Romancero – Review [Prime Video Series]

ROMANCERO on Prime Video is a new Spanish supernatural horror mini-series. It features demons, witches, and blood drinkers. All interesting enough, but the narrative style makes it too confusing. Read our full Romancero season 1 review here!

ROMANCERO is a new Prime Video mini-series from Spain. When you begin watching the first episode, you may get the feeling that something is wrong. As in “Is this really episode 1?” because it begins in the middle of the story.

Don’t worry, you’re on the right track, but the story is told in a very “broken” way. The episodes are only 30 minutes and there are six episodes in the season. However, each episode tends to start in a different (non-linear) place and often introduces new characters. Not ideal in my book, but that’s all about preference, I suppose.

Continue reading our full Romancero season 1 review below. It’s on Prime Video now.

There’s a good story here

I’m mentioning it several times because it really does matter; The story is interesting enough, but the narrative style makes it too confusing. It’s a damn shame because there is truly a good story in Romancero.

We follow several characters, but at the heart of the story is Cornelia (Elena Matic). She’s a girl who’s been robbed of her childhood. Her strange life takes a turn when she meets the teenager Jordán (Sasha Cócola), and he does whatever he can to help her.

In many ways, it reminded me of Let the Right One In because of their relationship. She’s covered in blood when we first meet the two, and he knows what she’s capable of. Still, Jordán feels safe with Cornelia and wants to protect her. Just as she has already protected him – this is hinted at in episode 1 and explained further later.

The two very young individuals are running from both the police and an entire village, it seems. Also, there are those supernatural elements to Romancero that I won’t do spoilers for.

Social commentary in a supernatural setting

The new Spanish supernatural horror mini-series has lots of different creatures and manages to touch on dark real-life subjects. As such, it’s both a social commentary and a supernatural adventure with demons, witches, and blood drinkers.

While not supernatural, a recent Netflix release was set in an alternative universe of a post-apocalyptic kind. The Spanish Netflix movie Nowhere also featured social commentary and was a survival story. Do check it out if that’s your thing.

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Check out our review of the Nowhere movie on Netflix here >

My main issue with Romancero really is the narrative style. It’s like we’re getting a few puzzle pieces, but without knowing the full image. Also, with each new episode, we tend to get pieces from a new corner of the puzzle. Honestly, I enjoy this sometimes, but in the case of Romancero, it’s just lacking something.

Watch Romancero on Prime Video now!

The creators of Romancero are Fernando Navarro and Tomás Peña with Tomás Peña also directing the mini-series. The cast is very intriguing and includes Sasha Cocola, Elena Matic, Ricardo Gómez, Alba Flores, Belén Cuesta, Txunamy Ortiz, Guillermo Toledo, Julieta Cardinali, and Malcolm Treviño-Sitté.

Also, the female star of the Spanish film festival hit The Coffee Table (org. title: La mesita del comedor) is in Romancero. Almost on the down-low, it would appear as if she’s not mentioned anywhere really. However, she’s a bartender in episode 2 and has both a face and voice you recognize, if you’ve watched The Coffee Table.

This new Prime Video series was released without much fanfare. In fact, we didn’t even come across it on any upcoming release lists. We completely missed it until it was mentioned in passing in a newsletter after it was already out. It seems not many have noticed it, which is a shame.

Even though I wasn’t personally a fan of its narrative choices, it has important messages and a deep dark undercurrent that intrigues me. Give it a shot if you’re intrigued and get ready to be kept in the dark for quite some time. Most likely longer than you’ll like. That was certainly the case for me.

Romancero was quietly released globally on Prime Video on November 3, 2023.

Details

Creators: Fernando Navarro, Tomás Peña
Director: Tomás Peña
Stars: Sasha Cocola, Elena Matic, Ricardo Gómez, Alba Flores, Belén Cuesta, Txunamy Ortiz, Guillermo Toledo, Julieta Cardinali, Malcolm Treviño-Sitté