The Snow Girl – Netflix Series Review

THE SNOW GIRL on Netflix is a new Spanish thriller series (org. title: La chica de nieve). There are six episodes to this mini-series and lots of mystery. A young girl disappears and both the police and a journalist search for her for years. Read our full The Snow Girl series review here!

THE SNOW GIRL on Netflix is a new Spanish thriller series (org. title: La chica de nieve). When a 5-year-old girl disappears during a Holiday parade, the police and a very tenacious journalist spend years searching for her. The series plays out over more than nine years.

While the title does refer to the lost girl (in a somewhat symbolic way that will be revealed), many other crimes and side stories are also covered. Some might find this annoying, but I felt it was suitable for the pacing. Of course, with the terrible actions of many bad people, it’s also quite a bleak and dark worldview, you’re exposed to.

Continue reading our The Snow Girl series review below. Find all six episodes on Netflix from January 27, 2023.

It all begins in 2010

The story of The Snow Girl begins with a festive scene in 2010. We’re in Malaga where the yearly Magi Parade (also known as the Three Wise Men parade) is in full swing. However, for the Martín family, this magical time of the year suddenly turns into a nightmare. Their daughter Amaya disappears in the vast crowd and is nowhere to be found.

Obviously, this becomes a police investigation since Amaya Martín is only 5 years old. The investigation is led by Inspector Millán, who is doing everything she can to find the child. Meanwhile, we follow Miren, a trainee journalist, who is working on this disappearance case even more intensely than the police.

Fortunately, Inspector Millán (Aixa Villagrán) and investigative journalist Miren (Milena Smit from The Girl in the Mirror) manage to work together for the most part. This becomes especially important when a VHS tape is sent to the journalist Miren six years into the disappearance of Amaya. On the tape, a girl who appears to be a recent recording of Amaya is shown.

While working on the disappearance of Amaya, Miren is also forced to confront a terrible part of her past that she would rather forget. A brutal attack that she can’t entirely remember, but which haunts her constantly pushes her to focus even more on Amaya’s case.

Her mentor and journalist colleague Eduardo (Jose Coronado from Your Son / Tu Hijo) helps Miren. Especially because he knows about the past that torments her and recognizes that she won’t stop until Amaya Martín is found.

Many time jumps throughout the six episodes

Because The Snow Girl plays out across a good decade, the story is told via many time jumps. Fortunately, they are always clearly labeled, so you won’t get lost in the timelines. As the years go by, we see how the parents suffer. And also how they age much more than you would expect.

Loreto Mauleón (God’s Crooked Lines on Netflix) plays Amaya’s mother and Raúl Prieto (The Silence of the Marsh) plays her father. The strain of losing a daughter in such a tragic way is obvious in a physical way. However, it was positive that they also tried to stick together whenever any news (mostly the VHS update) arrives.

The time jumps are efficient in the sense that they show the consequences on many lives. They’re less good at completely wrapping up all the little stories. But hey, such is life and we simply will never know the answers to everything. Even if we feel we need to know.

So much evil in the world

In a series where many people are bad in the most sinister of ways – both men and women – it’s important that we also see people who are good. And we do come across plenty of both men and women who are good. Milena Smit’s main character as the journalist Miren is good.

However, after being forced to experience so much evil – on her own body as well as what she discovers while searching for Amaya – her moral compass is somewhat corrupted. Is this a bad thing? Well, that’s probably something that everyone could answer with their own nuances.

For me, Milena Smit (who co-starred in Pedro Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers) portrays the character as a person who has wounds on her soul. We see her try to patch them up by focusing on helping someone else. It works really well for me, but I can imagine others wouldn’t view it the same way.

The final two episodes really do switch up the story a lot by changing the angle in one episode and reaching a definite conclusion to the main case in the final episode. Still, don’t expect the ending of The Snow Girl to be all pretty and happy. This story is far too realistic to suddenly go all fairytale on us.

Watch The Snow Girl on Netflix!

The writers on this Netflix thriller series are Jesús Mesas Silva (Estoy vivo) and Javier Andrés Roig (Vis a vis). There are two directors attached with David Ulloa (Perdida) directing four episodes, and Laura Alvea (Ánimas) directing two.

The Snow Girl is based on the novel “La chica de nieve” by Javier Castillo. However, the novel does actually take place in New York with American characters, where the girl (who is only three years on in the book) disappears during a Thanksgiving parade. For this Netflix series adaption, some changes have been made to the story.

Then again, since the author Javier Castillo was born in Málaga (Spain) himself, changing the story to being set there – with a Spanish family and a regional parade – makes sense. Of course, I don’t have a personal relationship with the novel as I haven’t read it, so maybe that’s why I didn’t mind this change. The story could easily be played out in either place.

The Snow Girl (La chica de nieve) will be out on Netflix from January 27, 2023.

Details

Directors: David Ulloa, Laura Alvea
Writers: Jesús Mesas Silva, Javier Andrés Roig
Cast: Milena Smit, José Coronado, Aixa Villagrán, Tristán Ulloa, Loreto Mauleón, Raúl Prieto, Cecilia Freire, Julián Villagrán