The new Netflix thriller Between Father And Son is unique because each of its 20 episodes is between 7 and 10 minutes long. It’s as if it was still 2020 and Quibi still existed, but there was a reason why that ill-fated streaming service failed.
Opening Shot: A man runs through the woods, yelling for a woman named Fernanda. He busts open the door to a cabin and points a gun.
The Gist: Álvaro (Erick Elías) is recounting the story of his search for his first wife to his new fiancée Bárbara (Pamela Almanza). He wants to take her to his family’s estate to meet his mother Margarita (Carmen Delgado), sister Gaby (Natalia Plascencia) and daughter Leo (Ivanna Castro).
When they get there, they make love, the first time he’s done so since he lost Fernanda. But there seems to be someone watching them. That night, Bárbara wanders into a room with a cross on the door, and sees a shrine to Fernanda, including a newspaper headline about her being missing. Someone holds a gun to her back, and it turns out to be Margarita, who apologizes the next morning.
Of course, Bárbara is upset that Álvaro neglected to tell her that Fernanda is missing, not dead. He tells her that Fernanda has been declared dead and , as a lawyer, she knows he doesn’t need to disclose anything else to her. He gets extremely defensive when she presses more.
Bárbara goes out for a walk in the woods, and next to a cabin she sees a beautiful white horse, as well as a shirtless man who introduces himself as Íker (Graco Sendel). There’s an immediate spark, and he even daringly kisses her, something she doesn’t resist.
When she gets back, Bárbara packs to leave but Álvaro convinces her to stay. At dinner, Álvaro is surprised when his son shows up. We’ll give you two guesses as to who his son is!
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Created by Pablo Illanes, Between Father And Son reminds us of other Latin telenovelas like Unspeakable Sins or Fake Profile.
Our Take: One thing that we can say about Between Father And Son is that it won’t take much of a time commitment on the viewers’ part; each of the 20 episodes is between 7 and 10 minutes, including credits. So if you keep hitting the “Next Episode” prompt, each episode will likely be more along the lines of 6 to 9 minutes long. So that’s only about three hours of your time for the entire series.
That may be three hours too much, though. We sat through the first three microsodes and just rolled our eyes at how predictable it was, with a story designed to advance a shaky plot with supposed shocking moments but not give us any idea who the characters are and why they do what they do.
Perhaps the microsode format prompted Illanes to “get to it”, so to speak when it comes to certain parts of the story. How do you explain, for instance, Íker and Bárbara having an intense attraction to each other within five seconds of them meeting each other? Sure, this could be “lust at first sight,” but you’d think Bárbara could resist her urges just a bit, given that she just got engaged to Álvaro?
Every moment along the way in the first three episodes, from Álvaro’s daughter Leo telling Bárbara that she’ll go missing like her mother did, to everyone looking suspiciously at each other, should tell Bárbara to run from this estate, give her ring back to Álvaro and not look back. But she stays, despite Álvaro continuing to yell at her every time she brings up Fernanda and Íker constantly wanting to get in her pants, despite knowing she’s engaged to his father and that he has his own girlfriend, Luna (Paulina Ruiz Menéndez).
What’s keeping her there? The mystery of what really happened to Fernanda? Íker’s pecs? Álvaro’s rage and erectile dysfunction? We really don’t know. And we’re not going to spend another two and a half hours finding out.
Performance Worth Watching: We’ll praise Pamela Almanza for not playing Bárbara with a shocked look on her face at all times.
Sex And Skin: There’s sex but not a lot of nudity in the first three episodes. We wonder if that will change.
Parting Shot: Bárbara shakes Íker’s had and says, “Nice to meet you,” despite the fact that his tongue was in her mouth only hours earlier.
Sleeper Star: We’ll give this to Ivanna Castro as Leo because she’s snarky in all the right ways for a teenager.
Most Pilot-y Line: When Álvaro asks Bárbara to go to La Perla with him, she responds, “La Perla, your family’s estate?” We think Álvaro already knows that it’s his family’s estate.
Our Call: SKIP IT. Between Father And Son is an exercise in gimmickry hiding a skimpy plot and flat characters. It’s not even all that that sexy, either.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
