Every Minute Counts

The actual earthquake lasted for more than 80 seconds. It was really long. I was expecting a lot more of the movement, and different people experiencing things. At least some imagery of the news TV show just before all went dark. But in the show was just a few seconds. Not enough to get invested in a whole series. The dialogue of the woman reporter and her crew was wooden, unrealistic and disgustingly modern. Not at all how it was on that moment: Nobody was prepared, nobody had lived through something like this. It was obvious it was written by somebody who haven't lived through any event similar, neither worked in news. I don't know of they try to portrait her as a protagonist but instead seemed an antihero. The aspect of the hospital was better done. But again, the "speeches" other doctor and similar are completely unrealistic. People just started helping without anybody giving those kind of lame words. It's a shame, because it could have been a great show.

Although this series has its values i.e. Production, and the background history it ca be denied, also has its flaws. My principal objection is that it has not to be necessary to embelish the events with such a sloppy script. The real drama we live as Mexicans back in the day it would be just enough.

I personally work as a volunteer in rescue tasks for the University, as many other Mexicans that days, and we all know that there was no such a ridiculous story of a newspaper reporter such as portayed here. I guess that for a non Mexican audience this could be easily compared with some kind of US reconstruction or representation of the Nine-Eleven events, the heroism that many saw and lived that days, and in terms of cinematic adaptation, that's make sense, there are plenty of stories that show more or less the same behaviour. But for me, is an insult that the writers take such a liberty on the portrait of characters involved. Not all what happened in that day involved class media people. For the Mexico city size and the hour of the earthquake, early in the morning, many of the people involved belong to virtually all kind of social origin, not only those who lived in affected areas. Specially many female workers in Colonia Obrera, for example, was poor women, in a very popular sector of the city, away from residential zones. Tlatelolco itself was not at the time a very nice zone to live in, just to mention two zones and kind of people not portrayed with adequacy in the series.

I remeber I was at the school, far away from the epicenter, and I was in disbelief of what news report that morning. I guess new generation of audience, millenials, need to see what happended that day in a new light. But I don't. I lived every hour, I was involved in rescue tasks, almost one month, during the emergency on which Mexico city almost stop at all every activity not involved in rescue.

So, I recommend that if yo not live those days directly, avoid the series. As usual with almost any recent Mexican production (no matter if its from Apple, Netflix or any other streaming service), it's made of bad acting and a sloppy script, not to mention a poor camera work. Its so obvious that this new Mexican producvers and filmakers doesn't know how to make the camera lens work not only as a credible whitness but also as a narrator, framing and using creative solutions for the POV.

Yes, the story is mindblowing, but what we see in this series is kind of an open disregard for the people who lived and died that days in Mexico city. As a Mexican who lived that days in the flesh, this series insult my memory, and the memory of those who died.

Some subjects would be treated with more professionalism and for people who really understand the tragedy and the pain lived by those who really lived those days, and not only write and produce some show for selling tickets or views on streaming.

Anyone who knows the feeling of an earthquake in Mexico can relate to this great story!! The writers did an amazing job g job taking each chapter for the characters to evolve. You get to care for each extra around the story because it's all about the bigger picture but about each human experience.

The way you get to know the characters and its marvelous course of events. The way you feel the moment. Each chapter makes you feel exactly how they were feeling.

In the moment the babies were saved: history was written repeating ...the moment every person came out alive or dead. The feeling of the after math of an earthquake.

Mexicans have special powers when we get together : this make you feel like one of them, one of us in these situations and you know you're in great hands.

I can't wait for part two.

I highly recommend this series. It's an ambitious project tackling a difficult subject that affected most Mexicans less than 40 years ago. Everyone I know is praising the visual effects and historical accuracy in portraying the devastation. But what I loved most was how the writers fleshed out the characters, making us complicit in understanding their mindset and choices. Every turn evokes powerful emotions, and as viewers we feel drawn in to that pure human emotion, whether it be affection, desperation, claustrophobia, anger, or hope- we have a personal connection. Projects like this honor the resilience and strength of character Mexicans had during our most challenging time.

I don't mean to despise a tragedy in the history of my country, but come on, this series is way too overdramatic to the point of almost being a Telenovela from Televisa or TV Azteca. Way too much drama and very far from reality, like the news reporter, ¿do you really want me to buy that at that point in the country, with the then recent death of Manuel Buendía one year apart in 1984, she was able to survive without even having her life risked for real? Lol. And dude, the writing... first of, there is no night in this series, there were aftershocks of the earthquake at night, and once again, ¿you want me to buy that in day one they were able to rescue all of the people just like that? Lmao. Also, the news reporter and the mom with pink suit are both terrible actresses. Not a good representation of a real-life tragedy, just a telenovela marketed as a "series". By the way, I found out that the news reporter and the mom were the ones that portrayed Selena and Yolanda Saldívar in "El Secreto de Selena", a flop series from 2018, that as well as this one, contains horrendous acting and a poor writing, derived from a book written with the false testimonies of Yolanda.