A Man. And His Blog.

Finally, the show is over now. At the beginning quite interesting, but as the episodes were coming along, it showed that the writers rather wanted to tell a different story than getting into business with the slap. Really, since Rosie’s episode, the slap wasn’t even much of a topic anymore. Blair Brown had more screentime in season 3 of FRINGE than the slap story in the last four episodes of this show. And that means something! In an exaggerating way.

But similar to Aisha’s episode, I liked it. Richie (Blake Davis) was even bigger of a mess than Aisha and Connie combined, which was a nice surprise, and which turned out to be an interesting story. During Connie’s episode, I was believing that her character would turn out to be the crazy stalker, who eventually brings down Hector and his family – just to be surprised by the light and happy-ending looking ending. Now I realize it was all about Richie. And it really made for some good and intense drama. And I wanted to see more of it. I want it to be part in another show like this, which could span over half a (or a complete) season. Because this is the last episode of THE SLAP, and I’m getting no more.

Like half of the characters, Richie had nothing to do with the slap incident at all. This episode barely touched the ground on that one, instead just showed some of the “regulars”, have them talk about it for a couple of seconds (like Rosie [Melissa George] and Gary [Anthony Hayes] mentioning they have enough and move into a new house), and the rest was all about Richie. And as I was expecting, some new characters were introduced, in addition with a new story, involving Richie’s parents Tracey [Jane Allsop] and Craig [Brendan Cowell], which (again) was more interesting than anything else. I kinda loved the invisible conflict between the two, and how Richie wanted to prevent becoming like his father, yet accepting everything about his life. Like the whole scene in Craig’s messy apartment. Titties magazines everywhere, and Craig lets his son sleep on the couch – I don’t think that’s gonna look good with the social workers of this planet.

Anywho, Richie’s obsession with Hector (Jonathan LaPaglia) was also interesting. I knew it would become an awkward situation, when he followed Hector into the pool and even took photos of his naked ass. I facepalmed the screen when the sound of pictures being taken again – how stupid? I mean, for Richie… How stupid was he in that situation? If I would have been Hector, I would have smashed the kid taking nude pics of me, even if I know that guy from somewhere. It was just one of those scenes, where I was thinking that Richie was more disturbed than anybody else.

The rapist part of the story didn’t get much attention this time. I was in fact expecting for it to blow up in Hector and Aisha’s (Sophie Okonedo) faces, but instead Connie (Sophie Lowe) was there and turned Richie into a liar. Kind of a fake-out right there. The story was suddenly killed (after preparations for two whole episodes), and with it the whole series. Almost literally. Because it was the last remaining story of the show, and it got such a conclusion. Super lame. But whatever. Considering how the ending of the show looked like, I figured that Aisha knew about Hector and Connie, and pays it with moving out of the house, and trying a new beginning at the very end.

Then there was the ending. It tried to show all the major characters of the story one last time, to depict where they are right now, where they are probably going, and how they are in their newly formed lives. Sorry, but that didn’t fit at all. Since THE SLAP is all character-based, it’s just not fitting when you have a whole episode about Richie, with the last two minutes spending on the other characters. There was too much of a break all of a sudden. Again, the show just killed itself with its storytelling.

At the end, the episode was still good, but THE SLAP taught me that character-based storytelling in a serialized show is never going to be good. LOST did a great job of it, because it never abandoned the other characters and was able to develop the story. The second season of THIRD WATCH didn’t work because of character-based experimenting. And now there’s THE SLAP, and I hope TV writers have learned a bit. I surely have. A TV show can’t be saved from bad storytelling with lots of great drama. When I don’t know the characters, or don’t care when their episodes are up, not even a woman like Melissa George can help out. Anouk’s episode stays as my favorite of this show, because it not just abandoned the main arc of the show, but also delivered a “stand-alone” drama storyline, which I wanted to have continued, but also served well as an episodic storyline. Something the other episodes haven’t managed well. For what reasons soever. 6.5/10

Richie also has to think about his life

Crush on Hector, relationship with Ali, now kissing Richie - what's wrong with Connie?

