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Post by Admin on Dec 9, 2017 18:43:43 GMT -5
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Post by northboundtrain on Dec 10, 2017 16:02:47 GMT -5
Okay, so I just finished the first half of the first episode and I wanted to get my thoughts down now before I watch the second half and it all leaves my head, LOL.
* Overall, I really enjoy what I've seen so far. It's grabbing me in a way that Cable Girls (the last new offering from Bambu that I tried) really didn't -- I gave up on Cable Girls a couple of episodes in (and may still go back to it one day when I have time), but I'm really looking forward to watching the rest of this series even though I've only seen the first part of the pilot. I think one of the differences is that there's something about Cable Girls that strikes me as slick and overly produced (very clearly manufactured, in many respects, to go after the Velvet audience), whereas this just seems like a period drama -- and I mean that in a good way. While there are some elements out of the Bambu playbook (which I'll get to in a moment), at the end of the day it doesn't feel like an attempt to capitalize on a particular property, but more like the writers found a story they liked and wrote it.
* Okay, so, Bambu elements -- we've got AS as a very Alicia-like character (at least so far) devoted to her family and her sense of duty, resourceful, brave, and (at least right now) kind of prickly toward her intended love interest. No complaints here with her portrayal so far. We've also got JS, doing a great job as usual. And, at the center of the drama, we've got a group of three women (and roommates, no less!).
* Speaking of the three young women, Julia, Pilar, and Magdalena, to go back and compare them to Cable Girls, this group feels more like the true successor to "las Chicas Velvet" that the Cable Girls were trying to be. Whereas with CG it felt a little forced, at least in the couple of episodes I watched, here the dynamic feels more natural, even though I'm only half an episode in.
* I also really loved the juxtaposition of the letters the three women were writing home -- Alicia worried about her brother and Andres, Magdalena generally freaking out about their current situation (loved her little correction, "I think they're bombs"), and Pilar requesting supplies for the wounded men. Nicely sums up their characters' mental states.
* The opening credits are stunning, and the music is really beautiful.
* I like the touch that the nurses are using an old school house as their hospital, since technically they are still students whose education was itself interrupted.
* I also liked the choreographing of the arrival of the wounded men -- really gave me a sense of the chaos.
* Something I need to go back and rewatch -- was that Carmen who was coughing up blood? That's generally a bad sign, but I checked and she lived well into the 1950s in real life, so I could be wrong about what was going on there.
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alfi
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Post by alfi on Dec 11, 2017 12:03:29 GMT -5
Just to give you some historical and geographical references about this show i researched some info:
* If you check a map of Spain you will notice there are two small cities in the north-African coast which are Spanish, Ceuta (closest to the Iberian peninsula) and Melilla, where the action takes place. Both were conquered more than 5 hundred of years ago as part of the fight against Berber pirates who constantly attacked not only the Iberian coast but a lot of other places in Europe, from Italy to the British islands, for plunder and slaves. Between these two cities and to the south until the Atlas mountains is the territory known as "the Rif", Spanish territory back then, where different Berber tribes (cabilas) live. Notice that the main force of the Muslim army which invaded Spain in the 711 were formed by this kind of tribes, famous because of horsemanship and bellicosity.
*These tribes living in the mountainous part of "the Rif" rebelled against the Spanish occupation, which was mining iron of high quality without them getting anything. There were a lot of opposition in Spain against this war, we are talking about the working class fight for rights period, Marxism, anarchism... a working class which suffered the most in that and every war.
* The battle of Annual, which is the starting point of the show, was a total disaster for the Spanish army in north Africa. Bad strategic and logistic decisions and an awfully trained and equipped conscripted army, formed mainly by the poorest Spaniards, contributed to the disaster. Here in the show they still didn't give numbers but estimations are over 13000 Spanish casualties. Also what Riffian soldiers did to the captured Spanish soldiers that Pilar describes to Magdalena is almost euphemistic of what really happened, it was much much worse, it was a terror campaign designed by their leader Abd el-Krim to weaken pro-war positions in Spain. Shortly after this battle, Spain started using chemical war against the Berber rebels (chemical war forbidden in 1925 by the Geneva Protocol).
