As every year at the end of December, it is time to choose the best cultural productions of the year. Experts and fans choose their books, movies and, in the case that concerns us, series. There are always more or less glaring absences that multiply when awards season arrives. Here are five proposals for those who want to get out of the most recognized.
Slow Horses (Apple TV+). The apple platform is showing signs of a good hand when it comes to taking advantage of the literary world. It is a global trend, but it is not worth everything. There is the risky Foundation or the work of Dennis Lehane in front of Locked up with the devil. But it is perhaps in this series, which adapts the novels with which Mick Herron has revolutionized the spy genre in the United Kingdom, where the success has been greater. The bet was complicated for an essential reason: Herron’s eight novels to date (the first four, published in Spain by Salamandra) have a spectacular cast of characters, but they turn on an axis: the enormous and often hateful personality of Jackson Lamb, the head of the Slow Horses, those hopeless spies, that gang of glorious losers. And Gary Oldman knows how to become Lamb, get inside our heads, embody the character down to the last fiber of his holey socks. There is also black, British, real humor, very well shot action and conspiracies. The first season worked great. The start of the second is even better. An excellent and original spy production.
From (HBO Max). This series produced by Epix and which arrived in Spain in September very covered up had all the ingredients so that any cautious viewer would not go anywhere near it. The initial budget was too similar to Lost, and also had the same executive producers (Jack Bender and Jeff Pinkner) and one of the lead actors, Harold Perrineau. A town to which everyone who arrives, it is not known how, is trapped; some monsters that do not run but tear and cannibalize victims when night falls; some mysterious voices; a tree that transports you to another place… and so on. But it is not very well known how its creator, John Griffin, manages to make us stay with these poor people lost in the middle of nowhere. We already know that we cannot wait for answers, but it is not the key to a series that knows how to engage with a construction of solid characters and, above all, playing with the plot, even if it does not go anywhere. A curious product that deserves a while and engages despite logical reluctance. It is not The Leftovers, a wonder out of the disaster that was Lost, but it is enjoyed.
In My Skin (Filmin). The best TV drama of the season for the Baftas 2022 was this heartbreaking BBC series. Its second installment premiered in the United Kingdom in 2021 but it has arrived in Spain in its entirety this year through Filmin. It tells the story of Beth, a teenager who lives a harsh reality at home as the person in charge of a bipolar mother with continuous admissions and exits from a hospital, an alcoholic and violent father and scarce economic resources. But in the face of her friends and teachers, her life is perfect and she resides in a loving and supportive home. And meanwhile, Beth explores her sexual identity and even finds time to try being her class representative. The creator of the series, Kayleigh Llewellyn, was based on her own adolescence to write this story. In addition to sharing experiences with Beth, Llewellyn came to live on charity by not being able to meet the bills with his work as a screenwriter. The result is a production with half-hour episodes that combine the tremendous drama of the young protagonist’s life with flashes of humor, quite black, and in which the crude and realistic reflection of her mental illness stands out.
Pachinko (AppleTV+). It takes its title from the word that describes Japanese games that cross pinball and slot machines, but in reality this Korean-Japanese epic invites the viewer to immerse themselves in the recent history of South Korea and its traditions at the hands of several generations of a Korean family with a woman, Sunja, as the common thread. Between time jumps, this production, with a leisurely pace, oriental sensibility and high levels of production, takes the viewer from a fishing village in Korea occupied by the Japanese Empire at the beginning of the 20th century to the modern Tokyo of 1989 in the midst of an economic explosion and developer. Filmed in Japanese, Korean and English, the series shows the cultural richness of Korea and delves into an issue as present in today’s television as identity itself. To do this, it calls for attention to the past, the memory of grandmothers, and the resilience of women. Historical and family drama and melodrama come together in an exciting story that invites you to escape the fast pace and shocks of life and contemporary television.
Somebody Somewhere (HBO Max). Comedian Bridget Everett stars as Sam, a woman who returns to her hometown of Kansas following a family crisis and to try to deal with her own acceptance process and grief that she carries in her own way. She now feels like an outsider in her own city. There she will meet another group of people who also feel they don’t fit in, but who have decided to fight and not give up, for which they set up meetings and a particular cabaret in which each one contributes what they know how to do best. One of the great virtues of this dramatic comedy, which leads you to smile and laugh as well as to tears, is that its characters are normal people, each one with their problems, doubts and uncertainties, and who do not seek nothing extraordinary in life, just connecting with other people to get ahead. It is appreciated that a fiction escapes from the big cities to settle in a town in deep America. And it also highlights her positive and hopeful tone. A little gem that should not go unnoticed.
