The fourth season of The Affair (Movistar +) seemed to have exhausted its main narrative resource, based on a disturbing perspectivism: the same situation, interpreted by two different minds, becomes two different situations. (In that they walk, with surprising conclusions and evidence, some neuroscientists.) One, then, faces the fifth season with a slight prevention, waiting for the insistence on that lucky formula. But, fortunately, his new episodes manage to maintain the level to be considered - for the effectiveness of his approach, for his excellent cast, for the emotional complexity of his plot ... - one of the best series of recent times .
Unless it is a fantasy with mutant monsters and that kind of truculence, when a fiction goes into the future, be it the immediate one, it runs its risks , and even more if it is moved by an eagerness of realism, of convincing prophecy; Among the main risks is that of implausibility. The British production Years and Years (HBO) dodged them well, let's take the case. In some episodes of The Affair we are presented with a future as predictable as fearsome for humanity, including in the concept of "humanity" the humans who are responsible for poisoning our planet, until we arrive, before the impassibility of many and impotence of some, to a point of no return, as those who know warn.
Who was left without a future ahead of time is Pablo Ibar, son of Basque and Cuban. (And nephew, by the way, of boxer Urtain.) Accused of a triple murder in Florida in 1994, his judicial and prison nightmare is recreated in the four episodes of In the death row (Movistar +), based on a journalistic investigation carried out by Nacho Carretero. Ibar's distressing story could have been told from various approaches. Here it has been decided to consider him innocent and a victim of a bungling police, an inept lawyer and a popular jury - that hyperdemocratic fantasy according to which a few palettes in laws are transformed, by a magical chance, into judges.
It is, therefore, a fiction of induced emotionality - with some inevitable melodramatic touches - that seeks the outrage of the viewer in a situation that has all the appearance of being as unfair as absurd. Another possible option, less humanitarian but perhaps narratively more efficient, was that of "a bad night has anyone", and leave a margin for doubt, which perhaps would have intensified not only the dramatic complexity of the story, but also its intrigue dose. But it is well, especially if it serves to raise awareness - in these times when some have no qualms about proclaiming their nostalgia for barbarism - of the savage that implies, in a civilized society, the validity of the death penalty, defended with often by believers in a merciful god, since it is seen that the Fifth Commandment admits exceptions.
The fifth season of Peaky Blinders (Netflix) has just premiered, which, according to some enthusiasts, becomes the British equivalent of the American Boardwalk Empire . Well ... yes and no. In my opinion, it falls well below, despite its magnificent performance and the excellent work of most of its actors - although the character of Arthur Shelby is a little more uncontrolled of the account and maybe he could use a few corrective sessions in an academy of actors in which the thorny issue of over-action is dealt with in depth ... and better if accompanied, incidentally, by Aunt Polly.
The weak point of this series - or its gross point, as preferred - I fear is the emphasis on macarrismo , which is perhaps what least needs a fiction starring macarras. But, finally, there we have the re-concentrated Tommy Shelby, against the backdrop of the 1929 crisis, becoming a socialist parliamentarian to denounce rhetoric social injustices vigorously, an opium trafficker to relax the population, an addict laudanum to alleviate his bitterness, in Freud's reader to interpret his tumultuous dreams, also rubbing shoulders with Churchill and killing in cold blood in his spare time, which, between thing and thing, are not many. Who gives more? According to a pattern very much like the scriptwriters of today, the appearance of a sharply corporealized ghost could not be missed; in this case, that of the late Grace, Tommy's great love. (See as mitigating that he usually appears in the middle of his colloquies.)
For not leaving the realm of crime, there we have The Way (Netflix) - after the splendid Better Call Saul , another extension, this time with a feature film format, of the Breaking Bad phenomenon -, which focuses on the hapless wanderings of Jesse Pinkman , partner and footman of Walter White in the blue methamphetamine business. "Y?" Well, I don't know: something like a double episode of the series ... and little else. Being well, I think it just wasn't quite right. But he always likes to meet old friends again , so welcome.
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