Velvet

My wife and myself were hooked watching the series Velvet and staying late every night until we finished the First season. We loved the series and highly recommend it. While watching the series we were pleasantly surprised when we discovered the true story behind the story that, probably, very few people know except, of course, the writers of the series.

All the founders of Velvet, as per the story, came from Cuba from working in a place call "El Encanto" which was, in reality, the queen of all the stores in Havana, Cuba and the Americas in the 50s. My wife and myself are both Cuban, I was born in 1940 and my wife in the 1950, so we knew this store "in person".

"El Encanto" was started by two Spanish immigrants that went to Cuba in the 1880s, last name Solis, as a modest fabrics store. The store grew with the managerial intelligence of the founders and, in spite of all the endemic political problems of Cuba, by the early 50s became what it was, an impressive building six stories high with different departments on each floor and with branches in every big city in the island. On the early 1950s two of the partners went back to Spain and were instrumental in the creation of two stores in Madrid, "Gallerias Preciado" and "El Corte Ingles". We should add "Velvet".

Unfortunately, "El Encanto" was nationalized in 1960 by the communist government of Cuba and in a few months later it was burned down by some ex-employees that prefer a burnt building than the government ownership. (The above data can be verified on numerous articles in the internet and the Wikipedia Encyclopedia, also pictures of the actual store are available.)

Loved this series. I could not stop watching it. kudos to the writers and cast. Thanks for the entertainment.

This show is wonderful and I just love it. I finished watching the episodes of the first season on Netflix and I re-watched them again. Although I don't speak or understand Spanish and just rely on the subtitles, I still really enjoy this show tremendously. The story line about true love, social class differences, sacrifices and other hurdles make this series very interesting, (and educational to me). I am hooked on watching this series that I can hardly wait for more seasons to come. I even started looking bits and pieces of the second season online. I wish the episodes that I found had subtitles on them so I could understand what they were saying, regardless, I watched them and still loved it. (I just used my own imagination and the actors' gestures to kind of figure out what they were saying or what is going on). The actors on this show are just amazing and they are all perfect for their given characters. Another interesting thing about this show was that although there are lead characters, the writers and producers managed to give everyone their own story line which really keep the series worth watching. Now, I am motivated to learn Spanish (hopefully, I could) just so I can re-watch this show again and again in the future. Please continue doing more episodes and more seasons. I thank you and more power to all the actors, writers, producers and everyone involve in creating this show. I salute you!

The visual content of this series is superb. The fashion, architecture, cars are evocative of the period the series takes place in. The formal mannerisms, impeccable clothing, beautifully curated dresses and accessories lend an elegant high end look to the production. The wonderful regional Spanish accent imbues the dialog with a true time and place.

Even though the arc of the storyline is well thought out and the intrigue well peppered throughout, the main love story falls flat for me. You want to reach in and slap Ana and Alberto and tell them to get some balls and act like adults. This is especially true of Alberto. He seems childish emotionally but the series makes you believe that he is an accomplished person without really giving the audience a way to reconcile the two.

Some of the minor love stories work better. They come and go, ebb and flow to keep the story moving. They can be funny and sweet even if frustrating at times.

Beautiful, yes. Outstanding, it could be; but it falls short because of the relationship of the main characters.

SPOILER: The show is visually stunning, characters are interesting (Raul De La Riva for instance) and almost everyone is really good looking. My main beef with the show is that it makes it really hard to empathize with the main characters. The premise is that you root for the lovers who almost never have things going their way (at least for too long). But their actions make it hard to root for them. Alberto marries Christina for her money to keep his store afloat. Christina loves Alberto earnestly, yet he continues his flirtations with Ana and one other woman. He cheats on her and treats her badly. And we're still expected to be on his side. Ana is too 'principled' to marry Alberto in a secret ceremony but has no qualms hanging around with a married man, while befriending his unsuspecting wife. It's all a bit hard to reconcile. The characters being 'flawed' is not the problem here, it's that the show carries on strongly making the assumption that you're on their side despite their actions. I personally struggled with forgiving them for their actions and wishing them to be united in spite of all the people they hurt along the way (in many cases unnecessarily and selfishly). Yet they are portrayed as being 'golden'.