And I was hoping this episode would have more relevance in the bigger picture of the episode. After all, we have with Aisha (Sophie Okonedo) a person in the center, who was not only affected by the slap incident and the following case around it, but will  continue to be affected, when she learns about her husband’s affair. Yet the episode tried to deliver something else in its first third, tried to go into story mode the second third, and delivered a lot of interesting stuff in the final third. Which also means that the final episode of THE SLAP won’t go all in. Instead, again new storylines were created, which sound more promising than anything else, and again the focus on the major arcs was rather unfocused…

The episode wasn’t bad though. I actually liked it, but mostly because Aisha is more of a disturbed character than I would have expected. Her little fling with Art (Valentino del Toro, he looked like an actor I’ve seen in a show before) was totally ridiculous though, and it was a story the show absolutely didn’t need. There was already enough conflict with Hector’s (Jonathan LaPaglia) affair (his sobbing scenes looked unintentionally funny) , and even more when Aisha finds out about Connie. The fling with Art was just a waste of time, to eventually bring Aisha to a confused state of mind, letting the audience think that two worlds will collide, when both say the truth to each other. Like “I had an affair, you had an affair, we’re square”. Sure, it sounds idiotic already, but there wasn’t even a bit used for it. Instead, just Hector told his truth (with a bit of lying in it), Aisha was in a mess and had something else to tell to her (now formerly) best friend.

And there we have the better part of the episode: Aisha knowing about what Harry did to Sandi nine years ago, Rosie (Melissa George) angry about Aisha not telling, and finally the moment between Aisha and Harry (Alex Dimitriades). Suddenly, there was a lot of new conflict in the show, which seemed all more interesting that what I’ve seen before on this show. If it was the writers’ purpose to make the non-developed side plots more interesting than the slowly to non-developed major plots, than they succeeded perfectly. And THE SLAP becomes an example of how you better not pick up various side plots, which lead to nowhere because of your ways of storytelling and point of views, while you don’t get into your major plot arc. In this case, THE SLAP is kind of horribly written. And the most curious thing about it is that it was interesting at first.

So, now that Aisha knows about Hector’s affair, and Connie is about to come back into focus with the next episode, I hope that at least this story gets a further development, as well as a closer. But I know the show already, and I expect for the final episode to show something about Richie’s private life – with characters we haven’t seen before, and with stories which are unnecessary. But who knows, maybe the miracle is happening with the final episode. But what I wanna know is, if the book is the same. I think I will have to read it to find out… 6/10

Aisha thinks about things. In bed. Like everyone else on this planet

Rosie is shocked about the writers' way of telling her story

This episode was similar to the other guys episodes of THE SLAP: not interesting enough to be interesting, not focused enough on the story, not dramatic or emotional enough, because I don’t care about them. With Manolis (Lex Marinos), the show comes closer to a character, who was barely seen in the previous episodes, and where I wonder if it was a good creative choice to not give me something about Hector’s parents in the first five episodes, and now give me everything in this episode.

Maybe I just have problems with the fact that THE SLAP can’t get much into a story in this form, when it tells a different story from a different point of view in every episode. There is really no chance for one of the stories to develop, or even for one of the characters to develop. The slap incident barely had any worthy screentime, and it’s over now. With the whole story around Hector and Connie following now (and the last two have characters in the center, who are and/or will be involved in that story), I hope that the miniseries manages to make something out of a story in its finale.

I really didn’t care about Manolis, his troubles and his point of view. There could have been a better story during the beginning, when he and Koula (Toula Yianni) were discussing about the slap and its outcome in court, but that story soon vanished. Instead, the writers carried on with the funeral of a Godfather, with Manolis’ wishes of being young again (and dancing, drinking, touching a young woman’s breasts), and with a conflict he’s getting with his witch-wife. Sorry, but what importance do these stories have in the overall arc of the series? Have they developed the major characters in any kind of way? Have they developed the major storyline of the series? I don’t think so. Because it seemed like more than half of the episode was wasted with topics, which weren’t included in earlier episodes, and where I don’t believe they will be appearing in the next two episodes. Or to be precise: This episode was a waste of my time. And not even the deep and edgy drama can help it. When the story of an old man is not important for any of the other storylines, why have I watched it then?

Seriously, Manolis’ drama wasn’t even nearly connected to the major characters. He doesn’t even have contact with Rosie, or doesn’t even talk much with Harry, so how are Hector’s parents involved in all of this? When it came to the funeral, I was just waiting for the episode to end, or for a wink to a more important storyline. It didn’t happen though. The only interesting aspects of the episode were the relationship between Manolis and Hector (Jonathan LaPaglia), and how latter was seeing a trustworthy person in his father, telling him about the affair (at least that story gets developed), and how Aisha (Sophie Okonedo) sees a problem between herself and Hector’s family, eventually risking a break-up between her and Hector with his family (again, another story far away from the slap incident is more interesting than the slap incident).

