El barco

At the beginning takes place a global catastrophe caused by a fatal accident caused by a particle accelerator. It is a machine that uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to nearly light speed and to contain them in well-defined beams. As the extraordinary collision among particles originates a global cataclysm in Geneve, Switzerland, that expands around the world. It will lead to the young crew of a vessel school called North Star or Estrella Polar navigating over the world where 99% is water and while suffering risks , dangers and perilous adventures throughout the wild sea.

This is an acceptable and decent series formed by 3 seasons of 43 episodes with plenty of intrigue, thrills, action, mystery and sappy romance . Dealing with a motley crew to live the adventure of their lives, as all of them suffering more and more problems when a cataclysm occurs during the implementacion of the particle accelerator, it eventually creates a black hole that will make the continent to be disappeared underwater . As the misfit crew come across several troubles and risked adventures, including appearance of big tidal waves, extremely hot sea, huge octopus , birds attacks, whirlpools , giant fish, venomous fog, illness, sea monsters, mutiny, martial court , killing and many other things . Finally , they discover there is 10% land , this one being shot in Peñiscola , simulating the long-awaited island they were looking for. The series being really filmed on a real ship called Cercantes Saavedra, in addition , in Elche Palmerale simulating the woods surrounding the cabin on the island and in Antena 3 studios and utilizing chroma. This "The Boat" takes parts here and there from other known American series such as Lost, The event and Lost in space . The large cast is pretty well, such as the tough captain Ricardo Montero, well performed by Juanjo Artero, who has two daughters : a small girl and the beautiful Blanca Suarez who falls for Ulises , the latin lover Mario Casas . Furthermore, Luis Callejo plays first officer who is also Ulises' father , Irene Montala plays Dr. Julia Wilson , Juan Pablo Shuk as the suspicious Luis Gamboa, Ivan Massague plays a mentally handicapped as well as sympathetic person nicknamed Burbuja , Neus Sanz as the likeable Salome Palacios and Marina Salas plays the young Vilma. Other guest stars who show up in some episodes are the followings : Hector Alterio, Guillermo Barrientos, Nerea Camacho, Alba Rivas, Juan Cornet , Paloma Bloyd, Leticia Dolera and the usual Belen Rueda .

It contains an atmospheric and thrilling musical score by Manel Santiesteban and Ivan Martinez. As well as a colorful and brilliant cinematography . This series was originally and competently created by Ivan Escobar and Alex Pina, both of whom created previously the successful El Internado with similar artistic and technical team . The series being efficiently directed by Carlos Theron, David Molina, Fernando Molina , Sandra Gallego and Jesus Colmenar .Rating : above average.

Only two characters totally worth watching: Burbuja and Salome

Loved the first season, even with its over abundance of telenovela melodrama, but the series started to falter halfway through the second season. Most of the characters and writing weren't interesting enough to maintain interest across several episodes. They started getting redundant, some subplots about relationships carried on way too long, and the day-to-day issues they had to face were just monotonous. Walking Dead has the exact same issues, yet for some reason that clunker is still on the air.

The Boat should have focused more on the science fiction aspect of it and wrapped it all up by end of season two (same with Walking Dead BTW). I stuck with it through season three but it was obvious the writers had run out of ideas. The cheap cliffhanger they threw in during the last episode was just weak too.

If you want to see this, just watch season one and skip the rest. First season also has some interesting scenes with female nudity which vanished in later seasons.

"El Barco" (The Boat) was a highly entertaining if somewhat illogical Spanish TV show that mixed sci-fi, suspense, action and romance in a mostly well written package. A group of about 12 carefully selected kids in their early 20s embark on what is supposed to be a 2 month experience living in the high seas along with the boat's crew. With the boat already sailing, one night strange things happen: a strong magnetic wave makes all things made of metal inside the boat to rush to the ceiling and causing the navigational instruments to go crazy. A huge tsunami/squall threatens to tip the boat on its side but miraculously survives. Through further episodes the crew and its passengers find out that the tsunami was part of a series of events that caused the complete devastation of all land mass on earth, turning the planet into a huge sea world. Apparently, the crew and passengers of the boat (named, "the Polar Star") are the only survivors on the planet. We later find out that a mass of land did survive so the boat starts to desperately head for it.

"The Boat" lasted for only 3 seasons. The first season was fast paced and mostly well written. In this season, something of grave danger threatens the boat and its crew and by the end of each episode things always get solved, no cliffhangers. Cliffhangers were used in the last 2 episodes. We get to know the main characters through flashbacks of who they were and what they did before embarking on the Polar Star. Season 2 lowers the quality of the show with distracting parallel stories that ultimately did nothing to advance the storyline, even though some of the show's best episodes are within this season. Season 3, the last one, seemed to crumble under its own weight by trying to give closure to the multiple stories the writers threw at us. As the show went on, it seems the writers felt free to use the cheapest of ploys to get the storyline moving. At this point, I hadn't seen the American TV show "LOST", but I knew 'The Boat" bore a close resemblance. In "The Boat", characters suddenly appeared to have a common past, secret abilities, ulterior motives, etc. The main characters are Ricardo Montero, the boat's captain; Ainoha, the captain's daughter; Ulises, a stowaway kid who happens to be the Captain's right hand aide, Julian De La Cuadra's estranged son: Julia, the boat's doctor and one of the few people that know what happened to the earth; Roberto "burbuja" (bubble), a kitchen aide with cerebral palsy who also happens to be the boat's most intelligent passenger; Gamboa, an infiltrated "survival teacher" with special instructions to prevent the boat from ever reaching land.

Apparently the world came to an end due to a scientific experiment with a "particle accelerator". The people behind this project were warned that this experiment had a high probability of going "wrong" and the consequences could be "catastrophic" on a worldwide scale. My logic is: why do an experiment with such a high risk of failure? What is it for? Who profits? Who loses? If you kill the entire planet, who are you going to rule over? To me, this was the whole point of the show: why did those scientists blew up the world? In season 2, we find out there is a baddie, one who was behind the project "Alexandria" (code name for a "plan B", should the project accelerator go wrong), and this baddie is the father of one of the Polar Star's passengers, the sexy Estela. All along the show, we hear about this "project Alexandria". It's odd that one should put so much emphasis on a "Plan B", instead of making the original plan work. The show never explains what was the intention of the particle accelerator, the original "Plan A".

By the end of Season 3, it was almost impossible to give a logical conclusion to the multiple storylines the show's writers entangled themselves into. The last episode was a rush job at best, leaving a ton of unanswered questions that the writers tried to explain in a cheap afterword epilogue. It's as if the writers thought a 4th season would address all the inconclusive data, but that season never came and thus they painted themselves into a corner.

For all it's worth, "The Boat" was still highly entertaining despite some obvious plot holes and a very unsatisfactory ending (at least for me). Despite all of this, it's still the best Spanish TV show I've ever seen.

And I did so, because being Spaniard, I really wanted it to do well, and I really wanted see something spectacular, as the theme is innovative. My bigger disappointment is with the writers, since in any episode that you may watch, suddenly they insert romantic scenes that are absolute "ludicracy" and spoils the thrill that could've been created, if any. Some times it seems they've run out of budget, others of ideas, qui lo sa! I am in my 70s, and besides being myself a writer, I have been divorced, widow and separated, thus, I know what I am talking about romance. The only part and actor wordy of congratulations is "Burbuja", Iván Massagué really plays not just the most difficult role of them all, but masterly, and all he does has its logic to be. So, if you are bored and have nothing else in view, watch it, if not... go for better winds. Blessings! ClearDawn*