Scripted series based on true crime cases always strive to warn viewers that parts of the story they are about to tell are fictional, including the use of composite and novel characters. They do this because it’s difficult to fit mostly complex cases with a lot of story into a handful of hour-long episodes, so they have to make changes in order to give the story the impact drama they are looking for. But sometimes this fictionalization diminishes too many of the nuances of the case. That’s what we see in a new Spanish Netflix thriller.
Opening shot: We see news footage of Roasario Porto (Candela Peña) and Alfonso Basterra (Tristán Ulloa) talking about the adoption of their daughter Asunta (Iris Whu), the first Chinese child adopted in Galicia, a region in northern Spain.
The essential: Six years later, on September 21, 2013, we see Rosario and Alfonso in a police station. Asunta, now 12, disappeared an hour ago, which is unlike her. Rosario and Alfonso are now divorced and live around the corner from each other; since she’s not in any apartment and hasn’t called, her parents are really worried that she was taken away.
Later that night, two drunk men get into a car and drive away from a pub. They stop abruptly when they see the body of a young girl on the side of the road. Civil police officers Rios (Carlos Blanco) and Cruces (María León) are called to the case and when they see the girl’s body, it appears that she has been tied up and carefully placed in the place where she was found. An orange string was hastily thrown nearby.
Because the girl is Asian, Rios and Cruces know her Asunta Basterra, and they visit Rosario and Alfonso to tell them. Rosario is in shock and Alfonso begins to sob. Cruces learns that they own a house near where Asunta was found; it belonged to Rosario’s late parents, and none of Asunta’s parents think she would go there.
As the detectives take the couple to this house, Judge Malvar (Javier Gutiérrez) arrives at the crime scene, but is called to the country house when Rios finds pieces of orange string in a trash can. Rosario and Antonio are kept outside while Malvar and his men search the house. There seems to be evidence that Asunta was at the house, at the same time Rosario was there to collect something; it was after Rosario returned from the house that she said Asunta was missing.
Between this and the physical evidence they show, Malvar begins to think that Rosario, with whom he studied at law school, had something to do with his daughter’s death. Once Malvar sees CCTV footage showing Asunta as the passenger in a private car, he orders the police to arrest Rosario, even though she is at Asunta’s funeral.
What shows will this remind you of? The Asunta affair is similar to a number of dramas based on true crime cases, although the tone is very similar to that of Criminal series.
Our opinion : The first episode of The Asunta affaircreated by Ramón Campos, Gema R. Neira, Jon de la Cuesta and David Orea Arribas and based on the real-life murder of Asunta Basterra, gets off to a bit of a slow start, but it doesn’t take long to get to the point. at the heart of this matter.
It may seem like the cops and Malvar don’t have much to do when Malvar decides that Rosario needs to be arrested because she is suspected of Asunta’s murder. But given the story of the real-life case this series is based on, there seemed to be plenty of reason to stop and investigate both of Asunta’s parents. We just wish the show’s creators would lay out these reasons in a bit more linear fashion.
Since Asunta’s parents were ultimately convicted of her murder, with Rosario committing suicide in prison in 2020, the series’ creators make a point of showing Asunta’s parents in the moments when the police n ‘s not there. They mourn their daughter, ask their lawyer friend what to do, and, in one case, eerily take photos of her casket at the funeral home. One wonders if the limited series will move forward by casting doubt on how the investigation and trial unfolded, given how Asunta’s parents maintained their innocence throughout the case.
Anyway, so far we just see a prosecutor and a group of cops eager to pin the case on someone, but what we hope to see as the series progresses is is a bit more evidence that leads law enforcement to suspect Asunta’s parents. as well as the couple’s history which may also have contributed to law enforcement’s suspicions of the parents, as well as the evidence which led to their conviction.
Sex and skin: None.
Starting shot: Rosario is seen in the detectives’ car after being gently driven by them out of Asunta’s funeral. We then see “September 24, 2013” and a rotating digital timestamp.
Sleeping Star: María León as Officer Cristina Cruces stands out because she gives Cruces a little more empathy than we usually see from police detectives on shows like these.
Most pilot line: “Let me tell you something… Our species is on the verge of extinction, isn’t it? » Rios tells Cruces as they return to town from the crime scene. The line seems to come out of nowhere.
Our call: Spread it. The Asunta affair is worth watching to learn more about a case that shook Spain in the 2010s, but it feels like the creators are taking a very complex case and oversimplifying it, eliminating a lot of part of the gray areas that made the real case so fascinating to begin with. with.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and technology, but he’s under no illusions: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.comFast Company and elsewhere.
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