Subtitles can be annoying to deal with. Who wants to spend an hour that could be used mindlessly staring at a laptop screen, reading instead? Ugh, what a complete and utter burden. Except, Netflix’s new Spanish-language series Ingobernable is more than worth putting on your thinking cap to watch.
As someone who fell off the Homeland train and only wants to watch a White House drama if Scandals abound, I wasn’t sure the Mexico-set series was for me (Read: prepare for spoilers now). Ingobernable follows the First Lady of the country, Emilia Urquiza, after a violent fight with her president husband leaves him dead and her the target of a national manhunt. Then I watched the first hour.
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Premiere episode “The Decision” opens with Emilia (Kate Del Castillo) looking like a complete boss on a hotel balcony after deciding to divorce her politician husband, President Diego Nava (Erik Hayser). Diego eventually storms into the presidential suite to demand Emilia takes him back. When she doesn’t, he becomes abusive, throwing her against a wall, dragging her down a set of stairs, and trying to pin her down on a bed. Throughout the entire ordeal, Emilia fights back and even holds a gun at her husband for protection.
Every single second is breathless for the viewer.
Once Emilia and Diego end up on the balcony, it’s clear someone is about to go over. Since the entire series is about Emilia, the casualty is, of course, Diego, who falls to his death onto an SUV below. Yet, there’s a twist. The Urquiza-Nava’s gun was left on a bed during the bloody scuffle, but when Emilia wakes up, it’s been placed in her hand. She’s clearly has no recollection of shooting her husband or pushing him off the balcony.
So begins the real drama of Ingobernable as Emilia hides from the people who apparently framed her for Diego’s murder, along with the actual Mexican government, which understandably believes she was involved in a presidential assassination. There’s an elaborate hotel escape, a random Secret Service agent gets shot, and Emilia has to perform surgery on herself — and that’s just in the first two episodes. Everything is intense and claustrophobic in the best way possible.
Since only the first three episodes of Ingobernable were released to the press, I’ll be binging away on this addictive series throughout the weekend. You should probably join me, subtitles and all.