Fiction in search of realism. An analysis of "the minions of midas (2020)": journalism, politics and counter-power

Abstract

Entertainment occupies a predominant place in today's society, either through the displacement of information and the production of a hybrid called infotainment or as multimedia goods and services for immediate or deferred consumption. In the latter group, Netflix -which arrived in our country in 2015- stands as the streaming platform with the most subscribers in Spain (Expansión, 2020). In addition to serving for the purchase of audiovisual products, it is a producer of series, documentaries and original films created and shot in different countries. In November 2020 it launched one of its latest productions: the limited miniseries "Los favoritos de Midas" (The Minions of Midas), which is the focus of the case study. Through a qualitative methodology based on previous studies by other authors and own contributions, an analysis sheet is generated to examine the whole of this (not so) fictional plot proposal through four major dimensions: characters, scenarios, contexts and actions. In this way, the aim is to discover whether the process of figurative construction of the situations shown and the characters correspond to patterns of reality. Moreover, journalism, a recurrent element in Spanish fiction, is on numerous occasions the guiding thread of some of the plots, either by resorting to journalists, ethical codes or media empires. The results reflect that resorting to real elements to give verisimilitude to fiction is a patent resource and that the journalist continues to be a major protagonist acting as a counterweight to power in stories involving political issues.