2 out of 5

Created by: Joaquín Oristrell

My goodness, this is not a good show.  The premise is valid enough, and then the actual premise is valid enough, and then direction the show seems to want to take is actually actually valid enough, but none of this is handled with very much conviction, or logic, and its positives seem accidental.

Paz Vega plays Magda, mother of three teenaged kids and wife to the very rich Alejandro, played by Julio Bracho.  As Magda rushes her kids out of the house to attend an event for her daughter, Julio is busy closing some vague financial deal that we suspect has some element of sketchiness to it, because that gives us some potential plot fodder for what’s to come: a kidnapping of Magda and the kids, with a ransom surely to follow.

We get to see the face of the guy leading the kidnapping, which suggests we’re to get to know him more; as care seems to be taken to not harm Magda, we can start to wonder what secrets are going to be revealed over the course of the following episodes…

And, sure, that happens.  Some happen really quickly, some a bit later on, but Fugitiva shifts to what seems like it’s going to be a chase: counting hours after the kidnapping at the start of each episode, shifting our hostages from location to location, Alejandro and his commanding mum (Charo López) employing all sorts of bad people to track down the perpetrators – dodging the police investigation, of course – as they suspect this is a response from a rival businessman.  Valid enough.

…But what actually happens, for various reasons, is that Magda and crew end up hunkering down at a resort in Benidorm, during which son Rubén discovers boys, Claudia discovers independence, and Paulina finds true love.  Yes, we’ve still got that ticking clock, but this aspect of the series takes up the bulk of the show.  In other words, our hostage situation flip-flops to a teen drama, with occasional cutaways to Alejandro doing detestable things, Magda’s flashbacks to unsavory parts of her marriage, and the various subplots which oddly involve a small, criss-crossing group of people but end up having absolutely nothing to do with the story.  Lots of italics up in this paragraph.

Oddly, and absolutely unintentionally, that the show can’t seem to motivate itself to leave Benidorm ends up being one of the more interesting aspects, in that the show ends up properly capturing, to an extent, what teenagers might act like in this scenario.  Obviously, based on my above description, the kids are allotted a certain amount of freedom despite being kidnapped (and I’m leaving out some twists that explain that…), and they’re conflicted over things they learn about their mother and father, and they do what kids do: decide they understand it all, and rebel.  Again, this is hardly purposeful on the writer’s behalves (because it’s not used for anything), but from a top-down perspective – i.e. while you’re not actually watching the show – it’s a unique angle that a better script would have taken more advantage of.

The same goes for Magda’s proclamation, at one point, to stop being led about by the opinions of men – something that’s said and then not followed a second later (and, as with the above, not delved into any further…); and the same goes for the bizarre take on Alejandro, which essentially humanizes an abuser.  Bits and pieces of this are actually very strong, showing how difficult it is to break such relationship cycles, brought to life by good performances from Vega and Bracho, but there comes a disgusting crossing of the line when it seems like we’re not supposed to feel conflicted about this – that if you give the guy a haunted past and show that he actually cares about children, it somehow justifies his behavior.  Of course, the show jumps right back across that line when they need a scene with some drama, but that just adds to the sloppy combination of things going on in the show.

Intelligent people make completely illogical decisions.  The show contradicts itself in terms of where its allegiances are, all for the sake of generating tension.  It’s not a good show.  But again, mushed into it are these strangely intriguing concepts that keep it alive, making you wonder if they’ll amount to anything.  They don’t, but the actors do their best to make it feel like they will in the moment.