El Eternauta

A bit of context for American folks: You're used to seeing sci-fi productions set in your own towns. Your industry is huge-Hollywood, whether through independent or commercial films, has explored every movie genre there is. But for us Argentinians, sci-fi is a largely unexplored genre, and large-scale productions like this are extremely rare.

El Eternauta is an adaptation of a 1957 graphic novel. In this part of the world, you don't usually see major apocalyptic events happening on our soil-every alien in the universe tends to invade the first world first. But in El Eternauta, the catastrophe happens right here. That's why it's so compelling and special for us to see the streets of Buenos Aires covered in toxic snow (it has only snowed twice here in the last 100 years!) or our local buses overturned by giant beetles.

And please, don't watch it dubbed.

Much respect to dubbing actors, but every show or movie feels less authentic when dubbed. Subtitles don't hurt, seriously. We've been reading them for years and it really changes the experience.

That being said-WOW!

I didn't know we had this level of FX and makeup artists in my country! The costume design, the effects, the production design, the makeup, the script-it's all incredible. I couldn't be prouder. Amazing performances, amazing storytelling. I couldn't take my eyes off the screen for even a second. I was nervous, totally immersed in the story-and that's a rare feeling to have while sitting in your own living room.

The acting was excellent, with just a couple of exceptions. For example, Carla Peterson-I've seen her in many TV comedies, but she doesn't quite work for drama, in my opinion. Her delivery didn't feel natural. But the rest of the cast? Outstanding! I loved seeing both familiar faces and completely new ones.

I also read that El Eternauta was filmed using StageCraft (the same production technology used by Lucasfilm for The Mandalorian). There are only three studios in the world with that technology-and one of them is just a few blocks away.. That makes me even prouder.

In short: an amazing and incredible show. I can't wait for the next season!

The first 3 episodes burn a bit slowly with lots of personal affairs and getting to know our band of heroes. But once the puzzle pieces fall into place around episode 4, things begin to unfold on a larger stage. The atmosphere is such that I expected jump scares most of the time, it's quite tense, and of course it is, nobody really know what's going on, and yet you get the feeling many times that something isn't quite right.

I can highly recommend anyone that enjoy "War of the Worlds"/"V" style shows and movies to give this one a go. It's not quite like anything I've seen before, and I really look forward to following seasons as of course season 1 ends with a bit of a cliffhanger.

Amazingly this was done with a 15 million dollar budget. Every dollar was excellently spent. I found all the effects quite good and it's not unnecessarily gory or bloody.

I'll be looking forward to the next season.

The Eternaut has never been seen on a film or series until now due to nobody having the guts and funds to do it. Fortunately, Netflix allowed Bruno Stagnaro to take on this challenge!

Turning this into audiovisual content is not something easy as it's from a comic with different sci-fi elements but guess what? The director managed to make things go smoothly.

Now, do you need to read the comic? Well, I'd say it's similar to The walking dDad, "the main problem" the characters deal with in the story is the same just like in the comic but, there are new events that take place and most importantly: THE YEAR.

In the comic, it's literally the 50s-60s, whereas in the show, they even have phones.

As for the pacing, there are some episodes that will feel slow. However, they make up for this by bringing instant-action when needed.

Yet, I think this only gives the series more potential and it's actually great because if you enjoy the show, you can go and give the comic a read to see how the story goes on and what is exactly different.

My review may be biased due to being from Argentina but trust me, this is a post-apocalyptic show than anybody in the world can enjoy and will also allow you to learn more about Argentina's locations, costumes and so on.

Last but not least, Robert Kirkman (creator of TWD), said that he was inspired by The Eternaut and just then started drawing and writing The Walking Dead.

I'm afraid this reviews are completely biased. Argentinian folks are crazy fanatics about any cultural product they do and they're brigading to keep the stars up. I understand the love they have for the comic book, since The Eternaut is a book you can find in most homes and it's recommended for kids early in their lives. This adaptation is really good and that's it. It's not a "masterpiece" as some reviews are depicting it. Actors are expectedly fine; Ricardo Darin and Cesar Troncoso steal the show as usual.

I hope Netflix keeps founding LatAm projects, since is proven that great products can be made here.

The original source that this series is based on is covered more or less in the first episode: everything else is new material. And I get the feeling that the showrunners feared this would be their only shot at a production of this magnitude, so they crammed every sci-fi theme they could think of in six short episodes. A massive biological threat, invading insectoid xenomorphs, good old body snatching, and a degradation of civilization, for starters. Unfortunately, together they end up making the whole product disjointed rather than gripping, since none of the threads are given enough runtime.

It's still a somewhat well-crafted show though. It's a nice touch to make middle-aged regular Joes with common sense the protagonists. As is the fact that this doesn't take place in a major US city for once. And also the idea that despite facing horrendous odds, strangers and neighbors often attempt to help each other, rather than the usual every-man-for-himself trope that we see so often. If Netflix greenlights any further seasons, I hope they ask the showrunners to pick a lane and stick to it though.