MERLÍ

COMEDY / DRAMA / ROMANTIC DRAMA

SPAIN

2015-2018

MERLÍ is a Spanish television series produced by the Catalan channel TV3 about a philosophy teacher of the same name who encourages students to think freely using philosophy. MERLÍ consists of 40 episodes of 58 minutes.

STORY: Merlí Bergeron (Francesc Orella) tries to bring philosophy to a wider audience. Each episode features the approaches of a great thinker or school, such as the Peripatetics, Nietzsche, or Schopenhauer, linking their teachings to fictional events and characters. The theme song is a version of "Flight of the Bumblebee".

GAY COUPLE STORYLINE: Bruno Bergeron (David Solans) is the son of Merlí (Francesc Orella). It is complicated for him to have his father in the classroom who teaches in front of his friends. He is an outgoing boy, with a sense of irony, inherited from his father and grandmother. Bruno starts a new life when his mother moves to Rome and leaves him and he has to live with his father, with whom he has a complicated relationship. Bruno is gay and in love with Pol (Carlos Cuevas), a good friend of his. After a conversation with Oliver (Iñaki Mur) at the end of the first season, he comes out and starts a new life as an openly gay man. Carlos Cuevas is Pol Rubio. Pol is 18 years old and has repeated two courses. He is the popular kid in school and all the girls seem to want to be with him. Pol has many problems at home. His family does not have much money and Pol has a bad relationship with his brother and father and misses his mother, who died when he was young. After he becomes involved with Bruno, his sexual orientation begins to be discussed and questioned.

**Bruno Bergeron (David Solans) & Pol Rubio (Carlos Cuevas)**

DAVID SOLANS (2015-2018) August 3, 1996, Vilassar de Mar, Spain

CARLOS CUEVAS (2015-2018) December 27, 1995, Montcada i Reixac, Spain

SPECIAL: A spin-off series titled Merlí: Sapere Aude, which focuses on Carlos Cuevas' character, Pol Rubio, at university, will premiere on Movistar+ on December 5, 2019