The Secret of the Greco Family Review: Inspired by An Incredible True Story That Shocked Argentina
Cast: Fernando Colunga, Lisa Owen, Manuel Masalva
Creator: Sebastiàn Ortega
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3/5 (three and a half stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
The nine-episode series entitled The Secret of the Greco Family (El Secreto de la Familia Greco) debuts on Netflix on Friday, November 4, a product intended for the small screen of Mexican production and tells in great detail, and a careful and effective study of the psychologies of the people involved, one of the cases of most shocking kidnapping in the history of Argentina in the 1980s. The series, inspired by the Argentine telenovela “Historia De Un Clan“, brings back a criminal tale that at the time caused a sensation in the South American nation of the decade, but which showrunner Sebastiàn Ortega decides to set in the Mexico of the roaring 80s trying to also tell a bit of history of the country that “hosts” the events drawn from the incredible true story.
In our review of The Secret of the Greco Family, we will try to analyze how the Netflix series manages to drag and involve the viewer in a story of kidnapping and blood that few know, and that perhaps deserved to finally be told to a wider audience. possible. The Netflix show succeeds in full, despite everything.
The Secret of the Greco Family Review: The Story Plot
Mexico, in the early 1980s, The Mexican Greek family, under the facade of a traditional family nucleus, hides the soul and ambitions of the criminal clans who kidnap, torture and kill their victims if the former does not obtain the required ransom. A bloody and ruthless family that is forced to act in the shadow of the underworld when a sudden economic crisis hits their company; to regain their social status, the Greco will stop at nothing, not even the kidnapping of the best friend of Andres, the fourth son of the pater familias Aquiles Greco.
From these premises was born the television series The Secret of the Greco Family, an adaptation for the small screen of the Argentine series “Historia De Un Clan” which in turn was inspired by the misdeeds of the family that terrorized the public life of the South American nation in the 1980s. The showrunner and producer of the Netflix series, however, change the name and surname of the protagonists: Aquiles Greco, the criminal head of the family, is inspired by the truly existent figure of Arquìmedes Rafael Puccio, one of the most ruthless serial killers in the history of Argentina.
The Secret of the Greco Family Review and Analysis
In this case, the true story of the Puccio family becomes a television product suitable for a rather transversal audience of (tele) spectators; after changing the names and surnames of the characters involved in fictional and real events, Sebastiàn Ortega as a good showrunner also changes the location: therefore we are no longer in Argentina in the 1980s, but in Mexico of the same decade, almost to want to give his story for the small screen an almost universal aura, without a well-defined space. Ortega’s Netflix product seems to want to wink more than once at a certain way of doing television, which here in Italy we would erroneously categorize as prime-time “fiction”. Yet, beyond the simple appearances of such a relativistic label, there is much more.
In The Secret of the Greco Family, there is the desire to tell the family saga of its protagonists by playing a little with the expectations of the public, a little with the little knowledge of the real events that occurred on the part of his audience, and finally, a bit with the mixture of genres and languages typical of television, passing with extreme ease from family drama to the hard and pure crime genre. Perhaps in this curious balance lies the winning key of The Secret of the Greco Family, or rather in knowing how to pass with great nonchalance (sometimes even within the same episode) from the tones and narratives typical of the family drama all generational conflicts between parents and children to the point of assuming the unexpected and surprising appearance of the caper movie, that is to say of that cinematographic genre characterized by criminal acts, escapes from the authorities and daring robberies, all declined in television sauce.
A chameleonic structure that of the television series created and produced by Sebastiàn Ortega which is also perfectly reflected in the musical choice of the soundtrack: the 80s are effectively re-proposed to the viewer thanks to a parterre of catchy compositions of the time mixed with simplicity with an original musical commentary all synthesizers and electronic instruments, which in the credits almost seems to evoke the soundtrack of Oliver Stone’s Scarface. And of course, it is no coincidence.
In this bloody tale in which a ruthless and multifaceted portrait of a family/clan without any scruples reigns supreme, the ambition and will of the production of the aforementioned series emerges: wanting to tell with colloquial tones and expressions and from great popular fiction one of the most sensational criminal events in the twentieth-century history of South America, without overly pretentious animosities. Perhaps a little too little for a true story that deserved greater media coverage, but with the inevitable word of mouth of Netflix, users could become trendy again and generate historiographical and documentary discussion.
The Secret of the Greco Family Review: The Last Words
The series created by Sebastiàn Ortega tells a shocking story of the kidnapping that in the 80s held the bench in the public opinion of Argentina and does so by staging a product intended for the small screen simple and effective, almost “popular” in wanting to tell criminal events to the largest possible audience of spectators.
