We already knew that, since the success of The Godfather, mafiosos imitated cinema, inaugurating a loop of correspondences between reality and fiction in which no one is clear, aggravated by Goodfellas and its most notable influence —including the transfer of actresses—, The Sopranos. Coppola based his work on a novel by Mario Puzo, but Scorsese drew on childhood memories, and The Sopranos got so close to the model in their natural notes that they hired a former mafioso, Tony Sirico (the unforgettable Paulie), also employed as an advisor. Apparently, gangsters followed the series fascinated and suspected they had a mole who told the writers things, so great was the resemblance.
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Since then it is difficult to know whether fiction is inspired by the real mafia or mafiosos imitate the fictional ones. Similar hallucinations happen among police or doctors, confused by the natural rejection we all feel before the mirror of the screen, from which we defend ourselves with a smile of sufficiency and proud denial (“we don’t look like that, please”), and the addiction —a little narcissistic— that medical and police series provoke in them. I remember a night I spent in the emergency room, in a box next to the control where the doctors were chatting, in which I caught several conversations that seemed taken from Grey’s Anatomy. A doctor said goodbye saying: “Come on, colleagues, let’s save many lives.” That way of encouraging you is not taught in medical residency, you have seen that on TV.
We were missing the most represented and successful guild in fiction: the killers. We had no news that the unhealthy consumption of serial killer series could inspire perfect crimes, but the case of Alhaurín de la Torre, the man who murdered his friend during covid inspired by Dexter, opens a dark door and explores the limits of methodological realism.
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I have watched many medical series and many police series, although I wouldn’t know how to operate on appendicitis or find clues to know if my son has swiped the change from the shopping. But watching many hours of serial murders does qualify you as a murderer. The man from Alhaurín almost fooled the Civil Guard, they caught him by chance, as so many crimes are solved. We laughed at the urban legend of children who threw themselves off the balcony with a sheet tied around their neck after watching Superman. We will have to start taking it more seriously.
