Reina Roja is a new show on Amazon Prime. What’s it about?
The following dialog is a pretty sweet hook for a TV thriller:
“What do you want?”
“To warn you and your organization. He was in London two days ago, but he moves around the world very fast.”
“You know things you shouldn’t know.”
“He wants to destroy the Red Queen.”
Thus kicks off the trailer for Reina Roja.
Amazon’s press release tells us more:
With an IQ of 242, Antonia Scott (Vicky Luengo) is officially the smartest person on Earth. Her intelligence earned her the chance to become the “Red Queen” of a secret and experimental police project, but what seemed like a gift became a curse and she ended up losing everything. When the son of a powerful magnate is found grotesquely murdered in her mansion, and the daughter of the richest man in Spain is kidnapped, the Red Queen organization is launched. Mentor, Antonia’s former boss, turns to Jon Gutiérrez (Hovik Keuchkerian), a temperamental Basque police officer about to be kicked out of the force, to reactivate Antonia. The twisted game of cat and mouse in which Jon and Antonia find themselves involved during their investigation will also help them discover that they admire and complement each other almost as much as they irritate each other. Reina Roja is a disturbing and different thriller, in which the city of Madrid is another protagonist, and which combines the urgency and action of the investigation with the juicy and humorous chemistry of its two protagonists. Available on Prime Video Spain on February 29, 2024.
As “the smartest person on Earth,” the Red Queen can do this thing where time seemingly stops, and she can look closely at the details of things for clues to solve the story’s mysteries and such.
Very few people will recall this these days, but the TV show, The Dead Zone, based on Stephen King’s brilliant novel (and, yep, there’s also an early ‘80s film version of The Dead Zone that’s one of David Cronenberg’s early best directed movies and features perhaps Christopher Walken’s best ever lead performance) gave its lead character, Johny Smith (played by Anthony Michael Hall) very similar capabilities, though of a somewhat psychic/supernatural nature (it seems like maybe there might be some supernatural elements in Reina Roja based on the trailer, but it’s a little hard to say).
The Dead Zone TV show is quite good, especially in its first few seasons, and even has surprisingly decent special effects for a basic cable show.
Back to Reina Roja (sort of!): it takes place in Madrid, Spain, a city I’ve been to a few times and greatly admire and enjoy. One of my favorite Madrid stories is that one morning I woke up early and went to a café near where I was staying to get some coffee and do some writing.
Several young guys were at a table near me, and were being a bit rowdy – nothing aggressive at all, just being louder and more unruly than you’d expect at a quaint morning coffee shop such as this. I must have glanced over a few times, and one of the guys explained what was going on. When he understood that I’m an American with only a weak understanding of Spanish, he started repeating barracho.
Barracho means drunk, and he started pointing at his friend and said, ”Barracho like fish, he’s drunk like fish!”
Reina Roja: when and where is it on?
Reina Roja premieres on Amazon Prime on Thursday, February 29th, 2024.