Binge or Cringe: ‘The Accident’
How many people can be hurt before an accident is considered unforgivable? “The Accident” throws its audience into this moral dilemma by depicting a story where a single mistake results in several children losing their lives. The aftermath of this tragedy reveals that human greed and guilt are powerful emotions that are met with harsh consequences. Mindlessly allowing greed to dictate one’s life is dangerous and “The Accident” proves this by creating a story where greed is met with more greed until it overtakes and ruins everything.
Founded by Mariana Iskandarani, Mar Abierto Productions is a company dedicated to creating premium content and treating each new project with special attention. They offer high quality production made by professionals because they believe that talent is a key part of success. Earlier works of Mar Abierto include telenovelas such as Pasión Prohibida, La Impostora, and Corazón Valiente. While every series is unique, most stories have high-stakes that grip viewers with a cliff-hanger at the end of each episode. “The Accident” is a prime example of this,with each episode ending with an unprecedented revelation.
Grief is a primary theme throughout the series as each character is shown to process traumatic events differently. Emiliano Lobo (played by Sebastián Martinez)–the father of Rodrigo–blames himself for the accident. His wife Daniela (Ana Claudia Talancón) is bereft of all happiness and trudges through each new day. This is commonly felt by mothers of the series such as Lupita and Brenda (Valentina Acosta). However, with each family dynamic, there is a new challenge. In Lupita’s case, it is her husband’s inclination towards violence. In Brenda’s case, it is that her husband is not the birth father of her child. Every family is broken down by the parts that normally hold it up because when grief intersects with capricious human nature, there is a lot of collateral damage.
The acting in this drama-packed series is well done. Each actor presents every stage of grief with intense emotions, while others portray the inner-workings of guilt through soft dialogues and contemplative stares. Ana Claudia Talancón, who played Daniela as the wife of Emiliano, was outstanding in her role of a strong, grieving mother. Her confusion at being left in the dark by her husband was palpable, and her anger upon learning hard truths and gradually learning to live with them was well-done. Another actor worthy of praise is Alberto Guerra who played Charro Mejías, the main antagonist of the series. His depiction of a sociopathic man ruminating in emotions that burst out through violence was rightfully terrifying. Finally, Sebastián Martinez offered a praiseworthy performance as a guilt-ridden man attempting to make amends with his own humanity. His acting was subtle, and sometimes explosive, with his most memorable moments being when his lines were spoken barely above a whisper.
With each family living in expensive homes amidst the mountains of Santa Cruz, Mexico, “The Accident” begins a conversation about the presence of class differences in Latin America. According to the World Inequality Database, in 2022 almost 50% of Mexico’s total wealth was owned by the top 1% in the country. Every family in this series has their share of help around the house, usually people with darker skin, who live in cramped spaces, and have barely enough money to get by. This is reflected in statistics that show social class in Mexico is not solely tied to one’s earnings. Rather, one’s place in the social hierarchy is determined by intersecting factors such as race and education. Knowledge of English is valued in the country and provides a tool for social mobility. However, other studies have shown that skin color is directly related to status with darker skin earnings being 53% lower than their lighter skin counterparts.
Understanding terms associated with social class in Mexico is important to create perspective on the subject. Mexican slang attributes certain words to people of the upper and lower classes. For instance, fresa (denoted as “strawberry”) connotes a snob, or preppy upper class individual. Junior refers to those who inherit wealth and unearned privilege at birth. Meanwhile, words such as naco— an ignorant or vulgar person who lacks education— and chacal— (denoted as “jackal”) dangerous delinquet of lower socioeconomic class— are used to refer to lower classes. Fortunately, “The Accident” does not make use of these words or excessively abuse the helping staff within each family. However, the effects of this tragedy on Yolanda (played by Shani Losano), who works for Daniela and Emiliano Lobo, makes the audience wonder how the situation would be handled if the roles of social classes were reversed.
Yolanda faces collateral damage from the decisions of her wealthy employers. Their attitudes result in increasing hardships for her own family. The only way she escapes from suffocating under these new obstacles is by harshly inserting herself into their lives until they pay for the repercussions that affected her. On one hand, it is easy to sympathize with Yolanda’s behavior as she works hard but earns barely enough to provide for her children. On the other hand, she is easy to hate because her greedy attitude preceded the accident. Viewers can choose who to defend, but in the end, it is the social systems in place that are to blame most of all.
Overall, “The Accident” was gripping from start to finish. With its use of cliff-hangers at the end of every episode and high-quality production, this series is a definite Binge.
