The series 'White Lines' is a story about love, search, relationships, which unfolds against the backdrop of the bright Spanish sun, loud music and unrestrained fun of Ibiza.

One of the brightest new releases on Netflix in May was the series ‘White Lines’, a co-production between the UK and Spain. The main creator of the project is the well-known Álex Pina, who gave the world ‘Money Heist’, ‘Three Meters Above the Sky’, and other iconic Spanish creations of recent years.

The show ‘White Lines’ quickly climbed the charts in both Russian and international Netflix communities. What accounts for this success, and is it worth your time to watch the new release? Find the answers in our review.

Ice and Fire

The creators of White Lines collided two dissimilar worlds: the British one with its coldness, gloom, and rationality, and the Spanish one, which bursts with colors and literally breathes life. To do this, they decided to send the characters from foggy Manchester to the sunny island of Ibiza.

According to the plot, Zoe (Laura Haddock), who lost her beloved brother about 20 years ago, goes to Spain after her relative's body is found on Ibiza. The first clues of a mysterious and unsolved case appear, which the girl decides to unravel on her own.

On Ibiza, Zoe is met by old acquaintances in the form of her brother's friends Axel (Tom Rhys Harries) and new people who can turn her orderly English life upside down.

Multi-genre

One of the delights of the series is that the authors manage to skillfully and without vulgarity balance on the edge of several genres at once.

‘White Lines’ is not the worst detective story, as the intrigue is maintained right up to the very end (you might solve the case before Zoe, but you are unlikely to figure out the motives for the crime). The series also works as a family drama. It beautifully explores relationships between fathers and children, between brothers and sisters, between spouses.

The Netflix series also features quite decent romantic lines, beautifully shot and well-acted. Yes, sometimes Spanish amorousness overshadows common sense, but it doesn't harm the overall impression too much.

If desired, ‘White Lines’ can also be characterized as a story about liberation and exploring the boundaries of sexuality. There are a number of very erotic and explicit scenes (the orgy in the debut episode is just one example), and moderately engaging conversations about sex take up a solid portion of the total runtime.

Vivid Characters

Perhaps the main advantage of the Spanish-English series is its characters. They turned out colorful and alive. The main character Zoe is a confused middle-aged woman who suffers from the ghosts of the past, particularly the loss of her beloved brother and problems with her father, and also does not experience much happiness in her family life.

Axel, whose death served as the impetus for the plot development, appears here not as a simple plot device, but is a self-sufficient and vivid character, perhaps the most memorable one. He always wants to live on the edge, to do what no one has done before, and to put his whole soul into his favorite activity. That is why he was so idolized on Ibiza, where he was a real star of dance music and an object of adoration and hatred for a variety of people, from close friends to the island's authorities. God is a DJ — that's definitely about Axel.

The secondary characters get their share of attention, so each character present in the story contributes to the overall narrative:

• Boxer (Nuno Lopes) — a colorful bouncer from a nightclub and part-time bodyguard of one of the main people on the island, at some point turns into a true romantic knight in shining armor, always ready to come to the aid of a beautiful lady;

• Marcus (Daniel Mays) — a hapless DJ and drug dealer whose best days are gone with the death of his best friend Axel and the departure of his wife Anna (Angela Griffin). He manages to get into various situations and somehow get out of them;

• David (Laurence Fox) — one of Axel's friends, who after many years of carefree life with drugs and promiscuous sexual relationships finds his place in spiritual life;

• Oriol (Juan Diego Botto) — a guy suffering from an Oedipus complex, trying to step out of his father's shadow and gain universal recognition.

This list could go on, since the authors, for which they deserve praise, paid due attention to all their characters, not just the main ones.

Is It Really That Good?

Alas, no. Despite all the praise deservedly voiced above, the series ‘White Lines’ also has obvious problems. The screenwriters apparently at some point became overly confident in their own abilities, which is why the story includes clumsy and not very interesting side plotlines that only distract from the main one. Sometimes this results in outright ridiculous scenes, like a dog high on drugs drowning in a pool, or drug dealers partying on a yacht to a prehistoric song by the band O-Zone.

Some plot twists seem naive, others not very convincing. In short, there are plenty of rough edges in the story.

Is It Worth Watching ‘White Lines’?

The answer to such a question will be positive if you want to immerse yourself in the carefree and sunny life of Ibiza, where freedom reigns, eccentricity is not considered shameful, and casual sex is praised as openness to something new. You will like this series if you love engaging and intelligent stories about relationships between people from different worlds, believe in holiday romances and the possibility of solving old crimes.

If you absolutely cannot stand script flaws, uneven plot delivery with frequent forays into excessive sentimentality, then perhaps this project is not for you.