*want. *lie. *judge. *lose.
'Want'the first series by Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, is “a trial of the last decades in four episodes.” After 30 years of marriage and two children together, Miren leaves the marital home and denounces her husband for continued rape. This serious accusation forces the children to choose between believing their mother or supporting a father who defends his innocence, in a family journey that advances parallel to the judicial one with the same objective: Knowing the truth. A truth that, as they say, will make you free… but also prisoners. Prisoners of intentions that usually surround the suggestive power of a film or a series, thus undermining the opinion of a viewer who is ultimately asked nothing more than to react. Even though everyone still has their prejudices and points of view, and therefore in any case we tend to see life, the world and stories in our own way. The doubt of the two aforementioned children is also the doubt of the viewer, reaching its zenith in its third and exquisite episode: The Trial. But in the fourth episode Ruiz de Azúa decides to resolve (or kill) that doubt. Make known… the truth. A legitimate and respectable decision that does not harm the objective assessment of what in form and substance remains a great miniseries, but it does take away from the viewer the always juicy possibility of thinking for themselves. In this way, the debate becomes no longer a debate and becomes nothing more than a reaction, perhaps temporary and without further progress. That's it. This is what it is, end. And what there is is a great series that for a good part of its footage places us in that Machiavellian point of uncertainty that suits any fiction with a hint of reality so well. It constitutes, in fact, a plausible and organic reality… instead of an allegation, whether pamphletary or not.
'Want' aims to delve deeper into the concept of consent, and go beyond the controversial “yes means yes.” The person responsible for 'five little wolves' presents and develops its story with great rigor and zero morbidity, with a hyperrealistic approach that unfolds in a Nordic, gray and leaden environment portrayed in panoramic format and within a society that controls its emotions, does not usually air its problems and tends to containment as a symbol of strength. Its intention to treat the viewer as a judge is obvious, without resorting to flashbacks or showing absolute certainties… at least until said fourth and final episode, which largely limits and conditions our verdict to a single truth that goes from being polyhedral to little more than institutional. Thus, what we see, hear and feel ends up being redirected towards what from that moment on becomes a cold, dry and very contained fiction. Don't get me wrong: 'Want' is a remarkable miniseries that unfolds with exquisite formal, narrative and plot solidity through four episodes conceived as a kind of anthology. Want (or suffer). Lying (or prejudging). Judge (or survive). And lose (or win). Now, given its approach and development, the decision to resolve the mystery ends up working against it, thus transforming a constructive debate into a reactive one. Something that, given its extremely serene and impassive appearance, neither compensates nor threatens to compensate with some type of emotional note or underlining that somehow encourages a resolution that does not seem as calculated, mechanical and distant as a speech that is more political than human. It is, ultimately, this that hinders a great series in almost any sense that, however, does not end up transcending what is so politically correct… as temporary.
