Brief Story Line
Jess Valenzuela (Lisette Olivera - We Need to do Something etc) was a young woman of Mexican descent who lived in the US under DACA immigration policy. She lived with her childhood best friend Tasha Rivers (Zuri Reed) and they were best friends with Oren (Antonio Cipriano) and his roommate Ethan (Jordan Rodrigues - Light as a Feather TV series etc). When Jess somehow met with a former FBI Agent Peter Sadusky (Harvey Keitel - Taxi Driver, Bugsy etc), she found herself caught in the middle of treasure hunt led by ruthless antiquities dealer Billie Pearce (Catherine Zeta-Jones - Wednesday TV series, Entrapment etc).
As Jess decided to look for the treasure since it seemed to be connected to her past, she also met with Sadusky's grandson Liam (Jake Austin Walker - Stargirl TV series etc) who might know more about the secret. Things got further complicated when FBI agent Ross (Lyndon Smith) started to get involve.
So what would happen to Jess and how would the story conclude? You could find out in this series.
End of Brief Story Line
I said above that I liked those Nic Cage's National Treasure movies as it had plenty of adventure and the fun and excitement we felt when looking at the hunters deciphering clues and search for the treasure while being hunted by other people (the competition and law). And in this case, the series itself was more like a spinoff since it told the story of an entirely different people but there were references to the previous movies. Even few characters reappeared in the series in various capacities (as special guest star or recurring cast). Although it has been a bit too long that I only remembered one of them.
Now the story itself started off quite slow. In fact the first episode did not really scream excitement for me. But gradually, the series became more exciting, especially since the 4th episode (probably because of that special guest star). After that episode, the pace felt a bit faster as the treasure hunting became more dangerous and surprisingly there were a bit more action too, though not the spectacular kind. As I continued watching, despite the adventure was a lot more, I still felt the whole series to be a bit light and corny at times. And sadly the final episode that was supposed to be the climax personally to me was a bit ruined because of the cheesy moments.
For a series about treasure hunting, this one also have a lot of clues finding and the intelligent way of deciphering them. This time the main protagonist was Jess who was very smart and knowing a lot of history stuff but not having the best of luck in life as she had to live only with her mother who ran away from Mexico to the US. And just like in the National Treasure movies, there were plenty of things specifically related to USA that was a bit foreign to me (DACA term was one of those that I only understood after finding out from the internet).
The rest of Jess' friends felt like the best sidekicks and provided some lighter moment. My favorite one was definitely Oren who could rise to the occasion when required. But their behavior was also the part that sometimes made me felt cheesy. And then there was the FBI agent Ross who at least was smart enough, meanwhile Catherine Zeta-Jones was OK as the villain though not too convincing. Aside from those cast, there were other support characters like Billie's mercenary Kacey (Breeda Wool - Mr. Mercedes TV series etc), the coroner Dr. Zeke Hudson (Tommy Savas), Jess' father Rafael (Jacob Vargas - Beyond Skyline etc) and few others.
Overall to me this series was OK enough for something focusing on treasure hunting. I like that it shared the continuity with National Treasure movies, though I would have liked it better if Nic Cage was in this. The treasure hunt was quite exciting with some nice deciphering and it even had a surprising twist which I did not see coming, but the other supposedly surprising moments could be sensed from the beginning. Of all the 10 episodes, I think I liked the 9th the most. I am not sure if there is going to be a second season as the ending did seem to hint they could give it a shot, but even if it's not renewed, at least majority was already resolved. So if you are looking for a light treasure hunting series with ties from the popular National Treasure films, then you could give this a try. As long as you do not expect this to be a sophisticated one with really engaging characters and deep dialogues, then you should be fine.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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