Triptych review: Great premise failed by middling execution

Netflix’s Triptych follows a forensics expert and a woman in her thirties unraveling the shocking and terrifying details of her past after she learns that she’s one of three triplets.

Story

Rebecca Fuentes is a forensics expert and her world comes crashing down when she comes across a dying woman who is her doppelganger and also knows her name.

Becca’s investigation, helped by her affair and superior, Captain Humberto Solana, unravels many other mysteries about her past. She sends her doppelganger, Aleida’s DNA for a test and it’s identical to hers.

Becca’s troubles worsen when she meets the third sister, Tamara, who’s eventually hired by Eugenio to impersonate his wife and help in stopping a hostile takeover of her company.

Becca grows suspicious of Eugenio who keeps making himself look more and more suspicious while Becca finally realizes that the enemy is Dr. Julia Bátiz, the one who Aleida wished to kill before she got shot herself.

However, it’s too late by then as Humberto turns out to be working for Julia, and the sisters are all trapped in the doctor’s experiment facility. They also learn that Aleida is alive, who ends up helping the other two significantly as Triptych concludes with Julia’s defeat and a happy reunion of the triplets.

Performances

Maite Perroni succeeds in portraying different personalities that do feel distinct, although Tamara and Rebecca do become a singular blur in some instances. For the most part, though, Perroni delivers her performances with significant conviction.

There is no other performance that amounts to a standout, however, with the rest of the cast doing just about an adequate job. Notably, the perpetual expression of disgust that Flavio Medina sports throughout his performance is an interesting choice, to say the least.

Positives

The songs used in Triptych, especially the ones used in the first few episodes, manage to add to the atmosphere that the show is pervaded by.

There’s a rather fascinating premise that the show contends with while also raising some philosophical questions. This premise also comprises the potential to comment on the socio-economic disparity between the lead characters.

Negatives

The primary motivations of the antagonist are not clearly fleshed out or articulated, with a few scenes before the final standoff serving as a cluttered, confusing, and lacking expository dump.

Dr. Bátiz’s extreme devotion to her decades-long experiment functions with ‘nature vs nurture/creature vs creator’ providing the mythical framework. Bátiz is fascinated with the myths like that of Prometheus stealing the fire from gods and getting punished for it.

The nature vs nurture part of her experiment entails the sisters getting sent to different households to see what determines their personality, while the mythical/philosophical aspect feels both interesting and ultimately lacking.

One way to connect the aforementioned myth to the show is to look at how elements from the myth make it into the story of Aleida, Rebecca, and Tamara. Bátiz’s scientifically advanced and morally bankrupt experiment essentially feels like an affront to nature or God.

And she does receive a Prometheus-like punishment, getting trapped inside a basement, stuck and left alone to bear the torture of isolation until she presumably dies (her death isn’t shown but her fate is pretty much obvious). However, had Bátiz’s motivations and goals been articulated better, the show’s only interesting element might have not come across as a mess.

Meanwhile, Solana’s switch feels rather abrupt and although the lack of chemistry between the actor and Perroni is biting, there are no other tells in the show that might hint at his subversive move later on. His sendoff in the Triptych finale is just as much abrupt and unsatisfying as well.

Verdict

Working with a premise with great potential and prospects for philosophical analysis, Triptych fails to build on said premise and instead makes a mess out of its mythical, ethical, and philosophical frameworks, unable to even eke out any anticipatory thrill or excitement.

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