El Príncipe

I just start watching it, and I love it so much. I think it is a great show, and the actors are doing an amazing job. I like that it has a little bit of everything, thriller, action, drama and romance.

Its plot is centered on the love between a Christian policeman from the Spanish mainland and the young Muslim sister of a drug trafficker. Most of the stories are set in the troubled El Príncipe Alfonso neighborhood of Ceuta, near the border with Morocco.

In the troubled neighborhood of El Príncipe, Fran, a veteran police officer, has no doubts about using unorthodox methods to enforce order. This seems to be in danger with the arrival of Morey, a CNI agent, who uses the police station as cover to investigate a suspected police collaboration with a jihadist network. Morey's situation is complicated with the arrival of Fátima, an idealistic Muslim teacher who is looking for her vanished teenage brother, Abdu, while opposing the criminal activities of her other brother, Faruq, one of the biggest drug dealers in the neighborhood. However, Faruq is not the villain of the story. Then everything gets complicated when they become aware of a terrorist gang called Akrab, which blows up young people to terrorize the city. Meanwhile, Morey offers Fátima a chance to go to the peninsula with him, but, as they are about to depart, her brother Abdu returns to Ceuta on a tour bus with a bomb on board. When the police get to know this, they try to talk to him. The bomb does not go off, but Abdu is shot in the head by Morey. This leads into a second season with an impossible love affair between Morey and Fátima

I visit Ceuta often and it was a pleasure to see some of the places I'd been to as part of the plot and as settings for the backdrop for this series that virtually turned out to be a telenovela. However, I'd never been to the Moroccan area of El Principe but popped up there a couple of weeks ago during a short visit. I have to say that the series had coloured my perception of the place and I felt ill at ease.

The series is not true to life in many ways. We have non-Arabs playing Muslim Moroccans or Muslim Spaniards. Why? Aren't there Arab actors in Spain? Even the French arab terrorist wasn't a real life Muslim or Arab. This led to all sorts of absurdities, such as parts having to be dubbed for them and their maladroit attempts to pray or make Islamic gestures. It really was ham-fisted.

Veteran character actor José Coronado played a good part. Alex Gonzaléz was his usual android self. Honestly, he was so robotic at times.

That the French secret service was operating on Spanish soil and directing terrorists wasn't at all likely nor that the Spaniards let them continue. Nor was the love affair between Morey and Fatima. They'd have been found out in a trice. That the affair had so many ups and downs meant we were in fantasy land. Although I stuck with the two seasons till the end, I was getting more and more exasperated with the ridiculous plotlines.

So, not a successful endeavour. I watched this during lockdown. I think I might have given up if it weren't for that.

Morey, a member of the secret service in Spain, is sent to a dangerous neighborhood in Ceuta, a Spanish city in the North of Africa, to investigate the possibility of the existence of a jihadist cell in the commissary. Pretty soon he will become involved in a relationship with the sister of one of the two drug lords of the place, a Muslim woman.

What starts as a mystery series, with a secret agent trying to discover who may or may not have connections with the 'terrorists' pretty soon turns into a soap opera, all melodrama, with one of the most inane love stories ever. The stupidity of the characters is rampant and the plot seems to be challenging itself with piling stupid plot twists one on top of the other, till we won't care much about what is happening on the screen.

On top of that, the depiction of the neighborhood and of Muslims is quite simplistic, and having all characters resort to shouting and pulling guns reeks. And, if that was not enough, there is an underlying current of machismo all through the proceedings (whatever how many 'strong' women are supposed to be in the series; all of them undone by love, by the way).

Poor "El Príncipe" had a good idea but decided that depth was not for it and that a shallow love story would suffice. It doesn't.

Two-fisted and tough new chief inspector Morey (Alex Gonzalez) is send to Ceuta , on the border with Morocco , to manage the police station of El Príncipe , until then informally run by no-nonsense veteran police officer Fran (Jose Coronado) . His real goal goes far beyond pacifying the neighborhood . Morey is following a clue that connects the presumably corrupted El Príncipe cops with the jihad . The CNI has sent the agent to investigate a network of Islamic terrorists that is recruiting among the youngest applicants to become themselves suicide-bombers . Too soon and despite himself , he finds unexpected love in the least suitable person : a drug baron's sister called Fatima (Hiba Abouk) . Fatima is fighting from his job as a teacher for young people away from crime in the neighborhood . But Fátima is also decidedly searching for her missing teenage brother Abdu , who Morey suspects might have been recruited by the jihad . This turns Fátima into a key asset for Morey's investigation, would their hearts not get in the way . The muscular undercover agent Morey has his counterpoint in the seductive drug dealer Faruq (Ruben Cortada) who controls the drug trafficking in Ceuta . Meanwhile , Fatima is engaged to marry a wealthy and good-looking young named Khaled (Stany Coppet) who has dark secrets .

Exciting series formed by 2 seasons , it is filled with thrills , noisy action , love stories , twists and turns . Although there are also nudism with strong love scenes , bad-mouthed language , profanities and violence . The series gives an adequate description of the city of Ceuta , and especially its slum called ¨El Principe¨ where Muslims and Christians coexist like nowhere else in Spain and there takes place a culture-colliding among citizens of diverse religions . The flick revolves around the conflict between two lovers , when the starring , Morey , finds himself falling for engaged Muslim teacher Fátima , whom he originally aims to recruit as a confident . This series seems obsessed in finding the brightest color in each frame , being compellingly photographed by Federico Ribes . There are spectacular aerial images of the neighborhood El Principe . The rest is provided by the digital post-production, since the complications of filming in a so difficult place , and in order to simplify the production design and to affordable costs , the decision to recreate part of the neighborhood on a set located in Madrid and while the second season was partially shot in La Valletta , Malta . Stargate Studios, responsible for box office shows like The Walking Dead , Pan Am or Revenge , realized the backgrounds that have been made through the overprint system on Chroma and by means of C.G.I . A team of Stargate Studios traveled to Ceuta to record all scenarios at 360 °. Thanks to its technology , they made the characters walk , moving or still patrolling Ceuta , in fact , most part was shot in a study of Madrid with nothing behind them and as the chromas not creak much . Thus , this fiction wins international attraction without losing the Spanish identity , including its traditional neighborhood tavern . And adding great special effects by expert veteran Reyes Abades .

The cast is pretty well , it has the gallery of characters chosen to connect with the complicity of different sectors of the public . Nice acting by Alex Gonzalez as dashing undercover agent Morey who is hiding his real identity as a special cop for Spanish Secret Services CNI to investigate a possible police collaboration with a terrorist cell and following leads about Ceuti Jihad . Mediocre performance from Hiba Abouk as Fátima , she is local drug baron Faruq's younger sister and falls in love for Morey . In second season appears familiar faces as Jesús Castro of ¨El Niño¨ as a cousin of Ben Barek family and to join the drug trafficking ring . And Nerea Barros of ¨La Isla Minima¨ as a secret agent who joins Morey squad . And cameos of Tito Valverde and Juanjo Artero , both of whom protagonists in mythic series : ¨El Comisario¨. Special mention for veteran Jose Coronado as a cop who privileges his own rules to the Law in order to maintain peace in the drug cartel-ridden quarter . Rating : 7 , entertaining and interesting series , being well written and originally created by Cesar Benítez and Aitor Gabilondo . Better than average . Well worth watching