An Unfamiliar Cultural Experience: Spanish Life


The show that I watched was episode 1 of the show Extra. A similarity that I noticed is that this sitcom is almost identical to a sitcom you would see in America, just in a different language. It is similar in the way that it is set up, such as the characters doing cheesy things to make the audience laugh and getting themselves into situations that would unlikely happen in real life. For example, in this episode Lola receives a letter in the mail from a pen pal from seven years ago asking to stay with her and Ana. The two of them remember that they are not allowed to have overnight visitors, then as soon as they discuss that the man shows up to their front door. Their housing is also similar to American sitcoms. This is because this show is a group of young adults together and in American shows like Friends or Boy Meets World they take place in an apartment. This however is different from what I am used to as I am from the beach area and there are not really many apartment buildings around. I did find it interesting that the apartment complex had a rule that they are not allowed to have visitors overnight because this is different from anything I have ever seen in apartments. I wonder if this was just for added drama to this episode because they are having a visitor or if this is the norm in Spain. There were also shared similarities in the apartment such as an exercise machine and people watching tv. One thing that I saw that was different was that they seemed to be grocery shopping at some sort of market. It appeared to be outdoor stands, which is different from a typical grocery store you see here.

Here are the main characters. Sam is the American man who has come to stay with the two main characters Ana and Lola. Pablo is their friend and next door neighbor who spends a lot of his time at Ana and Lola’s apartment.

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