Triptych

I thought this was a wonderful mystery thriller that kept me interested from the very beginning. I had a brief period where I thought the story was going to take an "orphan black" turn, but it didn't and I was grateful for the more realistic story. (Don't get me wrong, the Orphan Black series is wonderful, as is it's lead actress Tatiana Maslany and I highly recommend watching it...but this is a different show.) I first saw Maite Perroni, who plays the lead in Triada (Triptych), in the Mexican series Oscuro Deseo (Dark Desire) where she plays a lawyer in a dark or erotic thriller and I thought she was fantastic...so, when my husband and I were looking for something to watch on Cinco de Mayo, I suggested this-her new series and we were not sorry.

This is a fairly short series at just eight episodes that tell a complete story. The series begins with a crazed woman entering a high rise office building, injuring employees in the process, only to confront her therapist in her office and take her out onto the roof at gunpoint. Meanwhile the police surround the building and the woman is shot down by a police sniper on a neighboring building. Then we follow a forensic scientist into the building and up to the crime scene, only for her to bend over the body and discover that the woman looks identical to her...then the woman who was thought to be dead, reaches up to grab her and calls her by her first name...Beth.

This sends Beth on an interesting journey to discover that she has been lied to her whole life, she was obtained in a black market adoption, her parents aren't really her parents...in fact she is not an only child, she is just one of a set of triplets! A Fascinating and mysterious story unfolds and the people in her life are not who she thought they were.

This is loosely based on a true story which makes it even more fascinating. I loved all the strong female characters in this series...and it was really interesting to see who the villain really was when the story finally unfolds. They do an excellent job building the tension and keeping you speculating, especially about everyone's motives and theories. Who do you trust?...always a tough question for women and really highlighted in this series.

The sets are great, the acting wonderful and the story gripping. I highly recommend this Mexican series...to both thriller and mystery fans. I loved how at one point they offer up a cloning theory, great hat tilt to Orphan Black. Maite Perroni has really become one of my favorite actresses to watch.

This review is based on watching the series in it's original Spanish language with subtitles.

Can you really claim something is based on a real story when only 1% of it is real? The only real story here is triplets finding out they are triplets, but all the rest is fabricated. It's a cheaper version of Orphan Black (even the hair styles!) while mixing a bunch of other random stuff in an attempt to create something original. It wouldn't bother me so much if the story ended up being good, but it's not! They create a lot of unnecessary complexity, playing with the way events unfold, they think you'll be surprised with a big reveal and a plot twist, but it's actually predictable!

And why create two characters who work for the police but can't figure out much of anything on their own? Not to mention how dumb they can be sometimes.

The acting is good and that's the only reason why I'm giving 4 stars.

Full of holes-often goes A to D without B and C. Especially at the end. Action moves on with no explanation of how situations are resolved. Things are suddenly and miraculously resolved and we just are supposed to move on as well. I don't want to give away plot so I'm being vague. But we are often taken to a tense "standoff" of a situation and then suddenly the characters are just somewhere else. Or they are free. Or in some other way we have just moved past the situation with no explanation. Even the ending does nothing the explain how we got from the bad guy (bad woman) holding a gun to her being locked away.

So reading the synopsis, it kind of made me think that this series might be modelled on the male triplets in the states that were born in 1961, separated through an adoption agency and not until a chance meeting at a college, two of the three were eventually reunited, leading to joining the third male.

So Becca a forensics expert whilst attending a crime scene comes across her identical self, the storyline is far more complex than I anticipated, but it made it in some parts very entertaining.

The individual characters played by Maite Perroni were well performed and really gave you an excellent perception of each role has they went through each episode.

However, although the story is complex and has it moves on you get to understand how the lives of Becca, Tamara and Aleida came to be how they are, the scriptwriters must have felt that viewers may find this all a little dull, so throw in a sex scene or two along the way.

Humberto, Becca's colleague, the stud, as you find out later in the series, has the moral compass and stature of a borderline perverse male model, talk about taking advantage, again later in the series all is revealed.

5/10 good storyline overall, not easy to watch at times.

Potentially good story, but only average execution. First episode e starts strong but then the story slows down. The plot still develops in the next 5 episodes, but just to slow. It is further slowed down by pointless erotic and other scenes that last way too long and contribute nothing to the story or the plot. Acting is average and at times just over the top. Some scenes are confusing as it is not exactly clear where or when the happen? Memory? Dream? Connection?

Camerawork and photography are decent but not special in any way.

The theme as such has so much more potential than is displayed in this series. Watchable, but be prepared to fast forward pointless time-killing scenes.