Loving is forever: Loving the Gómez Sanabrias is forever

They are going to dedicate a place to Oliva Benson—dun-dun. It will only be for a couple of days, but what a plaza, Rockefeller Center, home of NBC. The reason for this honor is the premiere of the 25th season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unitthe longest-running primetime series in the US, and the festivities will include events and merchandising that make me sigh more than any Tiffany display. A recognition that, let’s face it, falls short of having given a name to one of Taylor Swift’s cats. It’s hard to beat being the pop culture of pop culture.

If they reward Olivia for participating in 545 chapters, what should we do with Itziar Miranda, Manu Baqueiro and José Antonio Sayagués, who have been Manolita, Marcelino and Pelayo in more than 4,000? Those from El Asturiano deserve Puerta del Sol or at least a small park in Chamberí, which is where that Plaza de los Frutos falls that I know better than my neighborhood. But it happens to the Diagonal TV series like Olivia, that although she has been fighting against heinous crimes since 1999 and is the backbone of a historical format, she does not usually appear on the lists of great television characters. Critics tend to be dazzled by the platforms and corner the rest. Love is forever It also suffered the insult of being a daily series, a format usually underestimated when there cannot be a more complex and fascinating genre. How much work there is after each season, how much ingenuity to not disappoint those who dedicate a little part of each day to you, how much talent to say goodbye leading after so many years.

I have been preparing this farewell for days, writing praises for its production and its exceptional cast, more than 1,600 actors have passed through it, most of them proven talents and many other promises that came true – no matter how many roles Anna Castillo plays, for me she will always be Dorita—but I delete what I write because nothing does justice to the hole it leaves. They are cold data, they do not reflect the emotion of definitively canceling an appointment that was unavoidable, of saying goodbye to the coffee with cheers at El Asturiano and the big cup at the Kings, of saying goodbye to Benigna and Quintero, also to Sebas, the extra who was promoted to protagonist, that’s how easy it was to integrate into that family. To all of them and to those who made their stories possible I can only say: thank you so much.