We admit that we’re the type of viewer who will nitpick every inaccuracy in a period movie or series. But there are times when a show’s anachronisms are so crucial to the plot that they’re hard for even the most forgiving viewers to shrug off. A new Colombian series on Netflix commits one of the more egregious timeline errors we’ve seen in a long time, and we can’t stop thinking about it.
EVA LASTING: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: Scenes from the Montreal Olympics and other photos and videos to establish that Eva Lasting takes place in 1976.
The Gist: Bogotá, 1976. Our narrator is a grown-up version of Camilo Granados (Emmanuel Restrepo), an awkward teen who is among a group of awkward teens going to Jose Maria Root Public School. They spend their days looking at porn magazines in the bathroom and ogling their Spanish teacher. But things take a turn when Eva Samper (Francisca Estevez) arrives.
Eva is the first girl to go to the all-boys school, in an effort by the city to make its public schools co-ed. Of course, all of the boys in her class start staring at her; she’s pretty and seems to have a point of view that they’ve never seen before.
Surprisingly, Eva takes a shine to Camilo. Most of the group is intrigued by her, especially her knowledge of movies, literature and kissing. They also follow her when she proposes that the school create a knitting vocational class, citing that it’s “easy.” She may be a feminist, but she knows her academic limitations.
Not everyone thinks Eva is so great; Martin (Sergio Palau) thinks she has some sort of secret. Besides, he keeps telling the group, nothing good can come from what he thinks is a “feminizing” of the school and his friend group in particular. She even refuses to call them by their last names, which is SOP in the group.
But Camilo is in love. He takes the knitting class, and starts dancing like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever (we’ll get to this later on in the review). His mother likes the direction that Camilo is going in, but his father is so concerned that he takes his son to a brothel in order to get him laid. Camilo refuses, citing his love for Eva.
Camilo takes a misstep, however, when he mixes it up with a bully that’s been after him all week. Instead of being impressed, Eva decries violence and tells Camilo so in no uncertain terms.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Combine a ’70s feminism-focused series like Minx or Mrs. America (we seem to be citing both these shows a lot lately) with a movie like (500) Days Of Summer, with its manic pixie dream girl tropes, and you have Eva Lasting.
Our Take: We really want to like Eva Lasting. Estevez is charming as Eva, and the scenes where she fundamentally changes the friend group she’s chosen are fun to watch, especially the scene where she lines the boys up at the pool hall they hang out in and kisses them all to see which ones know what they’re doing. Restrepo does a good job as the sweatily awkward Camilo, and he has good chemistry with Estevez.
But a couple of factors give us pause. First, why is Eva, who seems to be as dynamic a person as the school has ever seen, connecting herself to this group of dorks? It feels like she’s doing it as a plot device. We especially don’t quite know what she sees in Camilo, who can barely talk to her, much less act like a sophisticated dude with her. Maybe she sees him as a project. It does seem that his feelings may or may not be reciprocated, which is why the whole “manic pixie dream girl” vibe we mentioned above is so strong. It’s a concept that’s so tired that even the man who coined that phrase, Nathan Rabin, has distanced himself from it. And, in a lot of ways, Eva Lasting feels like a show from 2009 by way of 1976.
Ah, the 1976 of it all. That’s the other factor that really bugs us. Writer Dago García seems to think that only the most anal-retentive viewers will notice the anachronisms he has written into the first episode, but they’re so blatant that it takes us right out of what’s happening on our screens.
The biggest one is the pivotal moment when Eva proposes that the guys watch Saturday Night Fever with her instead of the usual nudity-filled flick they’ve seen a dozen times. One problem: The show takes pains to mention that it takes place in 1976, and Saturday Night Fever came out in December, 1977 in the U.S. In Colombia, it might not have come out until sometime in 1978. Anyone can Google this information if they so desire.
If this was just a thrown-away detail, like when Eva teaches the boys to dance with the song “Ring My Bell,” which wouldn’t come out until 1979, it would just matter to the previously-mentioned anal-retentive folks like us. But since it’s such a significant part of the first episode’s story, it’s maddening that García decided to center things around a movie that wouldn’t even exist for almost two years.
Sex and Skin: Nudity is shown in magazines and on a movie screen, and there’s nudity at the brothel (duh), but that’s about it.
Parting Shot: When Martin accuses Eva of being a whore while the boys are in the school bathroom, Eva comes out of one of the stalls, having overheard everything. Grownup Camilo says, “Was this the premature ending to our idyllic love story with her?”
Sleeper Star: Julián Cerati plays the sensitive Gustavo Pabón, who is quiet but definitely has a point of view that most of the group respects.
Most Pilot-y Line: For some reason or another, Eva insists that teachers call her by her first name. When she tells off the knitting teacher, the teacher says “Ms. Samper, show some respect,” and Eva shoots back, “My name is Eva. And respect has to be earned.” Okaaay….
Our Call: SKIP IT. There are parts of Eva Lasting that are enjoyable, from the performances to the eye-melting ’70s fashions and sets. But the anachronisms written into the first episode are too big to shrug off, and the trope of the dynamic girl changing a nerdy guy’s life is tired, no matter which decade the show takes place in.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
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February 16, 2023 at 09:40AM
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Stream It Or Skip It: 'Eva Lasting' On Netflix, About How A Girl With A Secret Shakes Things Up In A 1970s All-Boys High School - Decider
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