Welcome To Eden review: Welcoming concept with irrational narrative

Welcome To Eden is a teen mystery and thrilling story about five young partiers who are invited to a lavish festival on an island but unexpectedly get trapped by a cult-like foundation.

Story

Hundred people, selected from an algorithm accounting for social media popularity, are chosen to attend a supposed launch party of a new drink, Blue Eden, on an island.

Among them, five partygoers, Zoa, Aldo, Ibon, Africa, and Charly, are selected for a journey beyond the Eden Festival- a mystical and creepy journey.

What looks like the foremost motive for recreating sustainable living conditions, the Eden Foundation, a cult-like civilization residing on the island who also organized the Eden Festival, traps the five partiers and slowly, with coated lies, unfulfilled hopes, threats, and authoritative scares, make them foundation members.

The journey of the five victims being vulnerable, suspicious, overwhelmed, and helpless, planning to escape the island leads to various twists and turns in trying to unveil and explicate the truth of Eden Foundation.

Performance

The protagonist Zoa played by Amaia Aberasturi has done a decent job portraying a vulnerable, conflicted, and yet-to-be mature teen. 

Along with her other protagonists, Diego Garisa as Ibon, Tomy Aguilera as Charly, and Belinda as Africa have done a good job in bringing the characters’ true selves into the screen. Watching them develop their respective characters in further seasons will be intriguing.

But, the antagonist certainly creates a more substantial screen presence that any of the protagonists. Be it Amaia Salamanca or Guillermo Pfening; both are capable of drawing viewers’ attention.

A personal favourite is Brenda, played by Claudia Trujillo, who has a great screen presence without even having significant dialogues or screen time like the others.

While there might be a second season, Gabi, played by Berta Castañé, and the actress playing the private investigator, Brissa, should brush up on their skills to engage the viewers.

Positives

Rising above a rich shelve of teen dramas, Welcome to Eden comes up with an interesting concept, especially when they need to talk about climate change and saving the environment is an utmost priority.

It also shapes the storyline from the sitch of the 21st-century teens who are dealing with traumas, conflicts, and other sufferings but still try to maintain a rich social media personality where they feel valued but never actually are.

The inclination toward these two important contemporary concepts is commendable.

The cinematography and lighting of the series make it visually pleasing. Moreover, a definite colour palette with Blue as the primary colour helps suggest the misleading nature of the plot.

Negatives

Although the concept of the series is good, it lacked rational writing, good screenplay, and expressive characters.

The characters might seem deep and interesting on paper, but the on-screen character definition was poor. Moreover, quite a lot of things are happening on the screen, as if all fantasies are brought down to one story. 

Also, it is impossible to ignore quite a few lame points in the writing, such as Zoa being stupid enough to keep dragging herself into trouble by asking not to be addressed questions and waiting too long staring at the chaos when she has the best chance to escape.

Furthermore, secret plans discussed and signalled in the open at a place like Eden Foundation seem dull-witted.

Additionally, the sound design seemed neither contrapuntal nor aligned with the circumstances in the plot leading to serious confusion about the genre of the series. It suggests a not-so-good attempt at using contrapuntal music.

An interesting point was the climax but what might be an attempt to nourish the mystery throughout, seems to be the act of an undecided conclusion. 

It would be good to hope that at least one question developed throughout season 1 gets an answer in the next season because right now, we have too much information with no logical explanation.

Verdict

Welcome To Eden is another teen-mystery series that attempts to bring out the vulnerability of teenagers and their questionable life choices, such as attending a mysterious party without telling anyone thinking to escape their unstable life traumas. 

In a broader perspective, it has also touched on the issue of environmental catastrophes we are almost about to witness, but maybe the story’s aim points to a necessary debate; the story itself lacks proper execution.

Rating: 2.5/5


Also Read: Welcome To Eden summary and ending explained

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