In November, 1985, the Colombian guerilla group M-19 took the Palace of Justice in Bogotá. The two-day siege ended with a military raid that killed over 100 people, including a number of Supreme Court justices. The siege and the aftermath is examined in a new scripted series on Netflix.
UNDER SEIGE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: A woman with a stunned look on her face walks through the charred remains of an office in the Palace of Justice in Bogotá, Colombia.
The Gist: Two months before the November 6-7, 1985 siege of the Palace of Justice by the guerrilla group M-19, a couple meet at the Palace. Memo (Santiago Londoño) tells Mona (Mariana Gómez) that he wants to take her to the cafe there for a date, but he’s really there to scout out the fourth floor, where the Supreme Court justices have offices. He’s a part of M-19, and his group is seeking to take over the sprawling complex and make demands of the government.
The tensions between M-19 and the government have been at the breaking point for some time, to the point where Alfonso Reyes Echandía (Santiago Alarcón) requests protection for the Palace of Justice. The military generals think that the guerillas wouldn’t dare take such a massive building. But as we see, the group is planning just that.
In the meantime, TV journalist Olga Behar (Luna Baxter) digs for information on just how the government is responding to M-19’s threats. Jimmy Beltrán (Camilo Amores), a waiter at the cafe, is just trying to sock away enough money so he and his wife Pilar Navarrete (Natalia Reyes) can move their family to a larger home.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Created by Natalia Santa and Mariana Berenguer, and based on the real-life 1985 siege of the Palace of Justice, Under Seige (Original title: Palacio) reminded us of two recent dramas about the October 7 attacks in Israel: Red Alert and One Day In October.
Our Take: While Under Seige is a fictional retelling of the Palace of Justice siege — disclaimers make pains to say that some of the characters are fictional — it is based on research and interviews about the incident, including those who survived the military raid that killed over 100 people and ended the siege. What the show is trying to do is examine the siege and the decades of aftermath from multiple perspectives and not assign blame to any one party.
It’s ambitious to say the least, and in later episodes the timeline ping-pongs between the siege and the aftermath, which stretched out over 20 years. There’s a lot of complexity and nuance that will probably resonate with people in Colombia who studied the political environment that created M-19 and led them to try to take the Palace of Justice, and it will be especially trenchant to those who lived through it or watched it unfold on TV.
We’re just not sure how it will resonate with viewers who are not as familiar with Colombia’s political history from that time period. Sure, the writers have set up a structure that helps you follow certain characters, like Jimmy and Pilar, who are more innocent bystanders than anything else. But viewing the show as just an action series without much of the context behind the story makes the bevy of characters and situations introduced more confusing than anything else.
Performance Worth Watching: We like the fact that the show’s story is structured around the three female protagonists — Natalia Reyes as Pilar, Luna Baxter as Olga and Mariana Gómez as Mona.
Parting Shot: The siege begins, with one of the M-19 guerillas screaming out, “We’re the M-19! Long live Colombia!”
Our Call: STREAM IT. If you’re not familiar with Colombian’s political history, you should look up the Palace of Justice siege before watching Under Siege. It will definitely make the viewing experience of this historical drama a whole lot better.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
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