Crime Diaries: The Search (Netflix Mexico) S02: B-

This anthology series had a good start last year with The Candidate around the assassination of presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio. The series tried to stay true to the facts, but still had some fictional elements added to it in order to tell an even more captivating story, after all this is not a docu-series.

For this second season they remind us of one of the most media covered crimes in Mexico's history. The disappearance of a 4 year old girl from a wealthy condominium in Mexico City. The whole country watched over the news the development of this case and the tragic ending of it. Like Colosio, the Paulette case brought to the surface the corruption of the authorities and with so many interest surrounding the crimes, how difficult is for an attorney general to do his job, in the end they are the ones that the public demands for a resignation, while they work with their hands tied.

One of the weakest points of this series is in its cast and the tone of the script. Darío Yazbek, Diana Bovio and Regina Blandon their more recet projects have been comedies.

Darío plays Attorney General Alberto Bazbaz, who was handed the case as a favor for Mexico's governor. Bazbaz handed the job to Alfredo Castillo (played by Adrián Ladrón) who is the one that in the end plays in favor of the powerful connections surrounding one of the involved in the case. Darío gives us an involuntary comedic performance that demerits the seriousness of the story and the dramatic tone. It kinda looks like a satire, but the rest of the story is not a full satire, this got me confused about the tone of this season.

Along with him Diana Bovio, who plays Amanda, best friend of Lizette (played by Verónica Bravo) Paulette's mother. Also gives us a comedic or satire performance, that again demerits the job of taking this series seriously. Amanda might been a hungry for fame person, that tried to exploit the case to get some attention to her and probably jobs as an actress, but it doesn't mean that this should be treated as a comedy or in a lighter tone. Maybe the direction she got was wrong or maybe the problem is in the script. Both actors got a lot of screen time during this six episodes and helped to take some points out of each of them.

Then there's Regina Blandón who plays TV reporter Carolina Tellez. Blandón does her part without her performance looking or feeling like a satire of the real life reporter she plays. The thing is drama is not one of Regina's strong skills, she feels more comfortable in comedy roles. But thankfully for her Dario and Diana take most of the negative credits for this show. But I understand when some people complain about her in this series.

I enjoyed watching it mostly because with each episode they refreshed my memory of this event and honestly I couldn't remember how it all ended. Of course I blocked it because the official statement was impossibly ridiculous to believe. And that would have been one of the most memorable scenes in the series, when Alberto Bazbaz called for a press conference to tell the results of the investigation, but by that point Darío's performance had zero drama and I couldn't take him seriously.

For a third season I would recommend the production to invest a little bit more in it. Another downside was how cheap it looked, in The Candidate as the story is set mid 90's that could be part of the style of the visuals. But The Search takes place in 2010, ten years might seem like a lot of time, but still it doesn't justify the vintage look. Also they should take their time with the script, I don't know if they already have a third season order from Netflix, but in Mexico there sure is a lot of "unresolved" crimes to choose from.

Crime Diaries: The Search might not be for younger audiences, but old millennials and generation x might enjoy it, just to bring back the Paulette case into dinner conversation. After all we all had a theory of what really went on.