‘Merli’ makes me remember
Carlos Cuevas as Pol Rubio in ‘Merli.’ Credit” Netflix.com
I've been binge-watching gay themed shows on Netflix. I talked earlier about ‘Special,’ a show about a young gay man who comes to terms with his cerebral palsy. Another series I found is ‘Merli,’ which is two seasons of a coming-of-age story of young people going from high school to college and studying philosophy, of all things.
The central character is played by Carlos Cuevas, a Spanish actor who plays the role of Apollo Rubio, and everybody calls him Pol.
In season two, Pol becomes HIV positive. I didn't expect that and, in fact, neither did he. For the rest of the season, the HIV story moves in and out of the episodes.
This was real-life stuff.
I found a piece on the gay website queerty.com that talks about all the things Merli got right. The first thing that they talk about that I have seen thousands of times is the shock and the horror in the patient. He was totally unprepared. He had gone to a drug store to get a rapid test, and he ended up leaving when he got the result. It’s really traumatic to watch.
Queerty also talks about knowledge as power as another thing Merli gets right. Pol eventually gets information to help him deal with his diagnosis and he gets on treatment fairly early.
The scenes with his doctor are interesting because they're very real life. The doc had to help him overcome his stress, anxiety, pain of dealing with his diagnosis.
When I saw the doctor scene, it reminded me of many encounters I've had with patients. I've been following a lot of my patients for a very long time in that kind of setting, you can be very honest with people and direct. This guy didn't dance around it. It reminded me of a lot of contacts that I've had with patients where when we're talking about important decisions I ask them, “Do you trust me?” Or , “Do you want the best health care there is, or do you want just average, mediocre health care? So this is what I'm recommending.”
Those kinds of encounters you have with patients are very personal. But those are the kinds of doctor-patient scenarios that accomplish the most. And boy, what they conveyed there, and the relationship between the doc and Pol, I tell you it was good.
The other thing is that the scenes deliver messages for younger people in a way that matters to them.
We still need to overcome denial. Throughout these scenes, there’s a heavy layer of denial. Pol just didn’t see himself at risk.
And as a society and even in a lot of health care places, I don't think that we are well equipped to deal with sexual health matters. If you can't talk about anal sex with your patients, then you're missing the point.
Sexual health can be a complicated field unless you're prepared to be honest about it and open about it. And also understand it. The lived experience, being a part of a group that is at risk so that you can identify the issues for people in a language they understand. So some of the message I get is that we need to be doing a more thorough job of connecting with people where they are and with messages that mean something to them.