*Premise spoilers.*
Note: La Máquina came out a while ago now, but I wrote these reviews when I first watched the show, sitting on the edge of my seat just after its release. I’ve been sitting on them until I finished posting my New Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre reviews, and their time has finally come!
When I first heard about this miniseries, even knowing virtually nothing about it, I was excited. And why not? Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal acting together onscreen again. Yes, please! For a long time, it was just a forthcoming question mark in Luna’s filmography, but then we finally got first-look images and a release date, then a trailer. And now it’s finally here!
Esteban Osuna, known in the boxing ring as La Máquina, is past his prime and he knows it. After a humiliating first-round knockout from a younger challenger, he’s become a joke within the sport, and everyone thinks he’s finished. His slick/shifty manager, his childhood best friend Andy, has managed to score a rematch—but now Esteban has to train on a punishing timeframe. While Andy does his best to hold his friend’s career together, Esteban wonders if there’s anything left to salvage.
The first words that come to mind with this episode are “stylish” and “confident.” It projects a sense that this miniseries knows exactly what it wants to be. Each scene, each interaction, feels like an intentional building block for the story. I love how, after opening with the buildup to Esteban’s disastrous first fight with the young Protasio, we smashcut to him waking up in an ambulance, asking, “…Did we win?” Sitting beside him, Andy responds, “What do you think, asshole?”
The episode is put together so well, and I’m really liking what it has to say so far. Aging/running out of time is an important theme for both Esteban and Andy—Esteban’s anxiety is explored well, and I like watching as he tries to picture what his life is going to look like post-boxing. I also find it very interesting that he’s sober, which has to be tough for him as a celebrity in Mexico. When his doctor asks if he’s been going to meetings, he explains that it felt too complicated to open up when everyone in the room knew who he was and wanted selfies.
Gael García Bernal is doing a great job as Esteban. His performance is quite understated compared to Luna’s (more on him in a minute,) but you can really feel everything weighing on Esteban as he trains for a fight that he thinks is probably going to signal the end of his career. I’m also really liking Jorge Perugorría as Esteban’s trainer Sixto. The episode title comes from an excellent speech he gives before the rematch with Protasio. And while we haven’t seen a lot from her yet, Eiza González has a good spark as Esteban’s ex Irasema. Even if their marriage didn’t work out, it’s clear how much they still care about each other, and she very much remains a part of his life.
Okay, now let’s talk about Diego Luna as Andy. This is a character who’s all outward flash and artifice, a guy who’s followed the old “fake it ‘til you make it” mantra so hard that it’s tricky to know who he really is. He’s constantly moving, constantly talking, all distraction. Truth is flexible, image is everything, and things will happen purely because he won’t stop until they do.
As I said, aging is a major theme for both Esteban and Andy. While Esteban worries about his body letting him down in the ring, Andy is trying to hold back the clock through cosmetic tweaks and Botox injections. I knew going into the show that Luna would be wearing facial prosthetics to create Andy’s waxy-looking, overly plumped appearance, and I was a little apprehensive about how that was going to work. Luna is an actor who conveys so much with his non-verbal performance, and I was wary of anything that got in the way of his ability to emote. But for this character, it actually works really well. Because Andy is all about selling an image, he often projects more confidence than he feels, insisting that everything is great and he’s on top of it. And his facial muscles have a limited range of motion, making him less expressive, but that just means that you’re left seeing his desperation and panic only in his eyes. It’s almost like his face is an actual mask, and just his eyes give away what he’s really thinking.
First impressions:
Recommend?
In General – Yes. This is a killer first episode, and I’m excited to see where it goes next!
Diego Luna – I would. We don’t often see Luna play characters like this, and while his performance is broader than his usual style, he still brings an honesty to it that’s really compelling.
Warnings
Violence, language, drinking/smoking, sexual references, and thematic elements.
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