At the end, this episode was a nice try for some drama, but it doesn’t fit in the overall arc. It doesn’t even fit as part of the show without an overall arc, since Manolis didn’t have much screentime in the previous episodes (maybe ten minutes or less?). It might work as an old-guy drama, when you know the background stories, but as a part of a miniseries, it did not work at all. Sorry, fans of the book, but that literally was a waste of time. And I had some problems with the creative decision of using subtitles: Do immigrant families really change between English and their first language like Manolis and Koula? First they were all hot in Greek, and a sentence later they spoke in English. Just to change back to Greek. Either this was a way of reducing subtitles, or something was meant with that, which I cannot see or get. I have nothing against subtitles, but producers should know when to use them and how long. That just looked like they didn’t know whether to have a full scene in Greek with subtitles or not. 3.5/10

When a good friend has died

When the witch and her husband are in the same bed

It’s cool that I have two appreciated actresses in a character-centric miniseries, whose episodes follow back-to-back, making the fact forgotten that the story is a a slowteller, and I don’t like half of the character pool. Yeah, I pretty much start to hate the guys in this story, because they’re just free of any kind of emotions. Even Hector (Jonathan LaPaglia), who is supposed to be the main male character, can’t show any emotions during the court scenes, because he doesn’t care and he doesn’t want to deal with the issue. That also means, the emotions of the show rely on the women, but when they can’t act straight, then it doesn’t help.

I love Melissa George to death, no questions here. But I’m getting the feeling she was cast because she was the only one ready to strip naked for the scenes with Hugo (Julian Mineo). And I’m getting the feeling that Melissa wasn’t strong enough to act during the court scenes. Because she couldn’t act-cry, and when she started to cry, I kinda started to laugh, because it looked ridiculous. And a bit over the top. Other than that I liked the episode. It showed that Rosie is even more of a disturbed character than previously thought. She presses for getting Harry into prison, and she loses herself in front of everybody, when it looks like she is not getting her wish. And in the meantime her whole family gets crushed because of Rosie’s obsession about the case and bringing justice to the guy who slapped her son. Again, the marriage troubles with Gary (Anthony Hayes) were more interesting than the major story arc of the episode. I loved how he started to not care about the incident anymore, and how he tried to tell it to Rosie (of course failing, which made her even more mad), and how he eventually fell back to being an alcoholic. Even Bilal’s (Tony Briggs) involvement rocked, because I have forgotten him completely, and he had something to say about the situation too. And because he seemed to be the only one who could keep Rosie in check at the end.

So, the story seems over now. The court case is over and done with, Harry got his punishment (though I wanna know what punishment he got – definitely not jail time), the issue is resolved (at least for everybody but Rosie), and now it’s time to release the aftermath. I wonder how the next three episodes will look like, because I absolutely don’t know how this story is going to be continued. Looks like the side plots will be continued, like Hector/Connie (I see an Aisha episode coming up), or the marriage troubles between Rosie/Gary. But can three episodes be filled with that? I know that the past five episodes were filled with a few storylines which were stretched over those episodes, while the rest was filled with pretty much unimportant side plots and all.

At the end, I will miss THE SLAP for its side plots. They are all more interesting than the major arc, and they are interesting enough to fill a complete, year-long TV show with that. Why not making a dark family drama with all fucked-up lives? Is there some HBO drama, which actually does that without being artsy?

A little question at the end: What was the reason for Melissa George being mentioned first in the credits and Jonathan LaPaglia last with the starring credit? Not that I was confused and all, but it seems … well, confusing, when producers switch the places of two actors in the credits midway of a miniseries. I haven’t seen that before. 7/10

A mental breakdown in court never looks good

Gary cleans his mind and wants to make a decision

A fine episode. Even though Connie (Sophie Lowe) is the least interesting character when it comes to the issues of family and friends, I adore Sophie Lowe and I was waiting for her episode to come. But similar to Anouk’s episode, it didn’t fit much into the story of the show, because there was nothing, which Connie could have done to develop the bigger story arc of the show. Instead, it was just all about her serious crush for Hector (Jonathan LaPaglia).