I had my reservations about this show, since it's a drama which main demographic target are women, but the characters so far are very well written, i actually like them, and the fact they are using the (non so-well known but non the less interesting character) duchess (copy&paste) María del Carmen Angoloti y Mesa (who was in charge of the Spanish red cross activity in the war and eventually became the president of the red Cross hospitals in Spain) and such dreadful events give a lot of entity to the show.
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Post by Admin on Dec 11, 2017 12:50:25 GMT -5
^Thank you so much for the historical background alfi! Those names of places and of people come up a lot, it's nice to know more about them. I've never learned about this war but it's interesting to know what caused it and it's effects. War is a horrible thing but it's something that happened/happens. I agree a lot with this! Even though I have watched Cable Girls and plan to continue watching, it isn't as I guess "orignal" as Velvet and Gran Hotel, in the sense that they seem to want to cater to a certain audience which makes it feel less original. But this show, like you've mentioned, just feels like a period drama which it's meant to be. I'm really looking forward to watching the rest of it as I haven't loved another spanish series as much as Velvet and Gran Hotel since. But this one looks to have that same feel which is exciting. THIS! I love them already. I also felt that way with Velvet Collection. They tried to force a new set of "las chicas velvet" with Clara, Paloma, and Marie that just didn't feel natural. But I'm already loving the natural feel here with those three. It kind of reminds me of Gran Hotel! Yes that was her coughing up blood! Maybe they'll use it as some plot device for awhile but then she'll end up being fine in the end. As for my take, I really like how Julia is like Julio in that she decides to go on that ship headed to Melilla for the purpose of finding out what happened to her brother and fiance. Julio went to the Gran Hotel with that same ambition and ended up making friends and finding the love of his life. lol While meeting enemies on the way, but anyway. I think they're going for a love triangle with her character right? She'll probably keep thinking her fiance is dead and end up with the head doctor who is already promised to JS's daughter. I'm not sure who I'd want her paired up with if that's the case cause her fiance seems like a really nice guy so far but I can totally see the chemistry with her and the head doctor. Another couple I really like is Luis and Pilar. In a way they kind of remind me of, and by kind of I mean very slightly, Clara/Mateo with their banter. Though I'm not sure how it'll go after having watched the first 15 minutes of ep 2 with them.  They've done a really nice job of creating a balance of showing all the elements they want to portray. So far I really like it and ep 2 is already looking really good from what I've subbed. |
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alfi
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Post by alfi on Dec 11, 2017 16:58:10 GMT -5
Yup! i don't remember any opening credits as beautiful as they are, truly beautiful. Just one interesting fact i just found, not only the Duchess and the nurses are based on real characters, the doctor Fidel Calderón is based on a real character as well, Fidel Pagés, inventor of the epidural anesthesia, es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Pag%C3%A9s , so he wanting to improve war surgery is not over the top lol, and he was Aragonese like me, which is a plus  |
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Post by madamminna on Dec 14, 2017 12:16:21 GMT -5
Thanks so much for subbing this show! I have been eager to watch it and I plan to binge these first two this weekend. Are you working on the rest of the episodes?
Alfi, the historical context, as always, is fascinating...
I did watch all of Cable Girls, but it's not nearly in the same league as Velvet, or especially Gran Hotel (which I thought was better done than Velvet). I adore Yon Gonzalez, but I did not buy his character's romance with the female lead (whose name escapes me). There were plot holes upon plot holes, and none of the characters or relationships were sufficiently developed. I didn't really care what happened to any of them. That said, I plan to watch the new season, if only to have some Yon Gonzalez eye candy and to practice my Spanish.
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Post by Admin on Dec 16, 2017 2:24:09 GMT -5
^Yes, I'm working on getting subs for the rest of season 1. It'll take awhile though as the episodes are roughly 70-75 minutes long. But I did just finish subbing all of episode 2. I just need to load the srt file into dailymotion and fix any timing issues so it should be up by tomorrow night.
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Post by Obsessed on Dec 17, 2017 13:04:13 GMT -5
wow! Loving all the comments👍 Just got back from a three week vacation without the internet and couldn't wait to catch up. I'm excited to watch this series with the English subtitles. Thanks for all your hard work Admin and Alfi, and all who contribute.
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