When a series based on a famous true-crime story is produced, even if the producers swear up and down that it’s fictionalized, the inherent problem is always that the facts of the case are right there on the internet for everyone to Google. So it’s up to the writer, director and producers to make the characters compelling enough for people to watch the drama, even if they know the outcome. A new Spanish series is a fictionalized account of a famous murder that took place outside Barcelona in 2017. The main character is dynamic; the rest, not as much.
Opening Shot: As “Love Me Tender” plays, a car is doused with gasoline and set on fire.
The Gist: We see Rosa Peral (Úrsula Corberó) exchange texts with her boyfriend Pedro Rodriguez (José Manuel Poga), a fellow local cop who says that he’s involved in something dangerous and the less she knows the better. But he can’t come back to her house, where he’s lived for the last year with Rosa and her daughter Sofia (Guiomar Caiado).
Rosa is on administrative leave from her police job due to depression. She’s dealing with a nasty custody battle with her ex Javi (Isak Férriz), who doesn’t want Pedro acting as a parent to Sofia; Rosa tells Javi that Sofia doesn’t want to see him. She goes to a custody meeting in her uniform as a show of strength.
Pedro hasn’t been returning her texts that day, and then she finds herself fielding calls from Pedro’s ex Silvia (Aina Clotet), another cop, who wants to know why he’s not around so she can hand off their toddler son to him for his week of custody.
Despite her depression, Rosa’s friend and colleague Albert (Quim Gutiérrez) encourages her to go to a retirement dinner with him. She has a good time, but still texts Pedro, telling him they need to fix their disagreement. At home, Sofia swears to her grandparents that she heard a burglar in the basement, but when her grandfather goes to open the door to the basement bedroom, it’s blocked.
In the meantime, a burned-out car is found near the Foix reservoir. The patrol cops who investigate don’t find a body at first, but then in the trunk see a badly-burned, almost unidentifiable body. When the forensics people come to go through the crime scene, they find a metal plate used in back surgery. Between the VIN and the serial number of the plate, Pedro is confirmed as the body in the car.
Rosa is notified about the car the next day by Ester Varona (Eva Llorach), an inspector for the Mossos d’Esquadra. She is distraught, of course, but can’t tell Ester anything about where Pedro was. Later, Ester calls in both Rosa and Silvia to see if Pedro was involved with narcos or had any other enemy, and neither could think of any.
After Javi comes to her house, ostensibly to console her about Pedro but really to request that Sofia stay with him, Rosa goes to Ester and says she thinks Javi is the one who killed Pedro.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The real-life story behind Burning Body (original title: El cuerpo en llamas) makes us think of Candy and Love & Death, the dueling Candy Montgomery series that debuted over the past year or so.
Our Take: A fictionalized version of the real-life 2017 Crime of the Guàrdia Urbana, there’s a lot about the first episode of Burning Body that is a bit confusing if you’re not familiar with the case. For one, everyone involved is a law enforcement officer of some sort, whether they’re local cops like Rosa, Arthur and Silvia, or City Guard like Pedro. We also know that Javi is or was a member of Mossos d’Esquadra. So this case is full of cops, and it’s hard to keep track.
One of the other issues we had is that it seems like everyone in Rosa’s orbit feels similar to one another, even Arthur. The only person with any kind of personality is Rosa herself. Corberó, whom most people on this side of the Atlantic know from Money Heist, does a fantastic job of making Rosa look like the mourning, aggrieved party. We have no idea how or why her mental health issues have gotten so overwhelming that she had to take a leave from work, but we do know that her relationship with Pedro was a bit rocky, but not nearly as bad as the vicious hatred she has for Javi.
Writer Laura Sarmiento spends most of the first episode convincing the audience that Rosa is the grieving girlfriend, and that tactic works; when we saw the twist at the end of the first episode, we were as surprised as anyone. But we also had to back up and watch the first ten minutes of the episode again to try to figure out who was what in Rosa’s life. As things get more complicated going forward — and they will get more complicated, if you’re familiar with the case — we’re hoping that the players in this case will distinguish themselves a bit better. Even if that takes some time to work out, though, Corberó’s dynamic performance should carry the drama.
Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode, but there promises to be a lot more as the story continues.
Parting Shot: We see a blood-stained couch, and two people painting over blood spatters on the wall. We won’t say where or why.
Sleeper Star: We’ll give this to Guiomar Caiado, who plays Sofia, only because she has a pretty rad-looking sheet tent posted over her bed.
Most Pilot-y Line: There’s a scene where Arthur spars at an MMA gym; we also see him watching an MMA match at his apartment. We think this will factor in later on, but it seems like a superfluous scene on first glance.
Our Call: STREAM IT. While Burning Body has its flaws, the performance of Úrsula Corberó helps viewers get past them and get into this very complex story.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.