Netflix has had a banner yr in 2024, releasing a few of its greatest content material ever, from sensible and devastating dramas in regards to the darker aspect of human nature, to heartwarming tales of human connection and loss, to beautiful animated sequence that mild up the display in dazzling colour.
Baby Reindeer, which landed this previous April, would possibly simply be the very best Netflix present of all time, although it’s such a tragic and miserable sequence you actually must be in the correct way of thinking if you watch it. The more moderen Ted Danson-led A Man On The Inside, was so stuffed with coronary heart and humor that I binged the whole season in a single sitting.
And each Arcane and The Dragon Prince have dropped new seasons, giving us extra of the very best animated content material on the streaming service. The Dragon Prince’s subsequent season really drops in nearly per week. I’m positive I’m leaving out many different nice Netflix reveals from 2024, however we will’t record all of them.
Today, Netflix dropped One Hundred Years Of Solitude, although solely the primary eight episodes of the 16-episode season. The sequence is predicated on the literary masterpiece of the identical title from Nobel Prize–profitable writer Gabriel García Márquez. I learn the novel again in highschool, so I’ve mainly forgotten it at this level, which can make watching the present that significantly better. I’ve additionally been eager to brush up on my Spanish, so this couldn’t come at a greater time.
So far, critics are raving in regards to the Spanish-language drama which boasts a 100% ranking on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Considering the issue of the project,” writes Time’s Judy Berman, “it’s exceptional how shut Netflix’s splendid One Hundred Years of Solitude… involves recreating not simply the substance, but additionally the kinetic spirit of the e-book.” Berman notes that the manufacturing took six years to movie and produce. “The endurance afforded to the manufacturing reveals in its monumental scale, in addition to within the motion and element that administrators Alex García López (The Witcher) and Laura Mora (The Kings of the World) obtain on display. Each hourlong episode accommodates dozens, possibly lots of, of astonishing photos.”
The Telegraph’s Keith Watson additionally praises the sequence. “What this adaptation does so nicely,” he writes, “is take Márquez’s creativeness at face worth and allow us to make our personal sense of it.” That’s actually one thing a whole lot of diversifications fail at, both inserting an excessive amount of of the filmmakers’ politics or just altering the story for no good purpose.
One Hundred Years Of Solitude—Cien años de soledad in Spanish—follows the story of the fictional city of Macondo and the Buendia household. The story follows cousins José and Úrsula who marry in opposition to their households’ needs and go away their village to discover a new dwelling. They discovered the city of Macondo on the banks of a Colombian river. “Several generations of the Buendía lineage will form the way forward for this legendary city,” Netflix writes in its description of the sequence, “affected by insanity, unimaginable loves, a bloody and absurd warfare, and a horrible curse that condemns them, with out hope, to 100 years of solitude.”
The 1967 novel has offered over 50 million copies and has been translated into over 40 languages. It’s been described as one of the crucial vital Spanish-language works of literature of all time. Gabriel García Márquez was one of the crucial vital voices within the magical realism motion inside Latin America, and the sequence is shot within the writer’s native Colombia.
“Not solely does the Spanish-language sequence breathe new life into Márquez’ supposedly unfilmable novel,” Collider’s Carly Lane writes, “however it additionally succeeds as a triumph of filmmaking because of gorgeous cinematography and an epic story that spans throughout a number of generations.”
Variety’s Aramide Tinubu praises the present’s faithfulness to the supply materials, whereas questioning if it may be just a little too trustworthy for contemporary audiences who would possibly choose extra motion. “A monumental enterprise that unpacks each single layer of Márquez’s novel, the sequence generally feels a bit dense,” Tinubu writes, “permitting every sequence to air out, even when it feels painful or pointless. Reining within the plot for a modern-day tv viewers might need offered a extra thrilling adaptation. Nevertheless, in permitting viewers to meander by means of the story, “One Hundred Years of Solitude” is offered because the novelist wrote it, with a wealth of element and profound eloquence.”
I’ll take profound eloquence and faithfulness to the supply materials over dumbing issues down for contemporary audiences any day of the week.
I’ve solely watched a few of Part 1 thus far, however it really is visually gorgeous and a gripping drama. The present’s creators have created a lush, vibrant and immersive world that pulls you in from the very first body. There is actually magic right here. Claudio Cataño, who performs Colonel Aureliano within the present, described engaged on One Hundred Years Of Solitude as “an arduous and beautiful pleasure.” I believe that may be how audiences expertise the sequence as nicely. I’ll have a evaluate of Part 1 up right here on this weblog once I’ve completed all 8 episodes.
Part 1 is accessible now on Netflix, with eight extra episodes to come back at an unspecified later date. Have you watched but? Are you a fan of the novel? Let me know your ideas on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. Also make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and comply with me right here on this weblog. Sign up for my e-newsletter for extra opinions and commentary on leisure and tradition.