Intimacy (2022) is about four women, dealing with anonymous releases of intimate graphics and entailing sexual harassment. A young female politician’s mayoral campaign is affected by a similar cybercrime. The series is now streaming on Netflix.
Story
Malen (Itziar Ituno) receives the party’s consent to run for mayor of the Spanish province of Bilbao. Opinion polls suggest promising popularity in the region.
Her campaign is hit by the release of a covertly recorded personal video, which exposes her marriage’s farce. Her mayoral bid is met with opposition from the party.
Begona, a high school teacher, learns about her sister Ane’s death by suicide. She resolves to look into the situation herself to be able to grieve peacefully.
Inspector Alicia interrogates Ane’s factory coworkers, who shared her photographs among themselves. Eventually, the connection with Malen’s case is established.
In response to the party pressure, Malen decides to hold a news conference against the party’s leadership to protest her mistreatment.
The plot returns to Malen and Cesar’s brief relationship. Cesar tries to pass himself off as a married man to meet up with her. Cesar claims that he was promised money but did not expect the video footage to be leaked when confronted.
In exchange for an assured mayoral run, party head Miren requests Malen to keep damaging information from the media. Malen, on the other hand, is suspected of foul play.
Begona attempts to meet Ane’s boyfriend to learn more about her history. She intensifies her quest after being stunned by the gloomy truth of her harsh history. Cesar’s death, meanwhile, comes as a shock for Malen.
Malen’s tumultuous relationship with her daughter (Leire) and husband begins to improve. However, Leire is concerned about Xabi’s retaliation after she humiliated him for abandoning her.
Begona pays a visit to the factory and stages a mockery of everyone for torturing Ane to death. Malen arrives at the site with the media to drive a pro-feminist campaign on sexual harassment victims.
Alicia, on the other hand, resolves to search for Ane’s ex-boyfriend. Malen is looking for dirt on Gotka who has emerged as a possible Mayoral candidate. Malen ultimately chooses to quit, while Alicia takes legal action against the mastermind behind the leaked pornographic film. Malen is contacted by the leadership to request a re-run for the impending elections.
Performances
La Casa De Papel star, Itziar Ituno, portrays the strong feminist role of Malen gracefully. The seamlessly immersing performance by Ituno provides layered nuance to the character.
Other notable performances include Bego and Leire – especially Bego who looks remarkably expressive in the emotional scenes. Leire’s chaotic character adds the necessary tension and uncertainty to the script.
Positives
‘Intimacy’ tries to tackle the catastrophic implications of cybercrimes in a person’s daily life. The directors have done a great job in addressing societal evil with relevant passion and emotions.
The plot is exceptionally smooth and free-flowing. The crime drama thriller is not among the classics riddled with tweaks and plot twists. But it’s exactly how sensitive subjects must feature in the storytelling business – relevance over fictionalization.
The pace of the series is fairly balanced with justifiable screen time for each character. It does an immense job of tapping into the mental setup of cybercrime victims.
The establishing shots of gloomy Spanish cities relate to the tone of the series. Pale visuals carry a strong influence of gothic-noir inspiration from Scandinavia.
While predictable, the sheer quality of acting lifts the series to a truly compelling Netflix original series.
Negatives
The narrative is blandly predictable and rushed to immediately tap into the general public sympathy for its characters.
A dark-grim background score was lacking, burdening the series on the shoulders of the ensemble cast.
Verdict
The subject of the series is truly exceptional and, therefore, worth watching. The female characters look commanding, ambitious, confident, and passionate to strive for a better society. Despite its clichéd screenplay and limited metaphorical creativity, ‘Intimacy’ promises a thrilling crime-drama adventure full of social education and awareness.
Rating: 3/5