5/10
Strayed over the line
3 August 2021
And that line is between what could have been a tight, exciting plot and what became more or less a telenovela. At the start, what we were presented with was a school that was almost a panopticon. It was clear that the pupils had no personal life at all and were under the strict control of the staff. And just a word about the school. Are we seriously expected to believe that in modern Spain child abuse on this scale is or would be allowed? Or even if it happened, no one would blow the whistle or reveal it? As the series progressed the kids got away with more and more daring escapades under the noses of their teachers. Eagle-eyed teachers who spotted the smallest absence in the first couple of episodes suddenly failed to notice the disappearance of four or five kids from their class.

There were a couple of incongruous strands that added little to the main story. What on earth was the place Manu was being held in? What was it for? Who was shooting in the woods? What did the amnesia strand add? None of these matters was explained at all.

On top of all this, in a Catholic institution, the kids were getting up to all sorts of sexual shenanigans that would barely be tolerated in a secular school, if at all.

I don't want to get into spoilers, but the ending of episode eight was absurd. This was full-blown telenovela. Completely illogical, not even a deux ex machina, but a ludicrous resolution.

I watched till the end and jumped a couple of times at shocks that came up. But there is no consistency, no real unfolding of the story in a convincing way. I'm dubious as to whether I'll watch the second season that's coming in 2022.
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