Yeah, the episode didn’t deliver anything to the story. Instead, it created a new sub plot, which could very much fuck up the lives of Hector and Aisha, when it comes out somewhere in the near future. The “rape” twist was unexpected, and again a story, which has nothing to do with the slap and the legal issues standing on the door mat, is more interesting than the series arc. I don’t know why it is that way – maybe it would have been better to completely create a show around the incident, and make the issues surrounding it the main aspect of the show. Because after four episodes, I’m still believing that the writers rather want to tell a story, which shows how different families and their friends cope with the slapping issue, but since they need to fill eight one-hour episodes… But maybe that’s just my point of view, and I kinda like THE SLAP for what it is. But at the end, the story is a bit unfocused, doesn’t know how to bring one story into the next and vice versa, and how to properly connect them all. When this is a clear problem in the show, I believe it’s also a problem in the book.

Anyhow, I loved Sophie. After all, she was one of the reasons why I started watching the miniseries. Her character is interesting, something of a mix between crazy in love and a lunatic, and after this episode you’ll never know how she will turn out to be. Episodes ago you’d believe she’s just the nice girl next door who has an affair with her boss’ husband, and three episodes later she is torn between love, craziness and being an adult. Lucky for me, I like how Connie was depicted in this episode. Luckily she wasn’t the crazy little girl who is doing anything to get her much older lover, and to ruin a family with it. Instead she just slipped when talking to Richie, because she didn’t really know what to do here. Her heart was basically broken, so what can a 17-year-old girl do, when her heart is broken? Of course she causes trouble, even though she doesn’t know that she caused trouble. Interesting is how Richie (Blake Davis) was included in the story though. Now that he “knows” about Hector, the series can finally grow with its storylines – something the show didn’t do when Anouk saw Hector with Connie, and was about to tell Aisha.

I was a bit confused about Connie though. I always thought she already had sex with Hector, but that wasn’t the case. Then I was wondering a bit if Connie actually has experience in that part of life. Hurting while masturbating and having sex with that random guy seemed like she did not know at all what she was doing. That scales down the secret relationship she had with Hector though. Somehow the whole affair isn’t much of an affair anymore, which is a shame. Having had an actual affair (with all sex and stuff) would be more of a threatening situation between Hector and Aisha, but now it’s not such a situation anymore. Instead, Connie had to fabricate a story to make it threatening. Even though it was unexpected, I call that chickened out.

Now, can I have my new TV show with Sophie Lowe in the cast or do I have to create one for myself? 7/10

On a personal note: I love those kind of camera shots

Happy ending or further misery for Connie?

Hm. I was expecting this episode to turn me down, since Harry (Alex Dimitriades) is a character written to be antagonizing and unsympathetic. But I also was expecting this episode to be great because of it. There aren’t much television dramas with an ensemble cast out there, which focuses on the “villain” for a whole episode. The thing is just: The episode wasn’t great. It didn’t do anything to explain Harry’s actions to me, and it only confirms to be that Harry is a wife-beater, who also turns out to b a kid-beater. Except when it’s about his son. Which was the only interesting part of the episode: Harry is way more the antagonizing type than expected. And it could develop the story to new lows (talking about the ridiculousness of the slap-incident here).

The episode wasn’t great, but it wasn’t terrible either. Better than mediocre, as I want to call it. Similar to the previous two episodes, not much happened, though you could say that the involvement of the police in one and a half scenes, as well as the “conversation” between Hector/Harry and Rosie/Gary could be declared “enough events” for a TV show like this. But the story is still told in a very slow way, and it’s already the third episode, and the whole slap-incident isn’t much in the show right now. Okay, it pretty much affects Harry’s life, but I’ve had the feeling that it was all about leading a double life, and being a shitty character in general. It’s probably not easy to be Harry, when you have anger issues, a secret relationship (and a love child?) on the side, as well as an employer, who stole your money. And on top of it, nobody thinks that Harry did the right thing when protecting Rocco. Again, it’s not all about the slap, instead it’s all about the characters. A bit annoying, because the show wants to be about the aftermath of the slap, but when I care about completely different stories (even caring about characters who don’t want to deal with the show’s issues), I should have watched a different show then. Somehow the writers don’t make it themselves very easy in adapting the book (though I’ve never read it) – I can’t imagine that a 400-plus-page book can be properly transformed into an eight-hour miniseries without bigger changes and filling storylines. And that’s what I was seeing in this episode: The deal with Harry’s employer stealing money, and his secret relationship do not fit into the show. It just defined Harry as a character, but is it important for the future?

