Um Assunto Privado

I just started watching this series on Prime. A lot of people making reviews here of this show have complained about the English dubbing. Prime has this bad defect in that they seem to be the only streaming service that when living in the USA seams to automatically default to English dubbing of foreign shows. Please be aware that in most cases, you CAN turn it back to the original language and put on English subtitles.

When you use your remote, just tab down on it. You should see the actors in the scene shown. But above that are 3 icons. The middle one if you click on it allows you to select which language the movie has subtitles for. So obviously click English. The icon to the far right is the audio icon. In this show the original audio is Spanish. So select Spanish. Now the movie will show in it's original language and with English subtitles. It is Always better to watch a foreign show in the original language with English subtitles, rather than with bad English dubbing where nothing matches what the lips say they should say.

The story takes place at the end of the 1940s in Galicia, where a sassy upper-class girl with a taste for mystery, Marina Quiroga, together with her butler Hector, sets out to hunt down the serial killer who has been stalking the city for months. I say it's "cute" because it doesn't seem too serious, even though it's about murder and a serial killer. In the first episode our heroine Marina complains the man her mother would have her marry has a "unibrow." Monobrow first appeared in a novel in the late 1960's and Unibrow in 1981. Frida Kahlo, who died in 1954 is arguably the most famous person with a unibrow on this side of the world, died in 1954. What did they call hers? Her self portraits left it clearly represented. Anyway, I digress. This was enough to make me pause the episode and get more history than I could ever want about the unibrow. So far, it's a great occupant of my downtime. Enjoy!

I enjoyed this show. Its fun quirky and charming. The start of the show is light but holds promise.

For those being too hard on the story or pace, bear in mind this is a period piece set in the 1940s when cops didn't have the technology and resources they do today. The lead character is no Theresa Lisbon so don't look for that. Instead she's the fun, not by the book, rule breaking version of Murdoch.

The only issue I had was the sudden bit of intensity at the conclusion. Considering the vibe throughout the show, even though its a serial killer series, I would have preferred something not quite so tragic. The show is set up for a second season and it has the potential for it.

Watch it over a weekend but in the original audio.. the English dubbing doesn't work the best which is unfortunately what Prime has set as defaults.

Like so many recent productions and books in which lazy writers set stories in the past, yet forget to do any kind of serious research about expressions that are used, concepts that are common and technology that existed at the time in which the story takes place, this series is rife with late 20th and early 21st century language and attitudes. It takes away from a fun and otherwise well-produced program.

It is very tiresome that too many people who write stories taking place in bygone eras cannot be bothered to do even a modicum of research to make sure they've stayed true to those times. It takes a few minutes to Google the origins of a word or phrase to make sure it was in use at the time. Ditto manners and mores, songs, films, clothing and technology. Are they stupid or just lazy?

It's a great production, sets, costumes the props everything is in this department is well done. However, the plot and the story is not much to look for. Fairly decent who done it story line that drags on too long with drama. There are many plot holes and at one point I got tired of people running around to catch someone. It happens too often in this. Every episode they are running behind someone to catch someone who literally one feet away. Like I said at the beginning it's a great production and it could've been a lot better if the plot would've been better. Could've been better but this is not it. I finished the whole series to see the who done it.

PS: change the language to original (Spanish). If not it has the English dubbed. Which makes it even worse. I watched it with subtitles.