A Private Affair

The dubbing is as good as it could be, but after ten minutes I switched to the original Spanish with subtitles and, suddenly, what had been a bit tiresome became excellent. Also, it seems very likely that many of the language anachronisms were down to the poor translation demanded by the need for the lip-sync to be as smooth as possible. Before you give up on this, do what I did. You'll enjoy it a whole lot more. Though I don't disagree that it could have been tightened up considerably - it was a little slow in places. Now I'm wittering a bit to make up the character count. Never met that before!

Like so many recent productions and books in which lazy writers set stories in the past, yet forget to do any kind of serious research about expressions that are used, concepts that are common and technology that existed at the time in which the story takes place, this series is rife with late 20th and early 21st century language and attitudes. It takes away from a fun and otherwise well-produced program.

It is very tiresome that too many people who write stories taking place in bygone eras cannot be bothered to do even a modicum of research to make sure they've stayed true to those times. It takes a few minutes to Google the origins of a word or phrase to make sure it was in use at the time. Ditto manners and mores, songs, films, clothing and technology. Are they stupid or just lazy?

The story takes place at the end of the 1940s in Galicia, where a sassy upper-class girl with a taste for mystery, Marina Quiroga, together with her butler Hector, sets out to hunt down the serial killer who has been stalking the city for months. I say it's "cute" because it doesn't seem too serious, even though it's about murder and a serial killer. In the first episode our heroine Marina complains the man her mother would have her marry has a "unibrow." Monobrow first appeared in a novel in the late 1960's and Unibrow in 1981. Frida Kahlo, who died in 1954 is arguably the most famous person with a unibrow on this side of the world, died in 1954. What did they call hers? Her self portraits left it clearly represented. Anyway, I digress. This was enough to make me pause the episode and get more history than I could ever want about the unibrow. So far, it's a great occupant of my downtime. Enjoy!

The story is not bad and the ending is quite surprisingly tragic. My problem is that she is unbearable. She's a condensate of cliche': the rich spoilt brat who jumps to conclusions and recklessly endengers herself but is surrounded by men ready to catch her in the moment of danger. This kind of character is so tiresome I struggled to get through all 8 episodes and I confess I skipped some parts. It kept me going that I was curious to know who the killer was. And the last episode was rewarding. Jean Reno as a not in your face delicate gay butler is sweet. I still remember him as a gentle but ruthless assassin in Leon.

Was pleasantly surprised by this one. Popped up on my Amazon Prime suggestion. I liked the artistic film style, the lighting, the era and the fast paced story line. Character are engaging. Looking forward to seeing more. Took a bit getting used to it being dubbed in English because the audio didn't sync with mouth movement but not a deal breaker. Worth watching more. Jean Reno is always a pleasure to see in movies. Had not heard of the main female actress before but she's is very cute and believable in this role. It reminds me of Murder on the Orient Express style of movie. Will be back for more.