As if it was a form of complex storytelling, I found the storylines which were not Harry-related more interesting. Mostly Gary’s (Anthony Hayes) anger towards Harry, and the fact that it isn’t even Gary, who wants to go to court and bring Harry to prison. I was quite surprised that it’s all about Rosie (Melissa George) here, which could be an interesting foreshadowing for her episode (awaiting it already, and not just because of mysteriously cute Melissa). Again, I was a bit disturbed that she was breastfeeding Hugo (Julian Mineo), and that it’s her, who doesn’t want to deal properly with the situation. She could have resolved it with Harry in that conversation near the end, but she doesn’t want to. She’s not listening, she just wants to act. Though her comment of Harry also beating Sandi and Rocco could be interesting for later. At least it gives a reason why she’s lot listening and wants to bring him to prison.

Also, Sandi’s (Diana Glenn) point of view interested me more than the bigger part of the episode. Harry’s anger towards her came totally unexpected to me. So why not going further into the obviously more dramatic marriage between her and Harry? But I fear that it would have been a complete different episode in a random show, when it would have been told from Sandi’s point of view.

Only Rocco’s (Raffaele Costabile) ”disappearance” at the end was a waste of time. I don’t believe that Rocco and Harry have a good father/son relationship, and I don’t believe that Rocco is much affected by the incident. For that, he didn’t get any worthy screentime. He was just one of the kids in the show to give the adult characters something to “think” about, so that THE SLAP counts as an ensemble drama series. 6/10

When wife-beaters have secret affairs

When wife-beaters have issues

Much better than the premiere. For two reasons: It wasn’t focused on the series arc, and the story of Anouk was more interesting than anything else I have recently seen in television. Even though there was sometimes just too much melodrama, especially in the second half of the episode, I loved it because of all the emotional drama. You see, when the characters are crying for a reason, I’m there and I’m getting it.

It really had a positive end effect on this hour that Anouk (lovely Essie Davis) never cared much about the incident during the barbecue, and that she took only one chance to tell Rosie (Melissa George, she really knows how to play sad) her opinion about the situation, and how she sees it all. At this moment of the show I don’t really care about all the drama surrounding Rosie and the title giving slap, because for me that’s just a thing blowing to bigger proportions than it should be blown, and since Anouk was literally like me, I’ve had enough time to get her personal story and her personal drama, and therefore enough time to forget all about the mediocre first episode and love this one instead. I actually wish for a TV show or a movie, which takes a struggling daily soap writer and producer with a struggling relationship, throw in an unexpected pregnancy plus abortion, a sick mother who wants to be killed than living like this, and spice it up with friends who have also problems. It would be a great movie, and a great television series, if British people would work on that (I don’t really know, but I’m thinking about LIP SERVICE right now, when I’m writing this). Maybe there’s a similar show already out there and I haven’t found it yet.

To be specific: Anouk’s drama with her “shitty” job and the “unwanted” pregnancy was great. The first half of the episode was all about Anouk’s life, and there wasn’t even the mention of Rosie’s troubles. Then Anouk told her opinion and the episode was connected with the main arc of the series – which was okay, because it had to be done (otherwise this episode would have been completely out of place, missing the point), but the elements of the first half were still kept. In fact, the whole pregnancy melodrama, and the tears which were floating was excellent for my taste. I totally got all of it, I was drawn to the characters, I was finding a connection to them and I was feeling with them. It doesn’t happen everytime that I find a connection to the characters with the second episode, especially after the first one wasn’t really that great in my eyes.

The fact that THE SLAP will change its character-based stories, I’m a bit scared that this episode will be a one-shot in liking. I rather want to have a continuation of the troubling relationship between Anouk and Rhys (Oliver Ackland), and I want to see how Anouk is coping the illness of Rachel (Gillian Jones). Or how she tries to get over the abortion with a little help of her friends. Or maybe if it was all about Anouk, the writers would have found a way to connect the things Anouk saw during the barbecue (Connie and Hector) with the bigger arc of the series itself. Since this part wasn’t really mentioned here. And I don’t really expect for the little “despising” story between Anouk and Connie (Sophie Lowe), as teased in the club, will continue like I wish.

