In a landscape governed by the large platforms (Netflix, HBO Max, Prime Video, Apple Tv, Disney Plus, etc …) we tend to forget that some of the best series of recent years, the result of the imagery of great creators of our country , are on a homeland platform, Movistar. Works such as the insurmountable Antidisturbios, by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Gigantes, by Enrique Urbizu or El día de Mañana, by Mariano Barroso, as well as La Fortuna, by Alejandro Amenábar, Libertad or Hierro, which have nothing to envy to some who have enjoyed more popularity with the public. Unfortunately, Movistar itself seems to be unaware of the scope of its own products, condemning them to second (or third) plane in conversations between series fans due to their uninspired advertising campaigns.
Perhaps the bus shelters are not the best method, in these times, to give visibility to these series that, perhaps, if they had been released on another platform, they would enjoy a popularity more in line with their quality. It is to be appreciated that Movistar shapes such risky works, that it bets on projects that ooze cinema in each frame, and on a personal level I am very angry that they do not receive the initial push necessary to start the word of mouth that would catapult them to an audience more majority. So, before starting to talk about the series at hand, I would like to recommend the reader to dive a bit among the Movistar originals, because they will find stories that, at the very least, will leave an indelible mark on the huge list of series seen that we all accumulate.
Paradise an authentic treasure within the Spanish production
And although Paraíso is not among my three favorites (that podium would be occupied by Antidisturbios, Gigantes and El día de Mañana), the series created by Fernando Gómez Molina is a real treasure within Spanish production. With some delay from its premiere, I have been able to enjoy its first season and interview some of the protagonists of the recently announced second batch of episodes.
At the time, I thought that Paraíso would be the “Spanish version” of Stranger Things, an idea that I think I shared with those of us who attended the aesthetics and tone of its trailers. However, the series knows how to find its own way. He takes us fully back to the nineties, and there is something in his way of telling the story that dragged me back to my childhood summers (in the nineties), reading the stories of RL Stine’s Nightmares and, above all, the saga of Fantasville short novels, which for me was my initiation into horror literature. In addition, it draws heavily on one of the darkest episodes in our recent history, which once again brought to the fore the documentary by León Siminiani: the case of the Alcasser girls. Again, this is a starting point, a recognizable anchor to hold onto and then find your own identity. Because the disappearance of three girls during a party at the Paraíso nightclub is just the beginning of a plot
much larger peppered with supernatural overtones.
I would not like to gut anything from the plot to let viewers be as surprised as I am with the magnificent ending of the pilot chapter, which changes the rules of a game that we thought was hackneyed. Thus, after that surprising turning point, we find ourselves before an investigation that is nothing like that carried out in other stories with a similar starting point. And while it can be seen as outright entertainment, that turning point makes the frenetic storyline rife with themes.
very deep, related above all to life and death, immortality, the past, the future, the ways that human beings have to move forward after a tragedy.
Sometimes these topics are treated with mastery and others in a more superficial way (I would have liked to see in more detail how some of the characters face, on a more emotional level, their “new situation”), but after all, time it is limited and the story has to advance. There is room for very emotional subplots, such as the love story told through flashbacks and with resolution in the present of a character called Mortaja. On the other hand, there are also characters that I miss further development, such as Zhou, played by Yoon C. Joyce. In general, and contrary to what I usually think of other series, I would have liked this first season of Paraíso to be a bit longer, because its final episode feels rushed in many ways and because there were themes and characters that deserved more space. . However, although it is a downside, I don’t think it will tarnish the final result.
The performances are up to expectations, with an impeccable Macarena García who carries a large part of the story on her shoulders.
If there is something that it shares with other series of this type, it is that we are witnessing two parallel investigations: the one carried out by the adult characters and the one that has, in principle, more prominence, led by the group of brave young people willing to solve the mystery . In the first group, Macarena García stands out, in the role of the police officer Paula Costa, who has the added difficulty of remaining a large part of the
series far from the most supernatural part of the plot. However, the presence of Macarena and the charisma of her character are more than enough to maintain the interest of this more “mundane” plot, also with the help of the tortured character of Mario, played by Iñaki Ardanaz in the role of a father willing to do anything to find his daughter.
But the soul of the story is found in its younger cast. Pau Gimeno, Cristian López, León Martínez and Héctor Gozalbo play the boys who star in that striking turning point at the end of the first chapter, and who are going to be our guides for the rest of the season (and the series). But we must also highlight María Romanillos, who plays the character of Bea, and Patricia Iserte, who is charming as Mortaja’s granddaughter. Regarding the character of Bea, I think she is one of the most interesting in the series, and I think that the courage that she gives off will give a lot of play in successive seasons, especially because of her particular relationship with Javi (Pau Gimeno). I’m looking forward to seeing how the presence of Álvaro Mel as a new character in season two destabilizes that relationship.
The aesthetic achieved by its director of photography is sublime
But not only its interpreters dazzle. The aesthetic achieved by its director of photography is sublime, although it could not be otherwise coming from Elías M. Félix, who has participated in works such as Sky Rojo or the singular No Matarás. On the other hand, the montage of Verónica Callón and Fernando Márquez (who have a great career in series, having participated in La Casa de Papel, El Barco, Caronte or Secretos de Estado,
among others) it unfolds with mastery, giving meaning to a structure that, in other hands, could have been confusing. Verónica Callón is also Gómez Molina’s trusted editor, since they worked together on Palmeras en la Nieve, El Guardián Invisible, Legado en los Huesos and Offering to the Storm. The understanding between direction and assembly is noticeable within a league.
Paraíso will have gone unnoticed, but I am hopeful that the second season, which in addition to Álvaro Mel brings as a new character a villain played by Begoña Vargas (I was able to interview both at the Sitges Film Festival, along with Fernando Gómez Molina and Macarena García; interview that you can see below these lines), make the series grow, not only as a story but as a phenomenon, because Movistar has an addictive story in its hands with some themes that resonate in each of its chapters and to which everyone should, at the very least, give it a try.
What can we expect from the second season?
Paradise
Synopsis: Levante, 1992, end of summer in a town on the coast. Sandra, Eva and Malena, 15 years old, disappear into a disco without a trace. The police do not seem to be looking in the right direction, and so Javi, Sandra’s little brother, begins an investigation with Quino and Álvaro, his best friends, and Zeta, the class bully. Together they discover that those who have their sister are not of this world.
Cast: Macarena García, Iñaki Ardanaz, Gorka Otxoa, Pau Gimeno, Cristian López, Jorge León Martínez, Héctor Gozalbo, María Romanillos, Patricia Iserte, Mireia Rey, Irina Bravo, Júlia Frigola, Uri Guitart