Alive and Kicking

Los Espabilados is a warm-hearted series about a group of teenagers escaping a mental institute. Many of the characters are a bit stereotypical, yet many of them pretty interesting, and I think the series could have been longer in order to give them space to develop further, the pace felt hurried at times. My personal favourite character was the German truckdriver, she was a real sweetheart.

The storyline was uplifting, but at times the series felt way too naive, even dangerously so, especially when it comes to the gravity and complexity of actual mental illnesses and trauma. In reality people are institutionalised very rarely nowadays, and extremely rarely without a proper reason to do so. And I especially want to point out that _meeting your family members that have traumatized you and trying to "talk it out" can actually sometimes result in much more trauma instead of resolution._ For an underaged person especially it's better to rely on professional help instead of trying to solve your family problems all by yourself. If there's a crime involved, always notify the police.