One Hundred Years Of Solitude
Netflix has had a banner year in 2024, releasing some of its best content ever, from brilliant and devastating dramas about the darker side of human nature, to heartwarming tales of human connection and loss, to gorgeous animated series that light up the screen in dazzling color.
Baby Reindeer, which landed this past April, might just be the best Netflix show of all time, though it’s such a tragic and depressing series you really have to be in the right frame of mind when you watch it. The more recent Ted Danson-led A Man On The Inside, was so full of heart and humor that I binged the entire season in one sitting.
And both Arcane and The Dragon Prince have dropped new seasons, giving us more of the best animated content on the streaming service. The Dragon Prince’s next season actually drops in just about a week. I’m sure I’m leaving out many other great Netflix shows from 2024, but we can’t list them all.
Today, Netflix dropped One Hundred Years Of Solitude, though only the first eight episodes of the 16-episode season. The series is based on the literary masterpiece of the same name from Nobel Prize–winning author Gabriel García Márquez. I read the novel back in high school, so I’ve basically forgotten it at this point, which will make watching the show that much better. I’ve also been wanting to brush up on my Spanish, so this couldn’t come at a better time.
So far, critics are raving about the Spanish-language drama which boasts a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Considering the difficulty of the assignment,” writes Time’s Judy Berman, “it’s remarkable how close Netflix’s splendid One Hundred Years of Solitude… comes to recreating not just the substance, but also the kinetic spirit of the book.” Berman notes that the production took six years to film and produce. “The patience afforded to the production shows in its monumental scale, as well as in the movement and detail that directors Alex García López (The Witcher) and Laura Mora (The Kings of the World) achieve on screen. Each hourlong episode contains dozens, maybe hundreds, of astonishing images.”
One Hundred Years Of Solitude
The Telegraph’s Keith Watson also praises the series. “What this adaptation does so well,” he writes, “is take Márquez’s imagination at face value and let us make our own sense of it.” That’s certainly something a lot of adaptations fail at, either inserting too much of the filmmakers’ politics or simply changing the story for no good reason.
One Hundred Years Of Solitude—Cien años de soledad in Spanish—follows the story of the fictional town of Macondo and the Buendia family. The story follows cousins José and Úrsula who marry against their families’ wishes and leave their village to find a new home. They found the town of Macondo on the banks of a Colombian river. “Several generations of the Buendía lineage will shape the future of this mythical town,” Netflix writes in its description of the series, “tormented by madness, impossible loves, a bloody and absurd war, and a terrible curse that condemns them, without hope, to 100 years of solitude.”
The 1967 novel has sold over 50 million copies and has been translated into over 40 languages. It’s been described as one of the most important Spanish-language works of literature of all time. Gabriel García Márquez was one of the most important voices in the magical realism movement within Latin America, and the series is shot in the author’s native Colombia.
“Not only does the Spanish-language series breathe new life into Márquez’ supposedly unfilmable novel,” Collider’s Carly Lane writes, “but it also succeeds as a triumph of filmmaking thanks to stunning cinematography and an epic story that spans across multiple generations.”
Variety’s Aramide Tinubu praises the show’s faithfulness to the source material, while wondering if it might be a little too faithful for modern audiences who might prefer more action. “A monumental undertaking that unpacks every single layer of Márquez’s novel, the series sometimes feels a bit dense,” Tinubu writes, “allowing each sequence to air out, even when it feels painful or unnecessary. Reining in the plot for a modern-day television audience might have provided a more thrilling adaptation. Nevertheless, in allowing viewers to meander through the story, “One Hundred Years of Solitude” is presented as the novelist wrote it, with a wealth of detail and profound eloquence.”
I’ll take profound eloquence and faithfulness to the source material over dumbing things down for modern audiences any day of the week.
I’ve only watched some of Part 1 so far, but it truly is visually stunning and a gripping drama. The show’s creators have created a lush, vibrant and immersive world that draws you in from the very first frame. There is certainly magic here. Claudio Cataño, who plays Colonel Aureliano in the show, described working on One Hundred Years Of Solitude as “an arduous and exquisite pleasure.” I suspect that might be how audiences experience the series as well. I’ll have a review of Part 1 up here on this blog when I’ve finished all 8 episodes.
Part 1 is available now on Netflix, with eight more episodes to come at an unspecified later date. Have you watched yet? Are you a fan of the novel? Let me know your thoughts on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. Also be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me here on this blog. Sign up for my newsletter for more reviews and commentary on entertainment and culture.