The story is set in Bilbao and centres around Sergio Ciscar, who was recently freed from detention. He’s been in prison for six years for murder and is now being watched after by a young psychiatrist, Ana Dussuel, and her team. She secretly loves him, and she gets support from Marta, a girl who is enamoured with Sergio.
Sergio urgently seeks his younger sister, the only one who treated him well.
Throughout the series, it is revealed that Sergio is a genius and that his mother was doing experiments on him without his father’s agreement or knowledge.
We learn at the end that Sergio is unstable and was high on drugs when he lashed out and shoved his parents down.
Muted had the potential to be a fantastic Spanish mystery series. It appeared to be another worldwide homerun for Netflix, with a strong hook, fascinating characters, and six readily consumable episodes. Unfortunately, the show lacks one essential component: strong writing.
To say Muted is poorly written is an understatement. The second part of this series, although staying together for a time, devolves into an incomprehensible, ridiculous catastrophe. That’s a shame because the series’ hook is actually rather fantastic.
Sergio, a young guy, willingly vows not to speak for six years (unless the screenplay requires him to) after his parents are assumed dead after falling from an apartment balcony.
Sergio is imprisoned for their murders while remaining silent, and he serves his sentence peacefully. However, detectives decide to release him 9 months early while organising a Big Brother-style surveillance scheme to monitor his every move and determine if he is a dangerous man or not.
As the series develops, it becomes clear that Sergio’s narrative has more to it than meets the eye, and lead investigator Ana has more than a few skeletons in her closet.
There’s also a subplot concerning Marta, one of Sergio’s “super-fans” who used to look after his sister Noa. Sergio’s motivation here originates from the desire to reunite with his sister, who looks to have gone.
I’m not going to give anything away, but we do receive answers concerning the balcony murders, as well as Noa’s destiny. To put it simply, the answers we receive merely raise more questions. This show is the television counterpart of the fabled hydra fight. You slice one head by solving a major storyline issue, and a slew of other ones appear. It’s especially aggravating because the show’s style doesn’t help matters.
Muted suffers by long, ponderous landscape views, actors peering into the distance, or going from point A to point B. It’s not especially excellent television, and it has the unintended consequence of having you think more about the contradictions and various story holes this one has in its armoury.
Muted is a shambles of a television show. It has few redeeming qualities and accomplishes nothing to justify its existence. The writing is sloppy throughout, the story isn’t very charming, and the “twists” are laughably poor. This programme should be discreetly disregarded and banished to the annals of streaming history, as its title suggests.
Muted – Season 1 – Trailer
