A Garota na Fita

To be honest I almost didn't make it through the first episode. Decided to stick with it and ended up really liking it. I'm glad I didn't stop. The main character was my initial problem. She's a journalist for a newspaper and I don't think she smiled except maybe once or twice. She's got a horrific backstory so I forgave her. She gets involved in the story of a 5 year old girl who goes missing during a parade. The story is shown from her perspective along with the female detective that's working on the case. Also shown are the parents story as well as eventually the kidnapper. But the journalist is the real star here. She's tenacious in her fight to solve the mystery and sacrifices some of her own dignity along the way.

The story takes place in Spain with subtitles. There's nothing upbeat or with the slightest bit of humor, as it should be. But that means it's pretty gloomy throughout and seems very suited to the story. In the end, I thought it was very well done and they left it open for a new case.

I am usually immediately turned off from watching something that is dubbed in English and nothing the actor's say match up but I kept trying to overlook it because I was interested in finding out who did this and also who did that. Clearly nobody is going to be invited to all the award shows BUT that's fine. In my opinion, it was still good enough that I wanted to watch one episode every day until it ended but not too good to where I felt the need to binge watch it too quickly. I don't have a problem with that! I felt like I wanted to leave a review that explains my opinion in case there is someone like me who checks the IMDb rating for a show or movie before they start watching it and they immediately see a good bit of really low rating's. I would say that the series doesn't really deserve that many low rating's but a rating is based on each person's opinion or perspective. I would suggest giving it a try if anyone is on the fence since the ending looks as though they are probably going for a season two.

This is layered. An engrossing story within an immersive story. Milena Smit is quite convincing as the young journalist with a tortured past that she has difficulty overcoming. Veteran actor Jose Coronado is quite likeable as Miren's teacher and confederate. And Aixa Villagran is quite commendable as the tireless, persistent investigator.

The approach of the film to storytelling is engaging even as it jumps from one year to another. The viewer might be wondering whatever happened to Amaya because her screen presence is limited for the most part to the videos Iris sends to Miren 3 years apart. But the patient viewer gets the complete picture in the penultimate episode.

This Spanish production is worth watching. It's bingeable.

Snow Girl is about a child kidnapping case that spans a number of years. Caught up are the parents, the police, the kidnappers, and a journalist obsessed with the case.

What we have is a great, moody character-driven series. The actors do a great job showing how everyone around the case gets affected. That part of the slow burn is great.

Unfortunately, the plot and the mystery almost never progresses. And it's even more absurd that the time period spans 9 years. Everyone is so intense about the case, but what is happening these 9 years? The sad answer is nothing. We don't really witness any transformation within the characters over these 9 years. It's as if they're stuck in the depression all this time. The biggest transformation should be the kidnapped girl, but we don't even see how the transformation takes place, just that it did... 6 years later.

So it's well-acted... but missing a lot of plot devices that could've made Snow Girl a whole lot more exciting as a crime series.

I actually have no clue why people are giving this bad reviews. First of all, I don't understand how you can compare this to a telenovela. This is nothing like a telenovela. This is an extremely good Spanish version of an American or Nordic thriller series.

I was gripped from start to end, the only thing I would have wished for would be some clarification on certain things. There are a few loopholes.

Someone wrote that they mumble a lot. The Spanish always "mumble", or I'd rather say speak very fast and drop letters, especially those with an Andalucian accent. There is nothing different in this series compared to hearing Spanish people speak to each other in Spain.

Anyway, good series, will keep you excited from start to end.