Santo Season 01 is a crime thriller with a dark and smoke ambiance marred in the scenery of perpetration, conspiracy, good and evil straddling grey areas. With the unknown drug dealer called Santo with an identity to be hidden out front, the series is a tense and a combination of suspense storyline with the story led by the two different sides of police detectives, Miguel Millan and Ernesto Cardona. They have so many clashing styles and personal differences, it makes it an interesting dynamic that they must work together in chasing after a mysterious character whose nuances extend out of Madrid through Brazil. The atmosphere of the show is severely somber and ominous with the element of danger hanging in the air in each of its scenes, and the ritualized violence acts as an unsettling complexion to the mystery happenings.
The show does well to develop tension with its cinematography, which is quite atmospheric, and its close story-telling. The transatlantic environment of the film enhances the dimensions of the criminal empire of Santo and leads the viewers to the world of corruption, ritual, and moral ambiguity. The two protagonists are duly developed and their dichotomous nature, which feeds the inner turmoil and emotional disillusionment, is balanced. The tension is introduced step by step and there is a big confrontation that not only makes the two characters nervous but also the audience. The emphasis on the secret nature of the story and the impossibility to identify the identity of Santo throws the audience off-guard and makes the whole season an uneasy (and ultimately intriguing) existence.
On the positive side, Santo is very much enjoyable in the area of mood and suspense but it is slightly weak in its pace where some elements in the plot seem either underdeveloped or too fast. The dependence on atmosphere is often at the cost of either greater character studies or elucidation, leaving one hungry to know more. Nevertheless, both the season in question and its visceral feel, intriguing performances, and evocative imagery make it an exciting and thought-provoking crime thriller. It induced a feeling of discomfort and interest in me: intrigued by the dark world it opens and looking forward to further development of the mystery of Santo.
