By Shayne Watson
“Someone Has to Die” is a Spanish thriller created by Manolo Caro, revolving around the Falcón family who lives in 1950s upper class Spain.
When their son, Gabino, returns to Spain after spending 10 years in Mexico, he brings his close friend Lázaro with him in hopes to show him the beautiful sights Europe has to offer.
Lázaro is quite different than what the people in Spain are used to. While being a dancer, thinking he is homosexual, and of course being Mexican, the family and other family friends treat him as an outcast.
The series itself is only three episodes, each about an hour long, and there are so many things that happen within that total of three hours. With only so few episodes, we don’t have to face the problem where the build-up is super slow and drags on, then finally in the last episode, everything comes to light. Instead, we face the issue that there is too much to keep track of and it gets overwhelming at times.
This series has a lot of plot twists in store, all of which were pretty predictable, except for the fact that Lázaro isn’t actually gay like every- one had assumed. Which is kind of ironic considering everything bad happened because they all believed he was gay and that he had made Gabino gay. When in reality, Gabino was gay all along with no help from Lázaro.
There is more than enough conflict to go around with every single character.
The maid is trying to save her husband from prison. The mother, Mina, is stuck in a loveless, abusive marriage and chooses to have an affair with Lázaro. The father holds a high rank within the prison system and is conflicted about sending his gay son away. Alonso is hiding his homosexuality as well, and the grandma, Amparo, shot her husband 10 years ago in front of Gabi- no.
All these problems get resolved in a shoot-out in the very last scene. Yes, that is correct, everything gets resolved by more than half of the cast dying. The only two survivors were Gabino and his mother, who did not shed any emotion watching their lovers die right before their eyes. Just like that, the series ends. The affair was never brought up again, no talk about being a homosexual, or what they will do now that their family and friends are dead. The series just ends with no explanation to the conflicts.
Throughout the whole show, there is barely any emotion showed. Anger is the only feeling portrayed by any of the characters. Everyone already seems so lifeless that their deaths do not come as a surprise. The viewer has no emotional connection to any of the characters, which I feel is very important to make a functioning series.
Despite the fact that the series doesn’t hold a stable structure for a story, it is a thrilling watch and is interesting to see how life would be for a closeted homosexual living in 1950s Spain, whose family also has some murderous tendencies.