Police inspector Luis Lacasa (Ginés García Millán) is on an islet in the Canary Islands to recover from a disciplinary suspension. He was with Ramón (Paco Marín) in the middle of a police operation when the suspect escaped due to a particular disorder that he suffers from: he perceives a visual disorder that prevents him from seeing colors. When a hotel guest jumps off a cliff after bleeding to death on the premises, he goes from trying to relax with no luck to collaborating with Naira Oramas (Natalia Verbeke), Tenerife’s homicide chief.
As the viewer can imagine, this will be the excuse for Inspector Lacasa to stay in the archipelago. His daughter Jimena (Luna Zuazu) lives there, who works as a cook and with whom he has a distant relationship. You will also have to get used to the particularities of living in a place where it always seems like summer, the public transportation network has obvious deficiencies and where the scientist’s analyzes take longer than would be convenient to solve the homicides.
One Less Life in the Canary Islands, Atresplayer’s new fiction venture, is a series that is very honest in its intentions: it is a light series of murders with a comedic tone that aims to gain the viewer’s sympathy. We have a detective with a quirk. From the first moment the audience is told that the dynamic between the characters of García Millán and Verbeke will be one of flirtation.
Furthermore, the sunny and holiday setting offers an escape route to the viewer, even if the point is to show that the Canary Islands are more than just a setting for those looking to lie down with a cocktail next to the pool.
The creators Fran Carballal (Serve and Protect), Curro Royo (Disappeared) and Enrique Lojo (The Last Show) are comfortable in the genre of crimes that are as classic as they are light-hearted. The first minutes of each episode take advantage of the chosen setting: if the first murder takes place in an isolated luxury resort, the second corpse is found in an aquarium while a woman takes flash photos of the sharks.
Between mentions of the Irish mafia and very expensive necklaces that could be the motive for the crime, you can even mark a resolution to the crime that includes gathering all the suspects to tell them about your investigations.
One less life in the Canary Islands, for the record, uses lightness as an alibi to hide its shortcomings. The direction should make better use of locations when these are precisely one of the attractions of fiction. The development of the case often includes ridiculous and poorly justified scenes to color the plot (what’s the point of bringing a fish tank to work to tell something for which you don’t need a fish tank).
And, for example, the Lacasas’ relationship is presented with so little substance that one almost wishes that the daughter would disappear and the only important thing would be to develop the romantic dynamic between García Millán and Verbeke and the interactions with the rest of the characters at the police station.
The oversights are too recognizable in every minute of footage. They emphasize a reality that as a viewer should not be assumed: that, even without setting the bar too high, One Less Life in the Canary Islands could and should be better.
But, hiding behind recognizable structures and its carefree spirit, One Life Less in the Canary Islands also puts a server in a bind. How can you advise against a series that, without leaving a trace, entertains with the writers’ desire to have a good time? So that we understand each other, it is the series that viewers who are upset because The Mysteries of Laura returned with two television movies instead of a complete season.
