Alba

Netflix advertised this Spanish-made original series as the most watched in the country just now, so, as ex-pat Scots now living in Spain, my wife and I decided to try it out. Stretched out over thirteen 50+ minute episodes, the story revolves around the awful gang-rape of the young woman of the title in an unnamed Spanish coastal town, but which is obviously Alicante.

She'd earlier been out dancing that night in the company of her girl-friend in a popular bar, while waiting for her loved-up boyfriend Bruno to arrive, but while there her drink is spiked and as she tries to stagger out of the place, she is preyed upon by a "hunter"-gang of three rich kids who not only brutally violate her, but being out-of-control narcissists themselves, they can't resist taking a trophy of the girl's underwear as well as filming the attack on each of their mobile phones. The first and probably biggest of about a bazilion plot coincidences we encounter is that there was actually a fourth young man out with them when the attack was made, none other than Bruno, a long-term but you sense reluctant buddy of the three, who thankfully for him, passes out before the barely-sensible Alba is passed on to him by the other three.

Soon after this we discover that two of the three young men are connected to the big-shot richest family around, who are naturally in the property business with their dirty fingers in every pie, which handily leads us on to the second main plot strand. Here we see an obviously seriously-ill old Mafia don-type patriarch of the family suddenly expire in the presence of just his daughter Mercedes who opportunely sees her own chance to take over the company by callously letting the old man die just after he's told her he's cutting her in for a big share of his succession plans.

From there, over the whole span of the programme, we see Alba attempting to cope in the midst of her trauma by bravely trying to track down the perpetrators and then, once their names become public, compelling them to face justice, but in so doing she runs into the full force of mother Mercedes who'll do anything to prevent her hedonistic, borderline psychopath son Ruben from going to jail. His two co-perpetrators are his cousin, Jacobo, the cool but steely brains of the three who instigated the attack and Hugo, a much more sensitive individual, caught up in the moment of the attack but who we soon learn is actually a repressed homosexual who harbours unreciprocated feelings for the rampantly heterosexual Ruben.

As you'd expect over such a long running-time there are several other sub-plots too numerous to list amongst the large cast of supporting characters, all interlinked with the main action, but to be fair to the writers and director all the loose ends are handily tied up in time for the big climactic, if very Hollywood-type showdown between Jacobo, Ruben and Alba at an abandoned warehouse with her true love Bruno racing to save the day.

Like "Dallas" crossed with "The Accused" on steroids, there's never a dull moment in this series which despite being ludicrously over-the-top in many ways, nevertheless has at its centre the praiseworthy story of a violated young woman daring to stand up for herself and take on her super-rich attackers.

While the writing was at all times hyper-sensational, like a cooking pot with so many ingredients thrown in and the heat turned up so high you expect it to explode, it's just about grounded by the sensitive and convincing performances of pretty much all the main cast with special kudos going to the young actress Elena Rivera playing Alba herself.

It was my wife who chose this series for us to watch and I groaned when I realised it was going to take nearly thirteen hours out of my life, but, truth to tell, I have to admit that I rather guiltily enjoyed this never-a-dull-moment, roller coaster ride of a show.