La Fortuna

Well, some of the reviews for this are laughable and borderline racist. The Brits and the Yanks decry it as a pathetic pack of lies, insulting their national pride, while the rest see it as a decent bit of entertainment, based on a comic book.

The facts of the period are indisputable: the British, as they had been for 300 years, treated the oceans as their own private kingdom, seizing ships or sinking them on their whim. This is historical FACT, whether the Brits like it or not.

What is also historical fact is that a number of modern-day US 'pirates' roam the oceans looking for such buried treasure and then a way to keep it for their own enrichment, ignoring the history and nationality of the treasure concerned.

This series sets up a nice battle between the good (the Spanish) and the bad (the Yanks/Brits). It's quite entertaining and the production is good, especially the historical scenes when we see how La Fortuna was sunk.

Make up your own mind and ignore the screaming reviews.

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.

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.

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.

For those who criticise this series should do some background research before making a knee jerk reaction search for Odyssey who plundered Spanish gold in silver coins in the same nautical area near Gibraltar and living in Andalucía I witnessed the true story unfold.