We’re not sure why a show like Maledictions, which runs just over 120 minutes, is split into three episodes instead of released as a movie. After all, the way the show is plotted and executed feels movie-like. But does the Argentinian psychological thriller suffer from being chopped into pieces?
Opening Shot: As the lines of a road speed past, we pan up to see a desolate desert road, and a car speeding down it. A driver in a jacket and tie is in front, and a sleeping girl is in the back.
The Gist: Fernando Rovira (Leonardo Sbaraglia) is the governor of a northern state in Argentina; he’s currently embroiled in a battle to get a contentious mining bill voted down in the legislature. The bill puts limits on lithium mining in the state, and Rovira thinks those limits will put undue pressure on the state’s economy.
His driver was supposed to pick up Rovira’s daughter Zoe (Francesca Resua) from swim class, but neither Zoe nor the driver is answering their phones. Neither is Román Sabaté (Gustavo Bassani). It turns out that Román is the one driving Zoe, and he’s not doing it as a favor, as we see the driver bound and gagged, lying unconscious at the side of the road.
Román has kidnapped Zoe, and he seems to be on a time limit. He tries to keep Zoe safe, protecting her when some men steal her sunglasses at a bathroom stop. He only puts her in the trunk when she figures out what’s going on and tries to drive away while handcuffed to the steering wheel. But Zoe also seems to have some loyalty to Román, as we see when the governor’s investigator finds and intercepts them.
The investigator figures out where Román is going, and it’s not the Rovira estate, as he told the border guards when he passed through. We see Román cutting the fence of a hydro plant that has to do with lithium mining, where he steals a number of important papers. So it does seem that the kidnapping is linked to the mining bill, but the rest of the details are still hazy, including where Román is going with Zoe.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Almost 20 years ago, there was a network show called Kidnapped that revolved around the kidnapping of a child of a powerful family. We thought of that show as we watched Maledictions.
Our Take: Maledictions isn’t as much a series as it is a just-over-two-hour movie split into three parts. The first episode plays out this way, showing Rovira trying to get this law voted down while the situation is going on with Zoe, and showing Román figure out how to get the girl to the location he needs to go to, despite the fact that she’s not going to go quietly.
What we’ll find out is that the kidnapping was a years-long plot, tied to the bill but also having to do with who Zoe’s biological family really is. As we see when Rovira and his investigator talk to Rovira’s mother Irene (Alejandra Flechner), the power center of the family isn’t actually in the governor’s hands, and it seems that Irene has more sway over how her son governs than his public image would suggest.
There’s a lot of information to cram into the relatively short episodes, and it’ll be interesting to see how well the elaborate plot that Román is a part of is laid out in subsequent episodes.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: Román and Zoe walk towards a house, and he stops and tells her “everything is going to be OK.”
Sleeper Star: Francesca Resua’s Zoe is tough as nails; she might even be tougher than Román.
Most Pilot-y Line: We wish the lithium bill was explained a bit more, so we had a better idea how this fits in with the plot to take Zoe.
Our Call: STREAM IT. If you approach Maledictions like it’s a movie instead of a series, you’ll enjoy it more. There will inevitably be story details that get glossed over, but the vibe of the show is appropriately tense, with some good action sequences.
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.