Netflix hopes for another Spanish-language hit with “Ingobernable”

By T.W.

THERE was a time when film and television producers thought that English-speaking audiences were allergic to subtitles. Such was the fear of foreign languages that successful films such as Sweden’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and television series like France’s “The Returned” were remade entirely for Anglophone viewers. Most foreign-language hits never made it to English-speaking markets at all.

Now it seems that media firms are more willing to serve up foreign titles to their audiences. Scandinavian series such as “The Killing” and “Borgen” had British audiences hooked. Then, in 2015, Netflix took a bold step with “Narcos”, a drama about the life and death of Pablo Escobar, a Colombian drug lord. Though the story was told through the voice of an American agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration, most of the dialogue was in Spanish. Audiences in the United States and Latin America alike lapped it up.

On March 24th Netflix is launching a new series that it hopes will pull off the same trick. “Ingobernable” stars Kate del Castillo as a Mexican first lady who is on the run following the mysterious death of her husband, the president. The title, which means “ungovernable”, could be taken to refer to the gutsy primera dama as much as it describes the lawless republic. Ms del Castillo is a superstar in her native Mexico. Others may have come across her in the context of her bizarre trip in 2015 with Sean Penn, an American actor, to interview Joaquín “el Chapo” Guzmán, then the world’s most wanted man, in his hideout in the Sierra Madre. (The visit may well have been what led the authorities to the gangster, who now languishes in an American prison.)

“Ingobernable” feels more authentically Latin American than “Narcos”. It is shot and produced in Mexico City, by a Mexican firm that has made a string of successful telenovela soap operas. English-speaking audiences may find it a touch melodramatic, at least to begin with: the pilot episode features the first couple having a very impassioned argument as lightning crackles absurdly in the background. But the plot races along and by the third episode this reviewer was rather enjoying it.

It will be interesting to see where the show is most popular. Mexican audiences will devour it, as will those Americans who are addicted to imported telenovelas. The tougher test will be whether an authentically Latin American show can find a wider audience—and whether, if successful, it can escape one day being remade in English.

The first 15 episodes of “Ingobernable” are available worldwide on Netflix now