TV

Review of “Chica Busca Chica” (“Girl Seeks Girl”)

Since its debut in 2007, the web series Chica Busca Chica, or “girl seeks girl,” has emerged as “Spain’s answer to The L Word,” with its mostly lesbian cast, constant hookups and hilarious antics.

Indeed, Chica Busca Chica shares many similarities to one of the most well-known lesbian TV shows in America ÔÇò memorable characters, a focus on sex and relationships, and a cast of beautiful women. Yet the show lacks the exploration of serious issues in the LGBT community that made the Showtime series so dramatic.

Still, Chica Busca Chica succeeds as a blithe comedy that explores dating, cheating and lesbian life in present-day Madrid, and it’s now available in Spanish with English subtitles on DVD through Wolfe Video.

The show revolves around four major cast members: Nines the “Flirt” (Celia Freijeiro), Mónica the “Psycho” (Cristina Pons), Carmen the “Hetero” (Sandra Collantes), and Ana the “Newbie” (Almudena Gallego).

The interactions (which often lead to hookups) between the women are usually absurd and the banter is always irreverent (it’s fun to figure out the Spanish word for “dyke” and other related vocabulary). The characters’ lives are presented in a humorous light that is fun, sexy and captivating.

Spanish TV star Freijeiro sizzles as Nines, the resident player (think Shane from The L Word, but not as scruffy) who bartends at the “Chica Busca Chica” dyke bar in downtown Madrid. Using her lame but ever-successful “you have an eyelash on you cheek” trick, Nines is able to make every woman fall at her feet. (Read our interview with Celia Freijeiro here.)

When she’s not spending her time romancing every woman she meets, Nines is also a comic book artist who pitches her idea of a superheroine to her unimpressed and frustrated on-again, off-again girlfriend (and editor), Rossi.

When we’re first introduced to Nines, we find her tiptoeing out of Mónica’s room the morning after they sleep together. While Mónica blissfully slumbers after a night of passion with the new love of her life, Nines can’t even remember Mónica’s name. She even hits on Mónica’s roommate, Carmen, on her way out the door.

Mónica has earned her well-known title “Psycho” for her obsessive clinginess. After trying for two years to sleep with Nines and finally accomplishing the feat, she immediately wants to spend the rest of her life with her. Embodying the U-Haul stereotype, they quickly get into a relationship, with Mónica oblivious to the dismissive Nines’s ulterior motives (a free place to stay and proximity to Carmen).

Though her love life is pathetic, Mónica is a writer and former Judo champion. After excessive cajoling from her mother, Mónica agrees to coach a young Olympic hopeful for Spain’s Judo team.

Carmen, a successful psychotherapist, is reeling in the aftermath of walking in on her boyfriend cheating with another woman. She has difficulty analyzing the problems of her patients amidst the turbulence of her own once-solid relationship, and Carmen begins to question her sexual identity.

The series does well in avoiding making all men look like bad guys. While it portrays Carmen’s boyfriend as a jerk, it also documents Nines’s infidelities throughout her relationship with Rossi. The series illustrates disappointments in all types of relationships and the problems that anyone, regardless of sexual orientation, can face.

Chica Busca Chica also presents some of the joys and tragedies of coming out as a lesbian in the city of Madrid. Ana is a budding actress (the crowning achievement of her theatrical resume is the role of a cotton swab) who replaces Carmen as Mónica’s new roommate. Ana has never before left the countryside and is just beginning to come out.

She slowly learns the rudimentary protocol of picking up women at the bar, and desperately relies on the advice of Mónica and Nines for insight into lesbian culture in Madrid and the delicate art of dating and sleeping with lesbians.

Unlike the Argentine lesbian series, Plan V, however, Chica Busca Chica lacks racially and economically diverse characters, and there are no strong butch characters. The show merely sheds light on the culture of more privileged lesbians and their community, without delving into class differences.

Director Sonia Sebastian has already received praise for the series from screenings at the Philadelphia QFest and critics worldwide. Her lighthearted comedy has captured the attention of queer and straight audiences around the world for her clever approach to Madrid lesbians and fast-paced comedic developments.

Chica Busca Chica contains many of the archetypes that lesbians worldwide will immediately recognize: the heart-breaking lothario, the overly obsessive girlfriend, the straight girl who may turn gay, and the naïve baby dyke who is obsessed with her newfound lesbianism.

Chica Busca Chica lacks the overly dramatic and complicated plots of The L Word, and keeps the storyline simple. It is refreshing in its portrayal of the Madrid lesbian experience without falling prey to the exhausted stereotypes of heart-wrenching coming out sequences or lesbian pregnancies. In the search for an exciting new lesbian comedy, viewers have found it in Chica Busca Chica.

Chica Busca Chica (Girl Seeks Girl) is available for purchase from Wolfe Video, and can be viewed online at Veoh.com or Terra TV.

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