When one sees the Bamboo logo in a series, one already senses what is to come. There won’t be any big sci-fi fights or outrageous action: in all probability, it will be a Spanish period series with a very marked target. The production company has perfected this type of series with ‘Velvet’, ‘Las Chicas del Cable’ or ‘Alta mar’ until they become almost a genre in itself.
And ‘A Private Matter’ doesn’t mean a 180-degree turn… although it does strive to change a bit.
Enola Holmes Spanish style
The new Amazon Prime Video series tries to innovate with a very strong female character accompanied by her faithful butler trying to solve a series of crimes in Vigo. The opening bars are great and tell you everything you need to know about her: she is reckless, she does not believe in authoritydefies her family and lashes out at the feminine standards of the time.
The problem is that after the script is seen with the need to repeat it over and over again. When the new wave of feminism snuck into the mainstream, many of these new products tended to exaggerate and restate the narrative to make it clear. The problem is that, in 2022, after ‘Fleabag’ or ‘I Could Destroy You’, the same four basic personality traits already sound stale. The story is already interesting enough without needing to cram into every scene a reference to how tremendously special Marina Quiroga is.
When the series gets carried away is when it works: the moments of investigation, the inevitable comedy between Héctor and Marina, the flirtation between her and Pablo (played by a fabulous Gorka Otxoa)… When he embraces the spirit of the feuilleton, he vibrates with his own voiceand it shows that everyone involved is having a great time with this period adventure full of twists that, for each scene that gives hope in the future of the series, introduces another that becomes heavy and reminds us of the previous works of the producer.
They are two most unique detectives
Leaving aside the constant crush on the difference that Marina makes with respect to society, ‘A Private Matter’ moves away from the standard period seriesthe one in which we have to settle with flat camera shots and television aesthetics. when inspired, the image is in continuous movementwith the odd shot that is out of the ordinary and that tries to go beyond what one might expect.
At the end of episode 2, for example, the episode lets its hair down and shows a chase scene that does not smell of low budget and that culminates with a more than worthy final shot. It’s almost forgotten that to get here we’ve had to put up with cartoonish characters (that evil cigar-smoking cop, that matchmaking mom) and script-first situations. And it is that in the end, although Bambú dresses in silk, Bambú stays.
Though Jean Reno seems disoriented at times, it’s that strangeness with which he almost seems to have learned the dialogue phonetically that makes his character sometimes hilarious, regardless of what the script intended to do with him. The actor’s comic side added to the decision of an Aura Garrido who knows perfectly well the type of series she has gotten intoare the two strongest assets to continue during the eight episodes of the series (of which we have seen, at the moment, two).
Journey to the past
But deep down, I have to be honest with my job: no matter how much I expose my reasoned opinion, all these complaints, successes and details do not make any sense. ‘A private matter’ is very aware of the type of public that is going to see it, and what it asks of it: Bamboo meets one hundred percent the expectations placed on itand even goes a little further trying to please and reach another type of audience.
The entanglements, the period costumes, the script twiststhe strong female characters, the authority that frustrates their plans and the air of a serial are there, and it has everything to be a success: more budget than in its previous series, better shot action and Some elite actors, among whom is, by the way, a fantastic Ángela Molina.
‘A private matter’ is a perfect series for the public that has enjoyed the company’s previous productions, and he misleads no one about his intentions. It may be that his script still needed a few revisions to eliminate obviousness and repetitions regarding the character of his protagonist, but he makes up for it with some briskly shot scenes that They do not try to get away from the twenty-peso novel, as functional and fun as it is forgettable. Like a good Bamboo series.