The fact of being in charge of the television adaptation of ‘Patria’ made many begin to pay more attention to the name of Aitor Gabilondo. The truth is that she had previously participated decisively in hits like ‘The Prince’ or ‘Allí abajo’, but it was the television version of the novel by Fernando Aramburu the one that took his career to another level.
I don’t know that this was key for Netflix to take over its services and give the green light to ‘The silence’a miniseries starring aron piper (‘Elite’) and Almudena Love (‘La abuela’) who seemed called to be among the best of the 2023 television crop of this platform. And I say it seemed because the final result after its promising start is disappointing at all levels, offering very little for which its six episodes are worth watching.
A fake prestige miniseries
One very evident thing at Netflix is that only a handful of its productions seek to be prestigious titles, one of those works that it can sell trying to convey the idea that it is among the highlights of its catalogue. I have no doubt that they are convinced that ‘El silencio’ is one of them, because the truth is that it seems so at first glance. Things get complicated, and a lot, when we look at the details.
The great mystery on which ‘El silencio’ is built is finding out what exactly happened for a teenager to end the lives of his two parents. To add to the enigma, it turns out that the character played by Piper hasn’t said a word since then -hence the title of the series-, but that is something that Gabilondo soon leaves aside to further complicate the plot with elements that never end. to integrate satisfactorily. There I think above all about the subplot starring Manu Ríos and Cristina Kovaniwhich at the moment of truth only serves to divert the focus from what should really interest us.
And it is that at all times it is clear that the two great axes of the function are going to be the characters of Piper and Amor, establishing a strange link between the two that It ends up leading to any kind of credibility that ‘El silencio’ might have blown up as it becomes clear what exactly unites them. In fact, the idea that remains once the series is seen is that it was most likely written with the aim of reaching a very specific ending due to the power it has on a conceptual level.
The insurmountable problem here is that everything that precedes it is completely diluted to the point that two sensations arise that should be mutually exclusive. On the one hand, ‘The silence’ artificially stretches the plot by playing with surprise twists and cliffhangers very ineffectivelybut it is also that there is also the idea that it has not really developed what it proposes and that perhaps it would have needed more episodes to really delve into the psyche of the protagonist.
This leads to ‘El silencio’ having the worst of both worlds, since everything related to the problematic personality of its protagonist pokes a bone to the point that it even wastes a Ramiro Blas (‘Vis a Vis’) in a character that on paper was perfect for him. In fact, I’m not even very clear that he makes an effort to make us feel some kind of empathy towards him, which makes viewing the series even more uphill.
However, Piper defends the character with some ease, demonstrating an interpretive progression that he had already noted in the estimable ‘El desorden que dejas’. It is not memorable at all, nor is it enough to compensate for all the weaknesses that come from the script, but it does shine more than Love, since she has to face an even more ungrateful character in which she opts for an interpretive approach that borders on the incomprehensible.
And I only say rubbing because one assumes that his character has some kind of disorder that makes him act at times like some kind of robot without feelings. That leads to Amor dispenses with any type of expressiveness as a way of reflecting that inner trauma that his character suffersbut it is that the only thing it achieves is to distance us even more emotionally from what happens on the screen and that we focus on a series of inappropriate script decisions of what is supposed to be a prestigious miniseries.
In the end, it all depends on how one reacts to it. intensity overdose that Gabilondo raises at all times and that, this must be recognized, is reflected in images with an indisputable technical solvency, and it is also appreciated that the action takes place in Bilbao -although the Basque language is conspicuous by its absence-. Of course, do not expect that then develop anything in a timely manner so that the series finds a balance point from which to build everything else. It soon becomes clear that all the silence is a mere excuse that leads nowhere and that the series is an unfocused thriller that entrusts everything to the shock of its denouement.
Not worth it
‘The silence’ it’s a big disappointment, since it has the appearance of a good series and in it people with enough talent participate to shape an at least remarkable miniseries, but at the moment of truth there is nothing in it that really works. Well, I suppose that the outcome is strong enough to attract attention in isolation, but it doesn’t even fit well with what has been seen so far.
In Espinof | The 27 best series in the history of Netflix
 review – one of the disappointments of the year, the miniseries from the creator of Patria for Netflix is a psychological thriller at the service of its powerful finale){kind=link}