Good week for lovers of criminal thrillers. If on Wednesday we saw Ryan Murphy’s version of Jeffrey Dahmer for Netflix, today Atresplayer Premium premieres an intense suspense drama: ‘the gypsy bride‘, television adaptation of the novel of the same name by Carmen Mola and which is already renewed for a season 2.
With Antonio Mercero and Jorge Diaz (two of the three men behind the pseudonym) to the script, the eight-episode series follows the case of the macabre murder of a girl, which is traced to the one suffered by her sister six years earlier.
At the head of the investigation is inspector Elena Blanco (Nerea Barros), who presents herself as intelligent and tough as she is obsessed by an event from her past. The series, little by little, will present us with this mystery that, thankfully, does not have (at least in the first two episodes) more weight than it should.
A pure and natural thriller
One of the things that is quite appreciated is that it shows that the authors of the novel themselves are in charge of the script and that, in turn, before friars they were cooks. His writing facet comes after years hitting the key for television and, in fact, they write in a very “visual” way. This makes the adaptation as faithful as it can be in its translation to the screen.
translation in which paco headsas director, imprint of a powerful and forceful image, without becoming suffocating in its darkness and in its darkest moments. Cabezas does a great job with his proposal, accompanied by a well-kept aesthetic and a production design that helps us get fully into this Madrid noir.
Perhaps the best asset of ‘The Gypsy Bride’ It is the naturalness that all his footage gives off, something that is undoubtedly helped by a cast that is very comfortable and, beyond its “complications”, can easily connect with its characters. In this aspect, perhaps what I have missed most in what I have seen as a series is that don’t spend a lot of time for us to get to know the members of the BAC better, beyond the character of Barros.
Although there are times when there are little squeaks in the development of the plot with some scene and dialogue that does not quite work on screen (the part of the jail, for example), In general, everything rows in favor of the work.
So much so that, ultimately, ‘The Gypsy Bride’ is a frankly fascinating series, absorbing and of an unusual tone in Spanish fiction. Be careful because autumn promises a lot for national television (at least at the level of platforms) and this is a solid contender to win the top of the year.