Enemigo Íntimo Season 1 Review

Episode Guide

Caminos opuestos
Alejandro interroga a Roxana
Una riña sangrienta
Batalla campal
El Tilapia arranca su misión
Roxana atraída por El Tilapia
Roxana acusada de un incendio
Tilapia mata a un reo
Roxana y Tilapia hacen el amor
Roxana y Ochún son cómplices
Toman de rehén a Alejandro
Piden la cabeza de Roxana
Roxana descubre la traición
Guillotina protege a Roxana
Noche de pasión en Las Dunas
Tilapia confronta a Bowser
Guillotina visita a Roxana
Roxana confronta a Alejandro
Roxana sale de Las Dunas
Roxana se enfrenta a Zoraida
Sacan a La Puma del reclusorio
Visita conyugal con Guillotina
Tilapia se desquita con Bowser
Roxana y Tilapia a escondidas
Madre recibe la orden
Tilapia derrota a Guillotina
Roxana es hija de Don Nemesio
Roxana y Tilapia se mienten
Borges cae por orden de Roxana
Madre ve a Roxana con Daniel
El Bere Bere visita a Roxana
Tilapia sonsaca a Roxana
Desafío sexual para Daniel
Los Oscuros matan a Príamo
Roxana ya no tiene aliado
Ferrer es inhabilitado
Matan a Marimar como venganza
Tilapia mata a Bowser
Ferrer descubre la verdad
Tilapia mata a otro recluso
Madre intenta violar a Roxana
Roxana ordena matar a Madre
Ochún no puede matar a Roxana
Tilapia apuñala a Guillotina
Los reos amenazan a Tilapia
Roxana y Tilapia en libertad
Daniel abandona la misión
Daniel en los Mil Cumbres
Daniel no coopera con Ferrer
Daniel traiciona a Roxana
Roxana acaba con Las Dunas
Guillotina contra Mil Cumbre
Llega El Profesor

Spread across 53 action-packed episodes, Spanish crime thriller Enemigo Intimo spends most of its time building up a brutal prison drama as the forefront for the overarching story around two siblings separated at birth and pitted against one another. This gritty, realistic series may overplay its drama at times but with the focus on building up the characters and telling a story rife with numerous twist and turns throughout, make this a highly enjoyable venture well worth investing the time it’ll take to get through this mammoth Spanish epic. 

It would be difficult to go through all 53 episodes and depict everything that occurs but the basic plot line revolves around three key characters. Siblings Roxana Rodiles (Fernanda Castillo) and Alejandro Ferrer (Raúl Méndez) are both haunted by the ghosts of their past after being torn apart as children at the hands of the mafia. The story picks up 25 years later after an impressively artistic opening with Alejandro the Captain of the Federal police, hell bent on revenge against the mafia, and Roxana involved in a money laundering scandal. After being caught and interrogated, Roxana is sent to Las Dunas, a unique prison that houses both women and men in separate, segregated areas. It’s at this point where the story really picks up, with the inclusion of the third key character as Alejandro orders an undercover agent Daniel Laborde (Matías Novoa), to infiltrate the prison and gain a confession from Roxana. 

Throughout the action-packed episodes, numerous brawls, gun fights and tense confrontations between the different characters keep the series moving at a frenetic pace. A growing rivalry between Roxana and head female inmate Zoraida slowly builds before exploding in a violent, bitter rivalry, resulting in the balance of power slowly shifting as Roxana’s confidence and influence in the prison grows. Juxtaposing this is Daniel who finds himself butting heads with Madre, the leader of the male section of the prison. Inevitably, romance is introduced as Daniel and Roxana begin their manufactured romance designed to get the confession from Roxana that quckly escalates to real feelings between the two. Late on, a love triangle between another inmate complicates matters further as Roxana finds herself caught between Daniel and the other inmate, resulting in some suffocatingly tense and awkward moments.

While most of the intense drama in the series remains locked inside Las Dunas, Alejandro’s storyline is far more open, featuring numerous car chases, gun fights and even a helicopter being blown up in midair. While this portion of the series is still engaging, it lacks the same tense, claustrophobic isolation evident through most of Roxana’s storyline, with a character arc driven far more by vengeance and hatred than evolving in an engaging way. That’s not to say the series suffers for it as the contrasting viewpoints between the two siblings are generally well written and engaging enough to make their eventual reunion worth waiting for, holding a good amount of emotional weight to it.

Early on Enemigo Intimo pulls out all the stops through its opening 4 or 5 episodes, featuring a whole variety of camera shots, interesting artistic cuts between static images and the action occurring in real time. As the episodes tick by, the series does lose a little of the artistry that graced the opening set of episodes but replaces it with far more focus on the characters themselves and growing each in a meaningful and realistic way. With such a generous run time to play with, Enemigo Intimo uses its time wisely, giving a decent amount of time to the supporting characters and their motivations. With the prison setting playing a vital role here, expect plenty of betrayals, backstabbings, brawls and more littered throughout the series to accompany the variety of action packed shots and scenes outside the prison.

The one area that really lets Enemigo Intimo down is with its soundtrack and overall presentation after the opening few episodes. The over-the-top dramatic music certainly helps accentuate some of the plot twists but the frequency and rate this burst of orchestral music crops up devalues the impact it once had early on. While this may sound like a petty thing to pick up on, the 45 minute long episodes feature around 8 or 9 of these overly dramatic musical bursts and if you multiply that by the 53 episodes, you can understand why this may be a recurring issue. Numerous slow motion shots and a couple of illogical plot decisions only further accentuate this too making this overly dramatic to the point of almost coming across as comedic at moments that really aren’t as dramatic as they’re made out to be.

If you’re looking for an engaging, over the top crime thriller full of twists and turns and full of memorable, well written characters, Enemigo Intimo may just be the series you’re looking for. With 53 episodes to boot and the entire series subtitled (unless you’re fluent in Spanish) there’s certainly a whole lot of story and reading to get through but the climactic final few episodes do a great job closing out the story in a compelling and realistic way. The over the top drama and outrageous orchestral bursts of music do become a little exhausting at times but on the whole, Enemigo Intimo is a compelling Spanish series that places its characters and plot centre stage. While it may not be as compelling or slickly presented as La Casa De Papel, there’s enough here to make it a worthy series to binge on nonetheless and one of the best Spanish shows to be released this year.