Summary
Netflix’s Parchís: The Documentary is a celebration of the band’s success, but equally it delves into the evils of young stars growing up in an adult world.
Netflix’s Parchís: The Documentary was released on Netflix on July 10, 2019.
Mental health. It’s a trending term at the moment. Globally we underestimate the number of lives it takes when we fail to understand it. You are probably wondering what this has got to do with Netflix’s Parchís: The Documentary. Well, everything. Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, and dare I say it the now infamous Michael Jackson all had one thing in common: Growing up in the spotlight. Right now, young talent will be nurtured and encouraged by their parents and agent. Like in A Star Is Born, when Ally meets her prospective agent for the first time, they will promise something that “goes way beyond this”.
Parchís: The Documentary struck a chord because it’s blindingly transparent that in years to come, the process whereby young children are propped for fame via an artistic medium will be questioned. There are too many tragic accounts of mental break downs that are attributed to this much pressure.
Parchís: The Documentary does not elevate the issue to the intensity that I am writing; in fact, the Netflix documentary half celebrates the young band’s success. Parchís’ success is attributed to the baby boom effect in 1980s Spain. Families required a kids singing group, and they got one.
It’s amusing how the people controlling Parchís and their route to success are seen to make it all up as they go along. Parchís: The Documentary suggests that they had no idea what direction, songs, choreography or even arenas this band should perform. The interviews are equally insightful, with each band member disclosing how they felt at that age at the time. It sounds confusing, fun, successful but in hindsight, an uncontrollable series of events.
Netflix’s Parchís: The Documentary is a collection of archive footage backed by interviews. We learn about the feelings of the parents, how fame affected them, what they did with their singing voices and the cracks forming in the group when it started to develop a leader. Like all upcoming bands, stories of plenty of romances become the forefront of the narrative.
You do not need to be aware of Parchís to understand the documentary. The feature explains the cogs of their rise to fame in-depth and the cultural impact it had on Spain and other countries around the world. The Netflix documentary does well to gather snippets from each band member, so you gauge an understanding of the dynamics at play.
The most interesting aspect of Parchís: The Documentary is the suggestion of exploitation and the rummaging of finances from the management. There’s a suggestion that the money did not add up in comparison to their wages at certain stages of the feature. And bringing the review full circle, this is the kind of nonsense that needs ironing out for the future of entertainment. Children may be able to seal a career very early on, but they are still vulnerable, and this is not talked about enough.
Parchís: The Documentary is an open box of experiences that leaves you in deep thought about the rise to fame.
