In March of 2004, a coordinated terror attack at various train stations in Madrid killed 193 people. In 2014, Gabriel Montoya Vidal, nicknamed “Baby,” spoke to journalist Manuel Jabois about his role in the bombings; he was a 15-year-old drug dealer who ended up transporting explosives to the jihadists who executed the bombings. A new scripted series streaming on Hulu is based on Jabois’ book that came from those interviews.
Opening Shot: A teen staring at the ceiling in his room, while the adult version of that teen talks to a journalist about whether he has any regrets over his role in the 2004 Madrid train bombings.
The Gist: Gabriel, nicknamed “Baby” (Roberto Gutiérrez) is 15 in 2004, and three months after the Madrid terror attacks, in which he participated by transporting explosives to the jihadists that blew the train stations in the country’s worst terror attack, he thought he was in the clear. But he’s drawn outside by a phone call, where the police surround him, slap cuffs and a hood on him, and take him to a juvenile detention facility.
Given where Baby came from, this is not a surprising turn of events, as we see him as a 5-year-old in 1993 waiting in a car in Avilés as his father, Manzano (Daniel Holguín), robs a pharmacy at gunpoint. He was a small-time thief and a junkie, and was abusive towards Baby’s mother Pili (Tamara Casellas). By the time Baby is 15, Manzano is in prison and Pili is struggling to provide for Baby and his sisters.
In late 2003, a few months before the bombings, Baby starts a job with a general contractor, which the contractor gave him as a favor to Pili. But by the end of the day, he’s decided that life owes him more than a grunt work job; he borrows 30 euros from the boss, steals a car and leaves.
As he smokes weed with his friends, Baby encounters Emilio Trashorras (Pol López); he beats the crap out of a chicken deliveryman who (rightly) accuses Baby and his buddies of stealing a delivery from him. Emilio likes how ballsy Baby and his friends are, and Baby and his buddy Koala (Javier Eirda) take Emilio’s invitation to join him for lunch. He then shows the two teens his drug-dealing operation; the teens snort their first lines of coke.
Baby gets more involved in Emilio’s operation, selling the good weed he supplies, to the point where Emilio gives him a gun for protection after Baby gets jumped by rival gang members. He even gives Pili some of Emilio’s weed for her to give to Manzano when she goes for conjugal visits so he can sell it. But what Baby doesn’t know is who is supplying what Emilio is selling, which is a terrorist sleeper cell.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Based on the book Nos vemos en esta vida o en la otra by Manuel Jabois, See You In Another Life has a similar vibe to Under The Bridge, another Hulu series that debuted on the same day as this series.
Our Take: The 2004 attack against the public transportation system in Madrid killed 193 people; to this day it’s still the country’s most deadly terror attack. But the way See You In Another Life treats the bombing, at least in the first episode, made us scratch our heads. As far as the creators of the series, Jorge Sánchez-Cabezudo and Alberto Sánchez-Cabezudo, are concerned, the story is about how Baby got connected to Emilio, got deeper in his organization, and ultimately ended up being an accessory to the attack. The adult version of Baby (Quim Àvila) tells Jabois that he regrets nothing.
It’s not really a story about the terror attacks, and it feels like the creators treat it like just about any other crime. Even though it’s Spain’s version of 9/11, it’s minimized in this story. So what that leaves us is the portrait of a teenager who had already learned to be a mercenary from his father, a man whom he ended up having little respect for by the time the attacks happened.
So what are we supposed to get out of this story? It’s not like Baby is some good kid who fell in with the wrong crowd. Maybe it’s an illustration of how a teenager can be wrapped up in such a massive terror attack. Maybe it’s how Baby ended up turning on Emilio and the terrorists in order to save his own bacon. But it feels like the implications of Baby’s role in such a mass casualty event are hidden in what feels like a pretty standard “teen getting deeper into a life of crime” story.
Sex and Skin: Even though we are told that Pili makes conjugal visits to Manzano, we end up seeing the conjugal part of one of her visits.
Parting Shot: As we see Baby playing a shooting video game, the adult version says, “I know I’ll never regret anything.”
Sleeper Star: Tamara Casellas has the thankless task of playing Baby’s mother Pili, who gives lip service to what Baby is doing and who he hangs out with, but ends up complying because he’s also helping bring in money they desperately need.
Most Pilot-y Line: Emilio beats the snot out of that chicken deliveryman, who drives a scooter and wears a helmet with a rooster’s comb on top. Hasn’t this man suffered enough?
Our Call: STREAM IT. See You In Another Life has some good performances, and its time-jumping format doesn’t distract from the story its telling. We just hope that the terror attacks are given the proper context within this story.
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.
