Siete estrenos para cerrar el año con Netflix

“December closes with seven premieres.” The phrase is not from a film or an artist, but it summarizes what Netflix has prepared for its programming in November: a varied agenda that brings together period dramas, judicial thrillers, war stories and a miniseries produced in Argentina, alongside releases from Spain, Germany and South Korea.

A varied close to the year

I find it interesting that this month's lineup does not lean toward a single genre or a single visual style. Instead, it proposes stories linked to dictatorship, economic collapse, wartime enlistment and personal loss, with enough variety to reach audiences who may not usually choose the same kind of fiction.

• The third and final season of the German series about Empress Sissi, starring Devrim Lingnau Islamoğlu.
• The Argentine miniseries starring Rodrigo de la Serna as Aníbal Gordon.
• A three-episode Spanish thriller starring Tristán Ulloa, inspired by real events.
• The adaptation of Fernando Aramburu's novel about a family affected by a gas explosion in Vizcaya.
• A new film by South Korean director Lee Chang-Dong.
• Julia Garner's miniseries about the collapse of FTX.
• Peter Berg's war film about four American football players who enlisted as marines after Pearl Harbor.

One of the most anticipated releases is the third and final season of the German production about Sissi, with Devrim Lingnau Islamoğlu in the lead role. According to the information provided by Netflix, its first two seasons accumulated more than 65 million views, making it one of the platform's most-watched historical productions.

From Argentina comes the miniseries starring Rodrigo de la Serna, who plays Aníbal Gordon, a criminal who went from robbery to participating in crimes during the last civic-military dictatorship. The subject matter alone gives the title a particularly sensitive place in the local cultural agenda, and it also explains why this launch may attract attention beyond the usual subscribers to historical drama.

Argentina, Spain and South Korea

Spain contributes two premieres with markedly different approaches. One is a three-episode thriller based on real events, starring Tristán Ulloa and created by the creator of “El caso Asunta”. It tells the story of a civil guard who decided on his own to investigate the person he considered responsible for the attack on his wife. The other is the adaptation of Fernando Aramburu's novel about the relatives of a boy who died in a gas explosion in a town in Vizcaya in October 1980, starring Belén Cuesta and Karra Elejalde.

The South Korean contribution is Lee Chang-Dong's new film, the director known for “Burning”. This time, the story follows a worker who has lost both his job and his partner, while his life becomes intertwined with a documentary filmmaker and her companion. As in much of his work, the premise places individual dislocation at the center of a story that is, at first sight, more intimate than the grand historical subjects that accompany it in the Netflix lineup.

Finally, there are two titles linked to contemporary and historical events: a miniseries starring Julia Garner about the collapse of the cryptocurrency company FTX at the end of 2022, and Peter Berg's film about the real story of four American football players who enlisted as marines after the attack on Pearl Harbor, with Nicholas Galitzine and Bill Skarsgård in the lead cast.

For my part, the Argentine miniseries and the adaptation of Aramburu's novel are the two titles I would keep on my November list. The first brings a difficult period of recent national history into a dramatic format, while the second promises to revisit a family tragedy through one of the Spanish writers most closely associated with memory and loss. Netflix closes the year with seven premieres, and this final offer has enough thematic and stylistic variety to make it worth exploring title by title.