But at the end I totally loved this episode. I wonder if the other six episodes can tell similar storylines. When I see that Harry is the next character to be “taken care of”, I fear I will start losing grip again, because I found Henry to be an ass-character in the premiere already… 9/10

Not even the happiness can stop her life from falling apart

The choice was made for Anouk, before she made the choice

Watching a television show, even though it’s just a miniseries, without not knowing anything about the story, can be a great feeling. A feeling I barely have while watching, because I always know what a show is about before I start watching it. Otherwise I wouldn’t watch it. But I didn’t know beforehand what THE SLAP would be about. The only things I knew was that it was an eight-part miniseries, that Jonathan LaPaglia stars in it (and I wanted to see how the main actor from my origin favorite television show SEVEN DAYS is doing today), and that some people on the IMDb boards were praising that it was one of the faithful book adaptations, which also means that THE SLAP is a book adaptation. I haven’t even heard one single word about the book before, let alone knew anything about the genre of this show. Yet here I am, watching an Australian production, expanding my TV horizon, and got a kinda interesting show about a family with friends, about to completely fall apart.

It had interesting moments. It wasn’t boring at all times. But it was tiring. If it would have been a movie, I probably would have turned off after 50 minutes, because nothing was happening. It is a miniseries, and I’m done with the first episode, and I barely know what this show will be about. I have my theories, but the whole first hour couldn’t have just been about Harry (Alex Dimitriades) slapping Hugo (Julian Mineo), and therefore beginning the crucial aftermath of that faithful situation. This episode couldn’t have been just about building up tot he title-giving slap and what follows after that. Before I could even make the connection from Harry’s slap to the series title (which was given to me thanks to the voiceover at the very end of the episode), I wasn’t even awaiting for the slap to be so crucial to the series’ plot line. But it obviously is, and now it could be interesting to watch how a normal birthday part turned out to be the beginning of the end for all involved. There could be some great drama behind all of this, but then again I wonder if this show is really about that drama.

Yet, the hour couldn’t fully satisfy me. It was really slow, almost nothing happened, and even after 50 minutes, I barely can defy the relationships of the characters to each other. I know that Hector (Jonathan LaPaglia) and Harry are cousins, I know that Connie (Sophie Lowe, I hope it doesn’t take long until “beautiful Kate” gets a major role in a US drama, preferably on AMC or HBO) was the babysitter turned Hector’s secret love affair, and I know Aisha (Sophie Okonedo) is Hector’s wife. But I have difficulties with the rest, because I don’t know their names yet, and their relations weren’t established. Friends? Part of the family? Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives? I can rhyme myself something together, but with somebody like me not knowing anything about the story and the characters and all the rest, it would have been nicer to establish all the necessary information, before the birthday party got out of hand. Because until the slap, I was actually expecting this party to turn out catastrophic like in the Danish Dogme 95 movie FESTEN. I was waiting for something to happen, which turns everything and everybody to shit, but nothing happened. The little body contacts between Hector and Connie witnessed by Anouk (Essie Davis) (who is she in the mix?) could have been a great source of drama in this episode, but instead the story was slightly teased. The seemingly breaking marriage between Hector and Aisha can be a big topic in the show, as well as the brother/cousin relationship between Hector and Harry, which didn’t seem normal. Same goes with Hector’s life as a family father in general. But then again I know something else about the show: It seems to be character-centric, because all the episode titles have the names of the characters of the show. So, it can’t be all about Hector until the end.

At the end I was underwhelmed, but still fascinated by parts of the episode. But it felt like a one-hour exposition to the bigger story. There was no endgame in this episode, no outcome, no threat or something similar. Basically this episode was just the first 15 minutes of a five-hour long movie. For that, it was mostly lame, not dramatic enough, not compelling enough, and definitely not interesting enough. The cast is great, and I’m interested in some of the characters, but when the story doesn’t give me anything, then I don’t know what to do with the characters after a while. So I really hope something is happening in the near future, also know as the very next episode. Otherwise I could kick this miniseries before the finale has aired in Australian television (I picked this show up two weeks before the finale has aired). 5.5/10

Hidden tragic in Hector's life, which is about to explode within himself

Hidden tragic in a mother/son relationship, which piles up to a horrific event