The family business that allows them to live in opulence and be part of the elite is in crisis. To right the situation, the president’s relatives plan to take the throne from him. The camera, while they argue about whether they have the votes at the next meeting, follows the characters closely, nervously. Insecurities and envy are revealed between siblings, especially among those who want to climb the organizational chart.
This could be the synopsis of any episode of Succession but it is the starting point of Galgos, the new fiction proposal from Movistar Plus that the platform premieres this Thursday. With Adriana Ozores as the matriarch of the Somarriba family, power in the traditional media changes due to the decline of an industrial pastry company, on the ropes due to the imminent laws against sugar.
In the first episode, Emilio (Luis Bermejo), brother of Carmina (Ozores), is the president of Grupo Galgo, but he finds himself facing the workers, with a company that is making losses and the general impression in the board that he is not for the task of reviving the food company. So Gonzalo (Óscar Martínez), Carmina’s husband, and his daughter Blanca (Patricia López Arnaiz) consider usurping power from Emilio with the help of Carmina.
To complete this family network, there are three other children. Jimena (María Pedraza), who is about to marry his girlfriend, keeps her distance from the company, claiming that she is an artist. Julián (Jorge Usón), the least intelligent, has a position to develop new products which, in reality, is interpreted as an excuse to keep him entertained. And Guzmán (Marcel Borràs), Carmina’s favorite, works in Brussels as a lobbyist to ensure that the laws of the European Union are in favor of his interests.
Galgos commits the risky maneuver of measuring itself against Succession, the most awarded series of the last five years, when the Roy family is still present in the viewer’s memory, having said goodbye last spring. The direction also contributes to the reasonable similarity: it follows the characters with dedication as they move against the clock to carry out their particular corporate coups d’état.
The creators Clara Roquet, Francisco Kosterlitz, Pablo Remón and Lucía Carballal are so direct when addressing the inaugural betrayal that it barely has an impact: there are not enough touches on the characters involved and, unlike the American series, they do not have the viperous humor to sustain the first episode.
It is from the second, however, that the incentives are shown: the matriarch of Adriana Ozores who wants to prove her worth beyond her role as an elite housewife, the chaotic and morning-dreaming husband of Oscar Martínez (the treatment of his hairstyle, in this sense, is masterful) or the daughter of Patricia López Arnaiz eaten away by jealousy and a self-destructive instinct.
Once you try to dissipate (with difficulty) the shadow of Succession, you are left with a solid entertainment that has its greatest virtue in taking power discussions to very fertile ground. It does not try to copy Jesse Armstrong’s corrosive English sense of humor but rather opts to be a classic, adult family drama that is so prolific in Spain. The direction and the duration of the 45-minute episodes help to interpret this return to the genre as an advance with respect to titles such as Gran Reserva or Herederos.
And there is something about the Somarriba’s way of managing crises, the sense of luxury, and tackling corruption that feels very Iberian, which contributes to being able to enjoy the series regardless of where its initial inspiration lies.
