie Pérez, who was one half of another Happy Ending Project pairing, Augusleria. Her hair is slightly less flamboyantly fabulous on this show, but she herself is even prettier.) As one of the five major storylines in the telenovela, Flozmin, which has a highly vocal international fan base, tallies the most kisses for a same-sex female pairing probably ever on TV. Below are a few of the highs and lows that I, personally, found for the pairing, and I leave the rest to viewers to find for themselves!

The Good:

  • Urtizberea and Calvo commit wholeheartedly to their roles. They’re both fantastic at creating unique personalities for their characters, and how Flozmin acts as a couple is largely attributable to them. When Flozmin are baby talking with each other, for example, it feels like something that the two of them decided to do vice being told to.
 
  • The relationships between the characters on “Las Estrellas” is one of the show’s greatest strengths. Javo, for example, who is Jazmin’s best friend and the hotel’s main chef, is the perfect lezbro. He’s supportive, he’s understanding, and sometimes when he references lesbians, he makes finger scissors and snips away at the air. Similarly, the friendship between Flor and her sisters Virginia and Miranda is really cute, and their support for Flozmin is adorable.
 
  • There is great honesty in Flor having so many self-doubts. Her experiences of being bullied and of struggling were very formative for her, and unlike a typical TV personal growth/empowerment story where the love of a supportive partner teaches the ugly duckling to be a brave swan, Flor isn’t magically cured by Jazmin’s love. Instead, she makes baby steps while both of them recognize that it will always be a struggle for her.

The Bad:

  • Something that differentiates Flozmin from other couples is that Flor has Tourette’s Syndrome. Tourette’s is a neuropsychiatric disorder that in Flor’s case involves both motor tics and coprolalia (the utterance of obscene words or socially inappropriate and derogatory remarks). Urtizberea is really fantastic at creating Flor’s motor tics, and it is great that “Las Estrellas” included a character who is differently abled. More shows need to be inclusive in that way. That said, it is only fair to point out that Flor’s coprolalia seems to be inconsistent with most descriptions of the actual manifestation of coprolalia. Flor saying things like “Fifty shades of Jaz!” or “Golden squid rings!” sounds a bit like artistic license. Sure, some of these outbursts of Flor’s inner thoughts made me (and clearly the other cast members) laugh, but if they’re largely untrue to the actual disorder, then is that regressive?
 
  • Sometimes Flor doesn’t seem well-equipped to handle life as an independent adult, nor does she appear able to hold down a steady job. She requires help from other people–mostly her sisters–to do even the most basic things. In that sense, the writers seem to have gone a little overboard while trying to write Flor as a disorganized, insecure person.

Overall grade: A-.

Flozmin is a very popular pairing, and most viewers are likely to enjoy the bubbly couple. They have tons of screen time, are involved in multiple storylines, and have a light, loving, playful relationship. That said, I, personally, felt that there is what I might call a “Too Good to be True” problem, which is as follows: in many ways the interpersonal relationships in Flor’s life seem to always end in the best case scenario.

Her boyfriend Daniel loves her and treats her well (then after she leaves him at the altar, he eventually forgives her and is a friend), and Jazmin adores her and supports her basically every step of the way both before they start dating and after. Virginia and Miranda find out about Flor and Jazmin and are supportive. Even after Flor’s mom is initially negative, she immediately comes around.

Flor and Jazmin see a girl singing on the street who kind of looks like Jazmin, and it turns out that she’s an orphan with a sister who kind of looks like Flor. Jazmin and Flor, who have just moved in together, decide to adopt these serendipitously found mini-mes, both of whom are like, “Lesbian moms?! OMG Santa really did read my Christmas list this year!” While none of these things are impossible…okay, no, the kids were a bit much. They lost me at the kids. Overall, this might be one of TV’s happiest lesbian couples, I just wish they’d shown Flor as slightly more independent and capable.

Lesbian Apparel and Accessories Gay All Day sweatshirt -- AE exclusive

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button