Epitafios

I stumbled on Epitafios while browsing through my On Demand service, looking for an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Am I glad I took a chance with this intricate, twisty series. Sometimes it goes a bit too far--our serial killer has escaped one too many times to be entirely believable--but I love the characters and their interactions and the fact that no one is safe. The show shouldn't be buried on HBO-Latino. This is a show that deserves to run alongside Rome and Deadwood and other higher-profile, regular HBO series. If you haven't watched this and think that a Spanish-language series with subtitles isn't your thing, just give the first episode or two a try. I bet you'll be hooked.

Quite by accident, I stumbled upon the first episode of a great miniseries.

Everybody smokes and nobody calls for backup. That is an apt description of Epitafios, a 13-part miniseries that showed on HBO Signature.

But it is so much more. It has to be because it is in Spanish with English subtitles. That may turn you off and, if it does, you are missing one of the best crime dramas ever. In fact, the story is so compelling that you don't even notice the fact that it is subtitled. The acting, the music, the story will grab you like no other crime drama.

I like Tom Shales of the Post's description: Epitafios" is as gripping as its murders are ghastly, a spiraling reverberant circle of horrors that keeps widening as the bodies pile up (more than two dozen killings by the time the series ends) and the killer's motives become clear, if perverse. The film breaks rules in somewhat the tradition of Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho": Hardly anyone in the cast seems safe from extinction and could become the killer's next conquest at any moment. No one is safe. One of the main characters bought it the first episode - when have you ever seen that happen?

This is a series that I lost sleep to see.

After five years, Julio Chávez and Cecilia Roth return in Season 2. I will have the same anticipation for each episode as I do for True blood.

Not the most intelligent crime show I've seen, but entertaining enough to hold my attention. Could easily trimmed down to 6, maybe 8, episodes. Murder after murder of characters that contributed nothing to the plot, they existed to be killed. I watched the series on HBO on my AppleTV -- I used the 10-second skip ahead function quite a bit.

At times the writers have the characters do some pretty idiotic stuff. For example, a police detective calling someone at the airport to tell them their life is in danger, but doesn't ask where in the airport he is is and tell him to stay put. It continues with the potential victim leaving the safety of the customer service desk and runs randomly through the airport to eventually hide in a restroom. In another scene the female lead gets a Skype call from the killer who gives her a message to give to the detective — she calls him on his cellphone and asks him to come over so she can tell him what the murderer said… ummm, something urgent related to an ongoing mass murder investigation and you can't just tell him over the phone, the one you're already talking to him on? I found myself saying and thinking the phrase "what idiots" many times throughout the series.

Still, there's enough of a plot to watch it through to the end. I do like how they identify the killer around the 4th episode, instead of waiting until the end and just pick a character — more enjoyable when the viewer knows and watches those investigating figure it out.

They talk fast, the subtitles flash by — around episode 3 my brain seemed to adapt and there was a lot less skipping back to read what I missed.

Season 1 didn't exactly motivate me to dive into season 2 — maybe someday when there's nothing else to watch I'll take a look. I'd like to see a version of this story re-done by the people behind the series "24" :-)

I'm re-watching the series on DVD and love it just as much as the first time. Yes, the body count gets ridiculously high, and I can't believe there wouldn't be more detectives working on such a high-profile case, and Renzo would have been replaced around victim #10 or so, but all the characters have so much passion! Also, as a writer, I'm fascinated when other writers break rules, like bringing in a central character (Marina) fully halfway through the series. And how often is the dramatic and romantic lead a paunchy little guy with a bald spot? My favorite character is Renzo's dad, who is smarter than everyone else in the show put together, including his son. Does anyone know if there's a second season out there?

I'd never heard of this until last night when I decided to rent the first two DVD's at Blockbuster. So, the user's comment about wanting to see it on DVD can have his/her wish ... a total of 5 DVD's.

I have not finished watching all of the mini series yet, but am glad for this website. After watching the 2nd episode and loving it, I feared that this was some series leaving me with some annoying cliffhanger, so now I know I can finish watching this to the ending due to this site's user comments.

Having only watched 2 episodes so far, I'm definitely hooked. Everything from casting, acting, camera angles, music, lighting, etc., is outstanding. My only ditty of negativity is regarding the few areas of subtitles that flash too quickly to read such as when translating a newspaper headline or tombstone epitaph, but, hey, I got the DVD's, so I can hit the reverse and pause (not so for viewers seeing it on HBO in real time unless they got some special cable service). On the flip side, though, at least the subtitles are in large enough lettering I can read them on my non-widescreen older & ordinary fullscreen television (I saw a trailer on a DVD for a new foreign movie the other day and the subtitle print was so tiny I gave up trying and determined I wouldn't be renting that movie).

It took me a little while at first to get familiar with the characters ... and, trying to salt my food whilst reading subtitles I tended to miss a few things, but I simply couldn't stop watching it. The introduction art and music is stylish and very well done which helped me more with the 2nd episode viewing, but I already know I can't rely on being sure if these characters are going to be in the remaining episodes since a lead character got toasted in the first episode, which makes this miniseries have more anticipated twists than one would expect ... and is refreshing. Knocking off a character like this wasn't like watching one of Stephen King's movies where he needlessly and irritatingly knocks off just about everyone you think you care about (King's downfall I think).

My local Blockbuster (hope it's okay to mention here), had a lot of good new releases this week, but no one had touched renting this miniseries, so I am going to have lots of fun viewing this weekend. The clerks at the store had no idea what this series was, but they do now, and one of them said she was going to rent it. I am glad to see my local BB is finally starting to have more TV series!

My title comment of "refreshingly unique with flavor" definitely applies. As the various actors and actresses of the cast lit up their cigarettes I felt nostalgia of days past when movies had smokers ... real people type actors and no government activistic or politically influenced campaigned censorship to alter the flavor intended. It was just WONDERFUL!!! When the first actor lit up a smoke, my jaw almost dropped! Then, my lips started to form a smile ... and then a big grin ... I loved it! I felt giddish! This made them all more real, and the episodes I've seen aren't full of staccato forensic jargon streaming out of their mouths (I have a tough time watching Bones! I'll have to wait for that on DVD to fully appreciate it.). And, it is nice as well that the language content is kept clean of cuss words ... most refreshing and pleasant (got really sick of that with Deadwood! I've not watched past the 2nd episode of that series.). Don't get me wrong, cussing is acceptable and applicable, but in Deadwood it seemed even the actors couldn't say so many of them without seeming forced and unnatural.

Perhaps my 10 rating is premature, but after reading other users comments here, I feel confident I will not be disappointed in viewing the rest of the DVD's. I recommend this for anyone wishing to view something uniquely different and refreshing with a stylish new flavor(and doesn't mind reading subtitles).