Triptych

As this eight part Mexican drama series opens a woman forces her way into a building, shoots and injures a few people, then takes a doctor hostage on the building's roof. The police surround the building and the hostage taker is shot. A forensics officer arrives at the scene and is shocked to see the injured woman looks just like her, and addresses her by name. She soon learns many facts about herself that she didn't previously know... she was adopted and is actually a triplet. As she tries to learn more about her origins she finds herself endangered by those who for reasons that later become apparent, want it to remain a secret.

I thought this was a solid enough series although the premise will have anybody who watched 'Orphan Black' suspecting that this would turn out to be a Spanish language remake. Thankfully it doesn't take that route and gives us something different. There are plenty of twists and turns, some more obvious than others and a good degree of tension. Somewhat inevitably things do get a bit melodramatic towards the end. Maite Perroni did an impressive job as the three triplets; each of them was distinctive in appearance and manner. Overall a decent enough series that I'd recommend even if it isn't really a must see.

These comments are based on watching the series in Spanish with English 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.

This is an interesting thriller, stronger at the beginning episodes than at the end. Maite Perroni is fantastic in the lead role, but I wish they gave her something more stable to work with.

The series is a bit disjointed, I don't know how else to describe it. It's like some major scenes were left in editing on the cutting room floor, especially in the last episode. We jump from one situation to another without an explanation in between.

Even the credits claim there was nudity, but I don't recall any. If there was, it wasn't much. Maybe that was edited out too.

And this was filmed in Mexico? Most of the vehicles seem to have Mexican plates. But until halfway through I thought it was filmed in Spain. Everyone looks European, and are dressed in sweaters and jackets for colder weather. A couple scenes show heavily forested hills that just look out of place in most of Mexico. All these things together feel a little odd. But maybe that's what they were going for.

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.

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.