The story has the usual melodrama and stereotypes of your regular "telenovela". As such, it highlights the acute class differences in Mexico in a very Manichaean way (the rich are bad, the poor are good) and uses trite ploys like fortuitous lesbian sex for shock value. There are a lot of inexplicable situations, for example, a fugitive First Lady running away in exaggeratedly high-heels with which she can barely walk or the secret service taking all the time in the world to respond to a presidential emergency. There are just too many holes in the logic of the story to make it believable.
All these traits of the decaying soap opera genre would be enough to question Netflix's new quality standards, however, even the production values are lacking and it clearly wasn't a matter of budget but carelessness. There are night scenes where the daylight coming in from the windows is apparent; the blood looks like ketchup; there are continuity glitches; there is a toy airplane taking off that should have been edited out
In short, I think this show can only be truly appreciated by those who have grown up with - and love - soap operas.
All these traits of the decaying soap opera genre would be enough to question Netflix's new quality standards, however, even the production values are lacking and it clearly wasn't a matter of budget but carelessness. There are night scenes where the daylight coming in from the windows is apparent; the blood looks like ketchup; there are continuity glitches; there is a toy airplane taking off that should have been edited out
In short, I think this show can only be truly appreciated by those who have grown up with - and love - soap operas.