28 October (2022-10-28) – 25 November 2022 (2022-11-25)
¡García! (or García!) is a Spanish television series based on the graphic novel by Santiago García and Luis Bustos. Created by Sara Antuña and Carlos de Pando for HBO Max, it stars Francisco Ortiz and Veki Velilla. Eugenio Mira directed the 6 episodes.
Premise
Set in a version of current-day Spain on the verge of societal collapse, the fiction follows Antonia, a reporter who accidentally unravels a decades-old plot concerning a super-agent created in the 1950s by the Francoist secret services, García, who was subsequently cryogenized. The latter, defrosted by Antonia, finds himself dazed and confused in current-day Spain.[1][2][3][4][5]
Created and written by Sara Antuña and Carlos de Pando (showrunners of The Neighbor), ¡García! is an adaptation of the eponymous graphic novel by Santiago García and Luis Bustos.[9] The series is produced by García La Serie, S.L. (an ad-hoc production company linked to Zeta Studios) for WarnerMedia Original Programming.[2]
The project, billed as a "satirical thriller with sci-fi elements",[3] was greenlighted in May 2021. Miguel Salvat, Steve Matthews and Antony Root are credited as executive producers,[2][11] whereas Eugenio Mira was charged with the direction of the 6 episodes comprising the season, set to feature a running time of around 60 minutes.[9][4]Unax Mendia [ca] is the cinematography director.[12] Shooting in Madrid had already begun on 7 May 2021.[13]
Raquel Hernández Luján of HobbyConsolas rated the show with 80 points ("very good"), praising its "agile storytelling, the committed cast, and its boundless aesthetic and musical ambition".[22]
Pere Solà Gimferrer of La Vanguardia highlighted "an impeccable execution that knows how to recreate the adventurous spirit of Indiana Jones and the sense of action of the classic James Bond without renouncing to have its own identity".[23]
In the United States, Decider's Johnny Loftus also wrote a positive review for the series, concluding: "Garcia! offers a gleeful riff on spy movies, and a grip of chase and fight scenes right out of the Indiana Jones adventure handbook. But it also has something to say about the shifting tides of contemporary politics, between democracy and fascism, and that push and pull isn’t exclusive to contemporary Spain."[10]