The first season of One Hundred Years Of Solitude managed to wrangle the complex narrative of Gabriel García Márquez’s classic 1967 novel in a way that made it make sense for a limited TV series. Two years after the first half of the series debuted, the second half brings the multigenerational story to a conclusion.
Opening Shot: A windstorm rips through a house, an orange sky coloring everything around. A man looks through a book with what looks like Sanskrit in it.
The Gist: In the village of Macondo, Colonel Aureliano Buendía (Claudio Cataño) is back in charge and ready to execute General José Raquel Moncada (Salvador del Solar), despite protests from the women in town, including his mother, Úrsula Iguarán (Marleyda Soto). The colonel is adamant that anyone from the conservative government should be executed, but it also seems that he’s in charge of a rogue liberal revolution that is losing ground every day.
Twin brothers José Arcadio Segundo (Emmanuel Suaza) and Aureliano Segundo (Thiago Suaza) start to lead separate lives, with José taking refuge in the church and Aureliano seeing visions of Melquiades (Moreno Borja).
The colonel’s son, Aureliano José (Emilio Sánchez Vera), starts to unravel after his father is poisoned but survives, then is rejected when he seeks solace in the arms of his aunt and former lover, Amaranta (Loren Sofía). After one drunken night, he’s taken in by Pilar Ternera (Viña Machado), who tries to set him up with women with whom he can settle down and start a family.
Meanwhile, Úrsula keeps track of every woman who arrives at their estate with a boy who is the colonel’s offspring. She ends up counting seventeen in all. Aureliano José wants nothing to do with his father, but keeps being lumped in with the revolution by conservatives. The colonel rejects an armistice suggested by the conservative president, but starts to reconsider, even after one of his most loyal men, Gerineldo Márquez (Enrique Poveda), expresses how much shame that would bring him and the rest of the liberal movement.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The sprawling, multigenerational nature of One Hundred Years Of Solitude reminds us a bit of Shōgun.
Our Take: There is a very dense narrative to get through in One Hundred Years Of Solitude, with layers that include family strife, political maneuvering, and battles for what seems to be small amounts of territory. Most of the first season centered around Colonel Aureliano Buendía, but it seems like the second season will focus on José Arcadio Segundo and Aureliano Segundo as time marches forward.
The first episode of “Part 2” makes this transition in a way that is dark, both physically (we could barely see most night scenes) and emotionally, with the colonel seeing the writing on the wall when it comes to an armistice and Aureliano José paying the ultimate price because of his association with his father. It’s a transition that’s a bit jumbled, especially if you’ve forgotten how everyone is related to each other, but by the end of the episode, it’s sorted out to the point where the story can move forward.
As with the first season, there is mysticism floating around the edges of the story, and a narration that ties together all the various story threads. The visuals (when we could see them) were detailed and lush. Given how complicated things get with the colonel’s progeny, the writers do a good job of making sure we know who they all are, even if we had to backtrack at times to make sure we were following who we thought we were following.
Performance Worth Watching: Claudio Cataño plays Colonel Aureliano Buendía’s internal conflict well. He knows he’s in a losing battle with the conservatives, but giving up is something that he knows will dishearten everyone who fought for the cause.
Sex And Skin: There is some of both, but much of it is incidental and brief.
Parting Shot: The colonel takes extreme measures after signing the armistice, but we’re not one hundred percent sure of his fate at the end of the episode.
Sleeper Star: Cristal Aparicio plays Remedios The Beauty, who has no problem parading around her house naked, or starting to strip down in church.
Most Pilot-y Line: Nothing really stands out. We just wish the visuals in the night scenes were easier to see.
Our Call: STREAM IT. The second part of One Hundred Years Of Solitude starts out a bit muddled but generally does a good job of setting up the conclusion of its story as time moves forward.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.