There are paradises that can be very dangerous because, as the popular saying warns, appearances are deceiving. It is one of the readings that can be taken from ‘Welcome to Eden’the new Spanish series of Netflixwhich arrives on the platform this Friday, May 6 with Amaia Salamanca at the head of an eco-sustainable and apparently perfect community established on a remote island that will reveal many secrets throughout its eight episodes.
“The idea was to make a series of young people on an island and look for a bit of adventure and romance”, explain Guillermo Lopez and Joaquin Gorrizcreators of fiction together with the producer of Brutal Media, Raimon Masllorenc (‘The Stranger’). But they were aware that the audience would have titles like ‘Lost’ or ‘The Wilds’ in mind, so they came up with a case like the fyre festival disaster (a contest for ‘influencers’ that ended in fiasco and that, by the way, has its own documentary on Netflix) to distance himself from his story, sprinkled with thriller and mystery. Her characters would thus face “the worst consequences” in “an environment of disturbing beauty.”
Because the community found by the boys who arrive on the island with the promise of an enigmatic party is reminiscent, at many points, of a sect, although its creators insist that this was not the purpose of ‘Welcome to Eden’. “In the end, there are a lot of young people who have settled there looking for more or less the same thing: escape from the gray life they had. From there we built the family that would form between them, how they work, their day to day, and the hierarchies that are established,” they point out.
The manipulative Astrid
Leading the group are Astrid (Salamanca) and Erik (William Pfening), the leaders of the community, which Zoa has just joined (Amaia Aberasturi), the young woman who carries the weight of history; Africa, a successful ‘youtuber’ (Belinda Peregrin); the cautious Aldo (Albert Baro); the impetuous Charlie (Thomas Aguilera) and the introverted Ibón (Diego Garissa). “Astrid wants to teach them that there is the possibility of making a better world, of leading a more eco-friendly life, but in reality she knows perfectly well who each of the people who have arrived is, she knows their shortcomings, their problems at home, and she knows how manipulate them to take them to their land”, explains Salamanca about his character, who will end up finding his nemesis in Zoa.
The theme of the ecology it is thus very integrated into the plot and serves to raise the question of how far we would be willing to go to follow our ideals; and yes The end justifies the meansas Machiavelli would say: “Climate change is already a danger and on this island they are very aware of it and take it to the ultimate consequences”, advance the creators of a series shot between Lanzarote (where they have recreated that invented island), Barcelona , Teruel and San Sebastian.
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Other performers participating in this first season are Ana Wagener, Berta Vázquez, Sergio Momo, Begoña Vargas, singer Ana Mena, Dariam Coco, Irene Dev, Álex Pastrana, Berta Castañé and Blanca Romero.
Although a second batch of episodes has not yet been confirmed, the creators of the series have indicated the desire for it to continue. “In the first season, what we have done is ask ourselves many questions that will have to be answered in possible future seasons,” they say. The end of this installment, in fact, already leaves the possibility of a second one completely open.