Actress Malena Alterio returns with a series that promises to leave no one indifferent. Cochinas, premiering on April 24 on Prime Video, takes us to Valladolid in 1998. There, Nines, a woman with a conservative mindset, is forced to manage her husband's video store. To save the business, she makes a radical decision: specializing in renting porn movies, sparking an unexpected sexual liberation in the neighborhood.
How a video store's code became obsolete in 1998 🎞️
The series is set in a key year for home entertainment technology. In 1998, VHS still dominated, but DVD was beginning to emerge, and physical rental remained the business model. Nines' plot exploits this context: her video store, with its cardboard index card system and melamine shelves, represents an analog ecosystem. The arrival of porn not only changes the neighborhood's morals but forces a technical reinvention of the shop, amidst scratched tapes and manual rental codes.
Porn as a business plan (and viral marketing) 🔥
Nines discovers that, in the 90s, renting porn movies was more profitable than selling expired popcorn. Her strategy is simple: if you can't beat others' desire, rent it out. While the neighborhood women line up to take home titles like Hot Ladies' Institute, Nines' husband wonders if the video store hasn't turned into an erotic book club. In the end, the business is saved, but the neighborhood will never see the store's curtains the same way again.