Óscar Casas Stars in ‘El Gran Salto’ as Gervasio Deferr, an Olympic Hero Battling Inner Demons
variety.comCallum McLennan Life swings between triumph and failure in the enthralling “El Gran Salto” produced by Atresmedia TV in collaboration with Banijay’s Diagonal TV, the force behind shows such as “Isabel” and “La Catedral del Mar.” Spanish star Óscar Casas (“Instinto,” “Xtremo”) stars as Olympic Gold Medalist gymnast Gervasio Deferr.
The series is written by “Bye” scribe José Rodríguez and based on the Olympian’s own book of his struggles. “Success is like a pendulum; it goes back and forth and is very delicate because if you don’t control it, it can screw up your life,” Deferr’s coach advises in the series opener.
This metaphor sets the tone for a five parter, which chronicles Deferr’s Olympic victories and profound personal struggles. Taking the reins is Catalan Director Roger Gual, “The idea from the beginning was to show the two sides of sports: success and failure.
In Gervasio’s case, success came very early,” Gual tells Variety. The show’s structure reflects this, alternating between Deferr’s struggles—illustrated in Episode 1 by a sequence moving from the hedonism of a drug fuelled club session to his later collapse in his flat, all while he should be at his mother’s bedside as she fights for her life — combined with flashbacks to his competitive glory days. “We developed the entire structure of the script with the ebb and flow starting from the ‘present’ in 2017 when Gervi begins the story in the after-party, and then we go back to when he is preparing for his first Olympics in Sydney 2000.
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