La Fortuna

La Fortuna is clearly based on the story of the Spanish ship Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes and the battle by Spain to reclaim the treasure uncovered by the American salvage company Odyssy, and it mainly follows that fairly closely. Of course it's full of fictional characters, relationships and love affairs, and they manage to throw in some silly and totally unlikely things in the final couple episodes, but it was still worth watching. Oh, and of course it's hugely biased toward Spain and very anti-American, that probably goes with the territory. And I still can't see why the salvage companies don't get to keep treasure that, without their hard work, would never be uncovered.

We never read the graphic novel, so we came to this series with no preconceived notions. The story is compelling and the cast is superb: Stanley Tucci, Clarke Peters, Ana Polvorosa, Álvaro Mel, T'nia Miller quickly create full characters.

Art direction is superb. The locations for Jonás Pierce's home, along with locations in Madrid, those government buildings!, gave the series a real grounding. I believe it was all shot in Spain.

I've read the other reviews and horrified at the American xenophobia and racism. Talk about overloading context! Ignore these fools - watch for yourself. It's a good tale, love the multicultural cast and storyline.

I have been very excited, when I have heard that Alejandro Amenábar had been working on a series. But this is an amateur hour. The main american cast is great, but they can't make the screenplay better. Holes in the plot, disappearing and reappearing of the main protagonist, dialogues from a high school play and so on. My advice: avoid this one, and watch Alejandro Amenábar movies.

This is my very first Spanish TV show and to be h0onest, I did not expect to enjoy it so much. The story line is brilliant and Stanley Tucci deserves an Academy or a Golden Globe.

My Review - La Fortuna Streaming on SBS on Demand My Rating 7.5 /10

I really enjoyed La Fortuna a Spanish/American 6 part series written and Directed by Alejandro Amenábar who also has directed or written movies like Vanilla Sky the Sea Inside and The Others which I also enjoyed .

Produced by Movistar+ in Europe, La Fortuna is a contemporary adventure Pirate and treasure hunt tale with film locations in Spain in near Madrid and Atlanta in the U. S. A.

One of the only 2 actors who were familiar to me in this series was Stanley Tucci who always delivers and is terrific in the role of Frank Wild an underwater salvage millionaire who discovers the long lost wreck of a Spanish Ship La Fortuna off the coast of Spain near Gibraltar that was sunk by The British in 1805 .

Frank Wild and his team plunder the treasure and disturb the remains of the La Fortuna wreck to recover it's valuable bounty of thousands of Spanish gold coins and artefacts .

They of course claim ownership for Frank Wild's company Atlantis and return with the treasure to the United States.

The only other actor familiar to me in La Fortuna was Clarke Peters who plays Jonas Pierce an attorney who takes on the task on behalf of the Spanish Government Department of Culture to reclaim the treasure and return it to the country that La Fortuna was returning to before it was sunk losing its 200 passengers and crew as well as its cargo .

The rest of the cast are predominantly Spanish and all give terrific performances including two very charismatic young Spanish actors Álvaro Mel who plays Alex Ventura and Ana Polvorosa who stars as Alex Ventura's colleague and eventual romantic interest and fellow adventurer Lucia Vallarta.

Álvaro Mel I've since found out is a 26 year old Spanish Instagram Star, YouTube Star, Social Media Star, Fashion Influencer, Model & Television Actor and a very impressive actor that I'll watch out for in future movies.

Ana Polvorosa, is a Spanish film, theatre and television actress and she also impressed me greatly in her role as Lucia Vallarta a Public Servant assigned to assist Alex Ventura navigate the American Legal system in obtaining the treasure out of the hands of Frank Wilde and back to Spain.

Together both Alex and Lucia gradually become the prominent characters in the show because of their vitally important career assignment to travel together to the USA and assist in the retrieval of the treasure from La Fortuna and of course they form a deep emotional attachment for each other in spite of their many differences.

Alex is a young and inexperienced diplomat, who inadvertently becomes the leader of the mission to recover the undersea treasure stolen by adventurer Frank Wild.

Lucia is his more mature radical outspoken and attractive colleague who at first clashes with Alex's clean cut suit and tie conservative style.

All the ensemble cast are impressive in this series La Fortuna and I would have given it an 8 if the conclusion was better .

In my view it did get a little frantic and seemed to go unnecessarily off course in the last episode but all in all a great viewing experience.