Jaguar – Netflix Review

JAGUAR on Netflix is a Spanish series about hunting down Nazi war criminals and bringing them to justice. In other words, we’re in the thriller, drama, action, history genres. This storyline plays out in Spain in the 1960s. Read our Jaguar Season 1 review below!

JAGUAR is a new Netflix series from Spanish. We’re in quite the genre hybrid since thriller, drama, action, and history are all genres for this series. Also, the story begins in Madrid, Spain, in the 1960s which is quite the backdrop for this story. Anyone familiar with Spanish movies and TV series should find many of the starring actors familiar.

If you liked Hunters on Amazon’s Prime Video, then you should most definitely check out this Spanish Netflix series as well. Though, to be fair (and warn you), this series is a lot more serious and without the quirkiness that Hunters also offered. Especially due to the flashbacks showing life (and mostly torture and death) in the concentration camps.

Continue reading our Jaguar review below. All six episodes of season 1 are out on Netflix now.

Vengeance versus justice

The very first big moral topic to be touched upon in the new Spanish Netflix series Jaguar is that of vengeance versus justice. Sometimes the two can feel interchangeable. In reality, however, they rarely are. The character of Isabel (Blanca Suárez) is dead-set on vengeance.

She saw a Nazi kill her father just when they arrived at a camp during WW2 and now she wants to kill that man, who has taken refuge in her own country of Spain. While on her quest for revenge, she crosses paths with a group seeking justice. Their very accurate idea being this; Vengeance is for one person, justice is for the world.

A very simple, yet accurate and understandable idea. Also, not only is the group looking to bring Nazi war criminals to justice, they are trying to figure out what they are up to. A group of Nazis is living their best lives in Spain as free citizens. The biggest problem they have is whether they can get the German food they want.

Obviously, bringing them to justice is the right thing. It just isn’t easy for any of the people involved. Seeing their experiences at the Mauthausen camp, at the hands of these Nazis, you’ll quickly understand why.

Excellent casting for new Spanish Netflix series

The main cast of Jaguar is led by Blanca Suárez who you should recognize from the Netflix movie Cable Girls as well as the horror-comedy El Bar. Blanca Suárez plays the role of Isabel Garrido and she does an excellent job. She is a real kick-ass character who is also ready to put her life on the line. Bringing her father’s killer to justice is her life mission!

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Our review of El Bar which also stars Blanca Suárez – Find it here >

Also part of the cast is Iván Marcos, from the Shudder horror movie 32 Malasaña Street (2020), as the character Lucena. Francesc Garrido (Netflix movie The Titan) is Marsé, Adrián Lastra (Velvet) is Sordo, and Óscar Casas is Castro.

For me, Óscar Casas is still Tomás from The Orphanage (2007) but we did just see him in the Spanish Netflix movie Xtreme (2021).

Watch Jaguar season 1 on Netflix now!

The new Jaguar Netflix series is created by Ramón Campos and Gema R. Neira. Previously, Ramón Campos and Gema R. Neira have both the Netflix series Cable Girls (org. title Las chicas del cable) and High Seas (org. title Alta mar). For horror fans, I should mention that they also wrote 32 Malasaña Street.

That particular movie was written with David Orea and Salvador S. Molina, who are also writers on Jaguar along with Moises Gómez. Overall, most of these few writers have worked together on a whole lot of productions. In terms of Jaguar, the fact that four of them wrote on a horror movie most recently seems to have fueled the darkness of this series as well.

The episodes in season 1 are directed by Carlos Sedes and Jacobo Martínez. Both have worked on Alta Mar in the past, along with other productions created by Ramón Campos and Gema R. Neira.

The first season of Jaguar has just six 45-minute episodes which makes it rather fast to binge-watch. And yes, it is a very binge-watch-worthy Netflix series. Especially if you, like me, enjoy watching people being brought to justice. In particular people like war criminals (in this case Nazis) who have moved on from war as if nothing happened.

Season 1 of Jaguar is out on Netflix from September 22, 2021.

Details

Creators: Ramón Campos, Gema R. Neira, David Orea, Salvador S. Molina, Moises Gómez
Stars: Blanca Suárez, Iván Marcos, Francesc Garrido, Adrián Lastra, Óscar Casas