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'Dark Desire' Preview: Netflix’s Mexican thriller promises sex, deceit and secrets as murder case unravels

Usually, thrillers like these make for quick consumption in the form of films, so for ‘Oscuro Deseo’ or ‘Dark Desire’ to work, the show needs a strong story

For fans of steamy erotic thrillers, Netflix has something up its sleeves. A new Mexican series is about to start and it already looks quite promising. ‘Oscuro Deseo’, or ‘Dark Desire’ in English, tells the story of Alma Solares, a prestigious lawyer, and college professor in Mexico, who has a dark secret.

Played by Maite Perroni, Alma is the wife of Jorge Poza’s Leonard Solares, a Mexican judge who has secrets of his own. Things get truly wild, as per Netflix, when during a visit to her best friend for the weekend to “process the grief” of the latter’s divorce, Alma meets Dario Guerra, a 23-year-old. The two have an affair and she returns home with her husband and daughter, determined to forget her lapse in judgment.

Of course, her life no longer remains simple after that. “What started as a minor adventure becomes an incendiary passion, and then a dangerous obsession, unraveling a chain of secrets of a past that fatally binds them all,” says the Netflix synopsis for ‘Oscuro Deseo’ or ‘Dark Desire’.

In the trailer for the show, we find out more. Dario, played by Alejandro Speitzer, is a student of Alma, complicating matters further. But the real doozy arrives as we see Dario turn more and more destructive. In the backdrop of a murder investigation, we see in the trailer that Dario tries to get close to Alma, despite her best efforts to avoid him. And when she does manage to, Dario finds a new way to make that happen. He goes after Zoe, played by Regina Pavón, her daughter.

The question that the show asks in the trailer is this: Will Alma’s one slip towards her base desires lead to the destruction of her family? Will this stranger -- Dario -- become the very thing that comes to bite her back?

‘Oscuro Deseo’ or ‘Dark Desire’ looks like a sharp show from the trailer. The visuals are aesthetically dark and present a grim aura that thrillers often manage to get wrong. What’s more, it seems to take the all-too-common dark-stranger-you-meet in erotic thrillers and adds to that with more mystery and insidiousness. 

The only question one has to ask is; can a story like that be done justice through a series? Usually, thrillers like these make for quick consumption in the form of films. The pace is usually tight, and we see a few weeks playing out at rapid speed, as things escalate from an affair to something more dangerous. 

For ‘Oscuro Deseo’ or ‘Dark Desire’ to work, the Netflix series will have to work hard on character development and of course, make the mystery in the backdrop strong and coherent. Ultimately, the success or the failure of the show will rely not only on the oomph on the screen, rather on the strength of the story. It has to make the feel of danger ever-present and real so as to take usual pop-thrillers up a notch. 

‘Oscuro Deseo’ or ‘Dark Desire’ will air on Netflix later July 15.