Alberto Caballero (‘Alpha Males’): “The changes have been produced by women, we have to adapt”

Man goes into crisis in ‘Machos alfa’, the new comedy by Alberto and Laura Caballero. The creators of ‘Aquí no hay quien viva’ and ‘La que se avecina’ present a preview of their new proposal this Friday December 30 on Netflix. A choral fiction that questions what it means to be a man in the 21st century. “There is a series of changes in society, an evolution and men have to face it and adapt”also points out the writer and director of the sitcom.

The abolition of patriarchy is coming. In the midst of a crisis of masculinity, four friends in their forties, Santi (Gorka Otxoa), Luis (Fele Martínez), Pedro (Fernando Gil) and Raúl (Raúl Tejón) are losing their throne, privileges and identity. Years ago they would have been alpha males in control of their relationships, their jobs and their lives… but they’ve had to live in the age of equality, in a society with new rules that strike them bare with their pathos.

A fiction that, in fact, focuses on how men too have to adapt to the changing times. “Men are faced with a problem and when I say problem I mean a change of paradigm and sensibility. This forces us to adapt, because we have to. That’s where we saw that there was material for a comedy. There are so many series with very interesting women. The feminist roadmap is quite clear. Because of this, men need to reconfigure themselves and think about what it means to be a man right now.”, explains Alberto Caballero in an interview for eCartelera in Madrid.

A funny ensemble comedy

In that line, to remember “the changes were made by women” and that men must adapt to the times. In this sense, the fiction reflects how the main gang, despite being a group of lifelong friends, really barely know each other; since they don’t publicly express how they feel. “Historically, men didn’t talk about feelings or emotions, it was frowned upon. It was seen as a weakness. We women talked about it a lot, especially among ourselves. But for them it’s an unfinished business”explains Laura Caballero.

“In this sense, men are a bit emotionally neutered, it must be admitted, but because men were educated this way. The image of what a man is to be, the default definition or configuration of him is negative, all that he is not to be. You don’t have to be sensitive, you can’t like men, you don’t have to “be like a girl”. There really is no positive definition of what it means to be male, culturally and educationally speaking. So, this is what makes it so difficult for us to express ourselves. Any act of closeness or emotional empathy between colleagues is viewed with suspicion.”shares Alberto Caballero.

In that line, the narrative also wanted to exploit its choral character to expose the different faces of both masculinity and male chauvinist behavior. “In different traits, machirulism has different degrees. We configured four characters whose starting point was at different levels. There are two more essentially macho and two others are characters we wanted to tell, since toxic masculinity also affects men who are conventionally manly, that there is some sort of requirement for what a man should be”Caballero argues.

Created by Alberto and Laura Caballero, ‘Alpha Machos’ stars Fernando Gil, Fele Martínez, Gorka Otxoa and Raúl Tejón, the cast is completed by Kira Miró, Paula Gallego, Raquel Guerrero and Virginia Rodríguez, with the participation of Santi Millán. A Contubernio Films production for Netflix, Available on the platform from December 30th.