Such a great show. I was a little unhappy with how when they moved prisons between the second and third season they completely dropped some of the characters with no further mention (including the main character, who had a quite frankly ridiculous return towards the end of the show, which I don't think is really a spoiler as it was quite apparent it was going to happen). But overall it didn't really ruin the latter half for me. People need to stop comparing this to Orange is the New Black as that was intended to be more lighthearted and comedic. A more obvious comparison would be to Wentworth which I will say is a bit more cohesive and takes the necessary time to build its characters. For example, in both these shows, a character struggles with Alzheimer's. Despite being a monumental event in both shows, it is only mentioned in this one over the course of a few episodes whereas it lasts nearly two seasons in Wentworth and we really feel the disease's progression as it becomes a major plot point and starts having an effect on all the afflicted character's friends. What this show lacks in fleshing out its characters though it makes up for in action. Having a parallel arc taking place outside the prison was a refreshing break from some of the lesbian drama that got a little old at times.

The first two seasons were really really good. 9/10 for the first one and a solid 8 for the second. The problem with these shows is that they start with a simple premise - this one's being that Maca has been wrongfully imprisoned - that could easily be a movie, a very good movie, but a movie nonetheless. The first season explodes and the network wants to make more money so they come up with these weird plot lines that are sometimes really interesting which usually works for one season - if they're really good maybe two - and then the show starts to unravel. There are so many loose ends that they have to close during such a short period of time that they end up destroying the entire show.

That is exactly what happened here. The first season was really good so they made a second one. The second was equally as good but they had to do a lot to keep it interesting - both Maca's parents were killed, there's a completely new subplot about a missing girl etc. Doing this is very hard to maintain and the original show's creators new this and therefore wanted to stop after the second season so, it was cancelled. Then greedy Netflix bought the show and completely ran it into the ground as they have a habit of doing.


The subsequent season was just so jarring. That's the only way to put it. Because there had been such a long hiatus after the show was cancelled and picked back up, many of the characters had drastically changed - the most notable being the massive weight loss of María Isabel Días (Sole). Many of the characters were not available due to other roles they had been cast as - the most notable being Maggie Civantos (Maca) being cast on Las Chicas del Cable. This meant that their storylines just abruptly ended. Like imagine the main character of a tv show not actually appearing in it at all in the last two seasons bar a handful of episodes. So many subplots were just stopped because the actors were busy doing other things. And on top of all of this, the set had been dismantled so instead of trying to rebuild it they just moved all the main characters to a new prison because of overcrowding? And then as more and more characters from the first two seasons became available to work again they were slowly introduced back? It just made no sense. If you overlook this (which it's very hard to sometimes) the third season wasn't _that_ bad.

The fourth season was just abysmal though. There were so so so many plot holes. They had so much to wrap up that they just ended up killing like 5 people an episode. None of the character arcs finished off well. The ending made absolutely no sense too. After somehow taking over the prison, none of their sentences get increased and they're all out within twelve years COMPLETELY different to who they were in prison and all doing well for themselves? That's not how society reintegration works. They made no effort to age any of them. Saray wouldn't just be able to take her kid back from her adopted parents because she signed her over. That's not how adoption works. Tere - after surrendering to drugs and saying she'll never be over them - is somehow expected to have mothered 2 children at her age and never touched drugs again LIVING with her druggy ex-boyfriend. And there's so much more. Zulema has a daughter for about 2 episodes? I can't even talk about that. They didn't know how to end it so they just made up fairytales for all of them in the last minute of the show. Really really really disappointing.

ALSO - I'm not sure if this was low production or just laziness but all the extras in the last season were awful. And EVERY SINGLE time there's a courtyard scene in the last season they use the EXACT same background audio because you can hear the very loud and distinct ".... CREO QUE ....." in the background. every. single. time. It's just so so so so so so bad.

If there's anything to take away from this review it's **stop watching this show after the second season**. Nothing happens and you'll only get annoyed at the writing.