‘Limited series’ have always been my preference over seasons after seasons of ‘extended series’ where sometimes the waiting time can feel eternal (sic “Money Heist”). I am not keen on months-long wait to find what’s happening next in a story I’m already invested in—one reason I don’t much watch television series. But limited series or miniseries is completed in one season, leaving you without the gnawing feeling of ‘mission incomplete’.
When, once in a while, you come across something like “The Innocent” (Spanish: “El inocente”), and you are blown away by how much suspense and thrill an eight-episode miniseries can pack in. Released on Netflix on April 30, the Spanish television thriller is based on Harlan Coben’s novel of the same name and directed for the screen by Oriol Paulo.
A young Mateo Vidal (Mario Casas) gets into a fight outside a disco and accidentally kills someone. An aspiring lawyer, he gets four years in prison, which he completes. Back from prison, it does take some time for Mateo to adjust to the outside world but he manages to create a place for himself in the society and now successfully runs a law firm. He is also happily married to Olivia Costa (Aura Garrido) and the couple is expecting a baby.
All is fine and dandy in their lives until Olivia’s business trip to Berlin turns awry. Mateo gets video calls that show Olivia in a compromising position with a stranger and a further inquiry leads to a revelation that she has not left the country. As he begins to investigate his wife’s disappearance, Mateo also gets entangled in a chain of incidents that make him a fugitive of the law again, with time-hardened cop Lorena Ortiz (Alexandra Jiménez) after him.
With Lorena at his heels, Mateo is also forced to confront ghosts from his past and demons from present. On the other side, his wife Olivia too has a set of skeletons in her closet and there seems no end in sight for the number of problems they get into.
Suspense is the very DNA of The Innocent. Every episode has something that will surprise the audience and further draw their interest, only to take them towards another spinoff in the story. It is delightful to watch filmmakers pull off so many substories and subplots within the series, the contents of which has enough material for a few more seasons.
Suspense after suspense packed in a single season speeds up The Innocent, but nothing an engrossed audience cannot keep up with. The series does not center on a single character. Using multiple flashback scenes and also background narrations for storytelling, The Innocent gives each character its own space, story and POV.
The acting—although I am in no position to judge dialogue delivery as Spanish is not a language I understand—is convincing to the point that a non-speaker like me reading dialogues on subtitles easily understands the emotions the actors are trying to convey. This is a big win for the actors and directors.
Who should watch it?
If you like thrillers, we recommend you drop whatever you are doing and begin The Innocent asap, before spoilers start appearing all over social media. It is the type of series that you can watch now and revisit a couple of years later. (Seriously.) Also for audience who are not generally into crimes and thrillers, this could be an exception. This will perhaps also change your mind.
Rating: 4 stars
Genre: Thriller, crime
Actors: Mario Casas, Aura Garrido, Alexandra Jiménez
Director: Oriol Paulo
Run time: 7h 47mins
