There we were, mindlessly rushing through our pretty much equally mindless email, when we found something that actually piqued our interest.
It was an announcement of a new web series called BECOMING RICARDO, and the first thing we noticed about the show was that it’s filled with good intentions. The way co-writer-producer Jenni Ruizza put it was this: “Realizing there is a lack of a Latino presence in the entertainment and film industry, I’d like to introduce you to a Latina-created, focused, written, and produced webseries: BECOMING RICARDO.”
Now if we were being hyper critical we could argue that there isn’t necessarily “a lack of a Latino presence” in showbiz. Especially when it comes to television, where Univision has ratings that give a knockout punch to AMC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CW, and all the cable nets too. (Really? You didn’t know that? Check it out.)
But in spite of being done on a shoestring budget, BECOMING RICARDO has two things that definitely give it the potential for appealing not only to Latino audiences but to a more general one as well.
- It’s in English, unlike almost all of Univision’s shows.
- It’s good.
Specifically, it’s funny, as opposed to merely trying to be funny. The show is well-written, well-acted, well directed and ably edited. Why only “ably?” Why not “well?” Because it needs to move just a tad more quickly than it does, to give it that sitcom pacing we all know and love. We know it’s tough to speed things up when you can’t afford to shoot a lot of coverage, but let’s face it; quick cuts are the hallmark of professionalism in U.S. TV.
(You didn’t know that? That’s cuz the quick cuts are kind of a subliminal thing. We’re only aware of it cuz once upon a time, many eons ago, we took one of LB’s classes and, bam! we saw the light.)
There’s more we can say about BECOMING RICARDO, but the bottom line is that we really like it and believe in its potential? Have a look at the pilot to discover lots of enjoyment and, of course, the twist we mentioned in the title, and then tell us what you think:
Created by Jesenia
Written & Produced by Jenni Ruiza & Jesenia
Directed by Tony Comax
Cinematography by CJ Gates
Starring
Jesenia and a cast of, um, almost a dozen, which is pretty big for an indie thing
The BECOMING RICARDO website is HERE.