Stream It or Skip It: ‘Someone Has to Die’ on Netflix, Where The Vigor Of Youth Smashes Headlong Into Society Family Drama In Franco’s Spain

Someone Has To Die introduces us to the passions and pastimes of Spanish high society in the years after the Spanish Civil War. The Falcons have it all — fabulous mansion, fancy friends, exclusive club memberships, and most of all, the favor of the Franco government, thanks to Papa Gregorio’s position. But naturally, all is not well. Old wounds still bleed, rivalries are afoot, graft is rampant, and the patriarch’s plans to arrange a marriage of convenience for his prodigal son are about to be turned asunder. Not even El Caudillo can stamp out the flames of this family’s emotions.

SOMEONE HAS TO DIE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A caged pigeon in close-up, its beady eye darting around, searching. The cage releases and the bird takes flight, only to be felled by a shotgun blast here at this shooting club for the well-to-do.

The Gist: Spain, 1954. The Falcon family enjoys all the trappings of high society, even as Francisco Franco’s nationalist dictatorship crushes dissent under the bootheel of the state and shuttles undesirables into prisons and factory labor. Gregorio, the father, is a Francoist bureaucrat and domestic tyrant who rules over the family’s home and social fortunes with his scheming, traditionalist mother in tow. His wife Mina, originally from Mexico but long a member of Spain’s elite, sees the greater world changing but is stuck under Gregorio’s thumb. The Falcons’ only son Gabino has just arrived home after a decade spent with Mina’s family in Mexico. Gregorio has arranged to marry Gabino to Cayetana, favorite daughter of the wealthy Aldama family. The match would secure the Falcons in society, and grease the wheels for state labor contracts to run through Senor Aldama’s network of factories. Papa’s seemingly got it all sorted. Problem is, Gabino’s come back from Mexico with a “friend,” a lithe young dancer named Lazaro. And children of any age or privilege rarely do what their parents tell them.

Someone Has to Die drops more than one reference to the events of ten years before, and a particular incident which roiled the wealthy strata the Falcons roll with. It scarred the family, seems to have killed Gregorio’s father, tore apart Gabino’s friendship with Alonso Aldama, and is definitely the reason he was sent abroad as a 10-year-old. Now, a decade later, it’s still the scuttlebutt down at the pigeon shooting club, where hoity toity Old Money and the shiftless scions of the next generation strut around in herringbone gabardine hunting coats and whisper about each other from behind ermine collars. When Gabino leans into Lazaro with a few pointers about hefting a 16-gauge, the sneering observers wonder just what the Falcon son might have learned during all those years away.

Written and directed by Mexican director Manolo Caro, Someone follows the Netflix success of his House of Flowers, and features Cecilia Suarez from that series as Mina, the conflicted Falcon matriarch. Meanwhile, legendary Spanish actress Carmen Maura is delightfully evil as Mina’s cunning, fiercely traditionalist mother-in-law. The costume design is sumptuous throughout Someone Has to Die, the setting of Francoist Spain observes that regime from the inside out, and the intrigues and innuendos are already flying like birds on a wing in this, the first of three episodes.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The gilded world of Downton Abbey is on display in Someone, too, complete with friction between upstairs family and downstairs service. The mysteries and lavish costuming of Spanish period drama High Seas (Netflix) also surface here, as does the red-blooded passion of Netflix’s Grand Hotel.

Our Take: what did we think? There’s plenty to work with here. Someone Has to Die is chock full of loaded glances, lusty promises, and secrets lurking behind bottles of garnacha. Everyone smokes, all the time. Even grandma. The lapels are wide, the jazz is hot, and the curtain of conservative Spain is about to be torn open. And since we already know a bit about these characters’ motivations (hint: anger and sexual repression are key), it’s a guarantee that what we see in episodes two and three will match or surpass the simmering intrigue on display here.

Sex and Skin: We see Alonso and his teammates showering after soccer; Mina gets an eyeful of Lazaro in his bare essentials.

Parting Shot: Everybody’s hot for Lazaro, Gabino’s hot under the collar, idealistic mom Mina’s ideals are cowed by her embittered husband and conniving mother-in-law, and as the camera swirls around the Falcon family table and a tense cello swells, the patriarch learns just how much his grand plan is quickly turning to mierda.

Sleeper Star: Ester Exposito. We meet Cayetana Aldama with a smoking gun in hand, as she confidently trounces her brother Alonso in pigeon shooting. Impish grin fixed in place, Exposito plays Cayetana as a young woman who knows the score, embracing the strictures of Society life even as she flaunts her independence and kisses whoever she wants.

Most Pilot-y Line: “Ever since you were a boy you’ve been dreaming up stories,” Grandma Amparo tells Gabino. “Why not accept that this is your life?” We know Gabino has no intention of submitting to Amparo and his father’s wishes. Grams putting his own thoughts in her grandson’s ear plays a bit clunky.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Even as limited series go, this one is limited, clocking in at three episodes. And besides, the pilot has placed its dynamite in all the best spots. The blasting caps are set. The plunger at the firing line’s end is primed, raised and ready. We already know someone has to die. It’s only a matter of how long the fuse stays lit.

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges

Watch Someone Has To Die on Netflix