Brief Story Line
Set in the 1950s, actor Benjamin Basil (José Coronado - Way Down, No habrá paz para los malvados etc) who was famous for portraying Sherlock Holmes was planning to go to Majorca on a yacht with Producer Fonseca (Gonzalo de Castro - Rivales, The Innocent mini series etc) and his girlfriend small time actress Vicky (Cristina Kovani - Mikaela etc) to discuss on making a movie. Due to the stormy weather, they had to disembark on a small island and stayed in the only hotel there where they met with other guests including novel writer Francisco Foxa (Martiño Rivas - The Blind Soundflowers, Cable Girls TV series etc), two close friends of Adela Figueroa (Maria Valverde - La flaqueza del bolchevique, Fever Dream etc) & Elisa (Paloma Bloyd - Cuéntame TV series etc), Dr. Seruya (Pepón Nieto - Días contados, Smiley TV series etc) and German couple Senor Klemmer (Michael Stobbe - Mordach - Tod in den Bergen mini series etc) & Senora Klemmer (Yaiza Guimaré - Hierro TV series etc).
The hotel was managed by Mrs. Raquel Auslander (Maribel Verdú - The Flash, Abracadabra etc) along with her trusted handyman Gerard (Daniel Holguín - La Moderna TV series etc) and two hotel servants Tony (José Condessa - Turn of the Tide TV series, Honeyjoon etc) and Catalina (Almudena Salort -Billionaires' Bunker TV series etc). On the following morning, one of the guests was found dead in a room locked from inside seemingly due to suicide. With the help from Foxa, Basil decided to play the role he was so accustomed to and investigate the case even with danger looming on the people who were trapped in the island.
So would Basil be able to find out the culprit before they leave the island and stop the murders from happening again? You could find out in this series.
End of Brief Story Line
I am a real sucker for whodunit genre whether it's in a movie, series or novels. That's why even though this is a Spanish series which I am not that accustomed with (apart from that Money Heist and few others), I still wanted to give a try. And frankly I am glad I did cause this was pretty enjoyable. It has the same formula of whodunit with a murder mystery in a secluded place and done in a locked room. With the setting in 1950s, I somehow got the strong sense of watching the famous Hercule Poirot from Agatha Christie's novels. Except in here the protagonist was an actor famed for portraying another well known detective Sherlock Holmes.
From the early part when we were introduced with the characters, I was already intrigued and liked the lead Benjamin Basil. Although I got to admit it was pretty challenging to remember all of the people at first, especially since none of them (except Maribel Verdú whom I forgotten was in a movie I've seen before) were familiar to me. After going through more than half of first episode, I finally could remember all of them with total of 13 characters. As the story progressed, I started to have some guesses on the culprit and by the end of the third episode, I more or less have a feeling that my guess was right. It was not a proper deduction and more of elimination process. In any case, the fourth episode was the big reveal which was rather unconventional but I kind of like it. And the ending was even more unusual that might give different level of satisfaction for audience. As for me, I was OK with it and loved there was still a plot twist that I did not see coming, aside from obviously the how and the motive.
As a mini series with only 4 episodes ranging from 35-57 minutes (including closing credits), it was really easy to finish as it only require less than 3 hours. And since it has a proper conclusion, it was something that would not leave us hanging with possible unresolved cliffhanger. From the credits, I noticed that it was based on a novel of same title in Spanish "El problema final" written by Arturo Pérez-Reverte who had written plenty of books that were adapted into movies & series such as The Ninth Gate and Queen of the South TV series. So it was no surprise that this one was also adapted into something.
I also think the cast generally did decent job. I like José Coronado performance here and also Maribel Verdú who was written as special appearance in the credits. After finding out more info, apparently both of them with Martiño Rivas and Maria Valverde had either been nominated or won multiple Spanish awards. No wonder their acting was really convincing. The story telling was OK and the 1950s setting was pretty well done and looked real particularly the people's appearances, although there did not seem to be anywhere mentioning the exact year of 1959 (as stated in IMDB), unless I somehow missed it? Oh and the island was beautifully captured making it a joy to watch.
Overall this was a quite entertaining whodunit series. It only had 4 episodes with conclusive ending and a nice enough reveal. Compared to other similar genre though, this one might not be as complex or multi layered but still pretty enjoyable. Plus the protagonist was shown as a non perfect character (obviously since he was not real detective but just an actor portraying one) and could still make mistakes. So if you are in the mood for a good murder mystery series with such traits, then you are welcome to give it a try. However if you prefer a much more complex type with truly unpredictable culprit, then this might be less satisfying. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars
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