The Innocent
Introduction
Thriller genre always provides rich artistic feast. It amplifies the emotions in viewers like anticipation, suspense, exhilaration and tension that arises when the character(s) is placed in a dangerous situation, or a labyrinth from where escaping seems impossible. “The Innocent”, a Spanish television intense thriller miniseries directed by Oriol Paulo, latest adaption of Harlen Coben’s novel with the same name, gives us all those feelings. The nail biting excitement will surely bring you on the edge of your seat.
Screenplay & Storyline
The story focuses on Mateo “Mat” Vidal Rivera played by Mario Casas. After an unfortunate incident at a bar Mat faces a life crumbling situation, he faces murder charges with a four years sentence in prison. After he gets out of prison and tastes freedom there are other miserable situations waiting for him. He desperately wanted to have a peaceful life with his wife Olivia played by Aura Garrido. But gradually his life is becoming like a swamp deep and brackish the true and false mingling and mixing .There are two main stories and the way they intertwined with each other are nearly spot on. There are various different character arcs and the way each character is introduced, their inner monologue, their justification to themselves is mind-blowing. The atmosphere of menace and sudden savagery in nightclubs is well executed and creates cinematic intrigue. The whole nightclub culture in Spain will surprise you; make you question the whole system.
The whole series is like a big puzzle. Despite slow start from the 2nd episode I felt like it was like a whole different show and from there everything started to connect. First 2 episodes were mainly for character building, pieces of puzzles were scattered in different places and in the 2nd half of the series the story started to unfold in an unexpected way and those scattered pieces of puzzle started to come to their destined places.
Performance & Direction
Directed by Oriol Paulo “The Innocent (Spanish: El inocente)” is the perfect mixture of thriller & crime category based on the Harlan Coben novel. The invisible guest is also directed by Oriol Paulo with some of the same actors whose remake is bollywood film “Badla. Some of the major characters are same from “The invisible guest”. To be honest I have been a devoted fan of Oriol Paulo since I saw “The Body”. He is a serial genius, with a frenetic script that leaves you breathless from scene to scene.
Mario Casas as Mateo “Mat” Vidal Rivera did a magnificent job to portray his character to the depth. You can’t help but root for Mat & his innocent eyes(I love his silent expression, His eyes reacts very well according to the changing situation he deals with) but the last twist will shock you to the core.
Alexandra Jiménez as Lorena Ortiz did a terrific job to portray a female badass detective. Her sense of justice and her determination will make you like her character.
Another character worth mentioning is Mat’s wife Aura Garrido as Olivia Costa.
Aura Garrido illustrated her double shade character flawlessly.
Conclusion
Though it’s a slow burn series you can’t take your eyes of the screen for a moment. It’s one of the best thriller series of 2021. It’s highly recommended from my side.
It’s currently available in Netflix.
Disclaimer: The above review solely illustrates the views of the writer.