Belascoarán, PI - A Mexican Thriller Series on Netflix

Belascoarán, PI is a Mexican series directed by Ernesto Contreras, Hiromi Kamata and Gonzalo Amat, starring Luis Gerardo Méndez.

Premise

Héctor Belascoarán decides to give up his life as suburban husband and engineer, to become a detective in 1970’s Mexico.

About the Series

certainly an entertaining series that has its quite unique format. With a lot of humor and a slight surreal take on the whole story, or stories, one per episode. In three parts each with new cases, there is thriller and comedy, and that in a way serves as a profound homage to the movies of the past with its bitter filter, which the protagonist so well reflects, and a in surroundings that are so reminiscent of Simenon or Hammet.

There is a clear parody of crime shows, such as Marlow, as they express in the first episode, in order to escape from the tropes all the while immersing itself fully in them, hence the surreal comedic take. ‘Belascoarán’ proves that beyond Hollywood, we can indeed find an intelligent thriller that manages to be quite funny at the same time.

It hits the mark with a couple of traits: firstly, its tempo is consistent throughout, and, secondly it is visually well elaborated. It is a series that knows how to tell a good story and that has a quirky but endearing lead character. It plays with finding itself in the idiosyncrasy aiming at creating a genre piece all the while assuming a distance to that same genre, creating that satirical tone.