Benjamin Basil used to play Sherlock Holmes in movies. Now a woman has died at the hotel where he is staying, and the other guests expect him to find out who killed her. Knowing how to act like a detective is not the same as being one. That is the reason to try The Final Problem, a Spanish murder mystery starring José Coronado. It is also the idea we wish the series had done more with.
The story takes place in 1959. A storm traps thirteen people at a hotel on an island near Mallorca, Spain. They cannot get help from the police, and what first looks like a suicide may be murder. Basil starts asking questions with help from Francisco Foxá, a writer of crime stories played by Martiño Rivas. You do not need to know any Sherlock Holmes stories to follow this one. Just know that the guests recognize Basil from his films and trust him for the wrong reason.
Coronado makes Basil worth following
Basil comes to Mallorca hoping for another film role, not a murder investigation. When Foxá pushes him to investigate, he keeps explaining that he is only an actor. Coronado does not turn those objections into a loud running joke. Basil sounds like someone trying to correct an awkward misunderstanding. That makes him easy to like before he has solved anything.
Once he starts looking into the death, though, he is surprisingly good at it. We wanted more of the difficulty of doing a job he has only pretended to do. Instead, much of the series lets him question people and make deductions as if he already had the training. The difference matters: watching him struggle would make this more than another story about a clever man solving a murder.
Foxá helps get the investigation moving, but we learn too little about him beyond his interest in the case. He spends a lot of time discussing Basil’s ideas. Their conversations explain the investigation, yet they do not make Foxá as interesting as the man he keeps encouraging.
The hotel looks inviting; its guests need more attention
The hotel is full of polished wood, bright rooms and people dressed for an expensive holiday. Guests wear tuxedos and gowns to dinner. The clothes and rooms make the 1959 setting easy to picture, without needing a speech about the period. It is fun to study the guests while wondering which of them is lying.
María Valverde plays Adela Figueroa, a friend of the woman who died. Adela does not readily tell Basil what she knows. Valverde makes those guarded conversations interesting to watch: Adela gives him enough to keep asking, but not enough to settle his suspicions.
Other people get less attention. Maribel Verdú plays Mrs. Ausländer, the hotel manager, but the series gives her too little to do. With so many people under suspicion, it needs to give us reasons to remember them besides their place in the case. Keeping a character’s secret is useful; keeping almost everything about them hidden is frustrating. We can wonder who committed the crime without caring much about the person who eventually gets accused.
Four episodes, but some of the waiting feels unnecessary
The investigation depends on conversations, rather than chases or action scenes. That is not a problem by itself. Listening to two people disagree can be exciting if it changes what we think happened. Here, some conversations take too long to give us a new reason to suspect someone. The questions continue, but our interest does not always grow with them.
The ending answers the case, and we will leave the culprit unnamed. Our problem is how much explanation arrives so late. Important reasons for people’s behavior would have meant more if we had understood them earlier. Finding out what happened is less satisfying when the explanation also has to do so much of the work of introducing the people involved.
Pixel Twelve score: 6/10. Coronado’s performance and the hotel setting make this worth considering if you like quiet murder mysteries. We cannot recommend it as strongly for the mystery itself: Basil becomes capable too easily, several suspects get too little attention, and the investigation slows down before the final explanations. Those problems matter more to our score than the attractive costumes and rooms.
All four episodes are available on Netflix in the United States, totaling about three hours. The original language is Spanish, with English dubbing and English subtitles available. This review covers the complete limited series, not just the opening episode.
More images from The Final Problem
2 screenshotsImages: Netflix / Lander Larrañaga / Txuca Pereira / Quim Vives.
See the series page for the cast, trailer and where to watch, or read more Pixel Twelve reviews.
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