‘Marbella’ and ‘Atasco’, two great Spanish series

“That was the agreement of the Franco regime: you, criminals, come to rest, do not commit crimes and bring money. Because money is not black or blonde or coloured: it is money, as Lucky Luciano said. Thus, with the authority looking the other way, the area immediately became a favorite for the mafias,” explained Antonio Romero, the former deputy of Izquierda Unida, to Nacho Carretero and Arturo Lezcano, authors of the report. Marbella, global headquarters of organized crimepublished in EL PAÍS in April 2021 and which was the origin of the series Marbella that Movistar Plus+ exhibits.

Created by Alberto Marini and Dani de la Torre, also authors of the notable Unit, and with an excellent Hugo Silva as the protagonist in the role of an unscrupulous lawyer who is only interested in success, considered one of the fine arts of accumulating money, supported by the always sober and effective Elvira Mínguez and a brilliant debut rapper , Khalid El Paisano, the six episodes of its first season ratify that predilection of all the mafias (Dutch, Serbian, Italian) for a municipality whose mayors were, among others, Jesús Gil and Julián Muñoz, well known in the courts and prisons, and Ángeles Muñoz, of whom the Anti-Drug Prosecutor’s Office considers it proven that she lived for years with her husband, now deceased, who laundered money from drug trafficking. The aforementioned Prosecutor’s Office requests 22 years in prison for her stepson. In other words: reality does not detract from fiction in any way, and even less so when fiction is based on reality. It is clear that in Marbella If you haven’t been in jail, you’re nobody.

And if the mafias have long since settled on the Costa del Sol, the traffic jams on the highways at the entrance to the big cities are the owners of the road. That is the situation described in the six short episodes of the first season of Jam, the series created, written and directed by Rodrigo Sopeña (Prime Vídeo) and of which the first thing to say is that the person responsible for casting the series was very clear when taking the directory of living Spanish actresses and actors: call them all. A very entertaining series of that morning via crucis that going to work has become when you live in the suburbs.

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