Dani de la Torre and Alberto Marini are two names with weight in Spanish television fiction for their work in La Unidad, a thriller about terrorism that had nothing to envy of any production coming out of Hollywood offices, both for the construction of the cases as by the address. What a way to challenge the viewer with a realistic recreation of the attacks that were reminiscent of nearby crimes such as the attack on Barcelona’s Rambla, shaking off a kind of social post-traumatic stress with the images. So, if they return to Movistar Plus with a new series called Marbella, the duty of every series fan is to be expectant and, why not admit it, optimistic.
In Marbella, Hugo Silva plays César, a lawyer from the city on the Costa del Sol, who practically serves as an ambassador for the different criminal gangs that operate from there, whether Italian, Serbian, Albanian, British or German. The different criminal organizations have a kind of gentlemen’s agreement: they must maintain appearances in public and move in the market without disturbing the social peace or the underworld. And, if they have a problem with the authorities, some of them already know who to call: César.
César, however, is the second most successful lawyer in the area, moving outside the law without any problem, and he wants to move up. With the help of his wife (Ana Isabelle), who works in a real estate agency and who moves like a fish in water through the most luxurious environments of Marbella, he wants to attract the new mobster who has just arrived in the city, Yassim (Khalid El Paisano) , who represents a Dutch mafia and has had to leave his country after orchestrating the execution of a prosecutor and his family. But getting more money, power and influence comes with risks, especially when he doesn’t want to get his hands dirty.
The presentation in the hands of Hugo Silva serves to establish from the beginning that Marbella, especially as a matter of tone, is not (nor does it pretend to be) Unity, even though there are elements or scenes that see interests in the creative tandem formed by De la Torre and Marini: the criminal world, the explosive blow to the Dutch prosecutor’s office, a police force with seriousness and determination played by Elvira Mínguez. Here, after having explored the terrorism thriller for three seasons, they prefer a more playful tone.
It is an amoral fictional universe where the important thing is the accumulation of power and ostentation, understanding that collusion with crime can be a stimulus for the powers of society. Caesar is not even a particularly evil protagonist: he is rather greedy, an exploration of the unscrupulous lawyer who goes beyond his duties and the code of ethics to accumulate capital, power and influence. Hugo Silva is so comfortable in the role that at times he even crosses the line into being irritating, especially due to the way in which the script uses him to present the facts to the viewer, but he never loses the security that his status as protagonist requires.
De la Torre and Marini do not lose pace nor do they forget to build the main plot around Yassim, who has a very interesting couple in Aurora Moroni (possibly the most stimulating character in the work, also due to the attitude that the actress gives her. : lazy, intelligent), always from a testosterone perspective of history. How they have fun, for example, pulling off a fight with a mafia gorilla to show how César works or presenting a semi-retired Italian mafia man who acts as president of the UN for all the criminal organizations in Marbella.
Marbella, therefore, should be seen as solid entertainment where every piece works throughout the six episodes of the first season. In César’s obsession with wearing an exclusive watch to reflect a certain status and the tranquility with which the criminal network coexists in the city, it can be interpreted that there is a (superficial) reading of the system. Of course, it can be attributed to a defect derived from circumstances that its authors did not control: having arrived after Prime Video’s Los Farad which, based on the portrait of a family of arms traffickers in the 80s, also took advantage of the grotesque essence , excessive and corrupt of Marbella without going beyond entertainment either.
