Netflix seems to be in a sexy mood of late. First, they imported the high-sex-drive drama The Hunting Wives from Starz, which contains lots of scenes that are leaving viewers’ mouths agape. Now, they’re debuting a Mexican telenovela which is pretty much wall-to-wall sex.
Opening Shot: In a large modern house, a woman quickly packs as if she’s about to flee.
The Gist: Flee is exactly what Helena (Zuria Vega) is going to do, as she has had enough of being married to Claudio (Erik Hayser), a violent and controlling billionaire. She makes sure her son Fer (Sebastian Garcia) is at their designated meeting point. But before she can leave, Claudio comes home, throws her around, tries to choke her, and ultimately points a gun at her. Helena isn’t going anywhere.
Some weeks later, Helena is at a swanky rooftop bar, and matches Ivan (Andres Baida) on a dating app. He’s swimming in a nearby pool. Their attraction is immediate, and they make a date every Thursday to meet and have sex. After 13 weeks, their relationship is about more than just sex, but it blows up when Helena finds out that Ivan is an escort.
Soon, though, Ivan learns the truth about the person he thought was single when he happens to see her and Claudio at a restaurant. He follows her to the bathroom and they have sex again. Now that they’re back together and know each other’s truths, Ivan wants to help Helena get out of a situation she thinks is impossible to extract herself from without getting herself and Fer killed.
Because Claudio has a weakness for young, handsome men, they set up a scenario where Ivan poses as a reporter wanting to do a profile of Claudio. The idea is that, after a few days, Claudio will invite Ivan to the family’s cabin and seduce Ivan, which Helena will capture on a hidden video camera. But things go south when, as planned, Ivan tries to resist Claudio’s advances, and a sky-high Fer angrily drives to the cabin to kill Claudio.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Unspeakable Sins has the crazy, anything-goes vibe of a telenovela like Desperate Lies.
Our Take: Unspeakable Lies is indeed crazy, starting from its first scene. Written by Leticia López Margalli and Guillermo Ríos, it dispenses with anything resembling a backstory for Helena and how she came to be married to Claudio; she’s already looking to flee her violent marriage as soon as we jump into the show. Then, feeling trapped, she meets Ivan and they have lots and lots and lots and lots of sex. Then, when the truth about the both of them comes out, they hatch a cockamamie scheme to somehow humiliate Claudio, which predictably doesn’t go well. And that’s just in the first episode of 18 in this first season.
Does this show have any nuance? Nope. Is the acting any good? We like Vega as Helena but everyone else is over-the-top. Does anything make any particular sense? Not really. There’s a bit of a succession subplot when it comes to Claudio’s development corporation, where his adult children have a piece inherited from their late mom (who knows what happened to her) and at least one of the kids wants to use their piece to make some changes. But that subplot feels superfluous to the story at hand.
This is the kind of show that you watch if you want to see lots of hot sex scenes, usually cued up with what the subtitles always call “sultry music,” and see if the good guys — Helena and Ivan — win out over Claudio, who is supposed to be pure evil. Anything else is a big ask for a show like this.
Sex and Skin: Yes and yes. Lots of both, and it starts in the show’s first five minutes.
Parting Shot: Helena arrives at the cabin and the police are already there, Fer is bloody and crying, and Claudio and Ivan are nowhere to be found.
Sleeper Star: Ana Sofía Gatica plays Livia, Claudio’s daughter. She’s an environmental activist, and she’s the one who wants to use her piece of Claudio’s company to stop the huge resort development he’s trying to get started.
Most Pilot-y Line: When Ivan asks Helena how she knows how to use the spy camera she installed at the cabin, she answers, “I used to be a photographer.” What does that have to do with setting up a video spy camera? And couldn’t she just answer, “I read the instructions?”
Our Call: SKIP IT. Unspeakable Sins is a pretty dumb show that has a pretty dumb plot. However, you may want to STREAM IT if you’re just into watching lots of sexy stuff and not think about the plot too much.
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.