'White Lines': Nuno Lopes's Boxer is a hit among fans but they'd rather not hear the Manchester accent
Spoilers for ‘White Lines’
‘White Lines’ Alex Pina’s new Netflix crime thriller set in Ibiza, Spain, has generated quite a lot of buzz. The story follows Zoe Walker (Laura Haddock) as she attempts to find out who killed her elder brother Axel Collins (Tom Rhys Harries) 20 years ago. Axel was a DJ from Manchester, England, who had moved to the party island after getting kicked out by his cop father.
In Ibiza, he found success with his talents. But his addiction, arrogance and foolhardiness also earned him enemies and on his 24th birthday, a giant debauched bash, he was murdered.
The series tantalizes viewers with the mystery of his murder till the very end when it’s revealed that he was murdered by his friend Anna (Kassius Nelson/Angela Griffin), with whom he was having an affair and Marcus (Ceallach Spellman/Daniel Mays), her then-boyfriend and now-ex-husband. The reason behind the murder was, on Anna’s part, was two-pronged: the fear of losing Marcus, because Axel wanted to come clean about the affair; the second reason was that Axel had sold his clubs (that they had all set up together) to the Calafat family for cheap and then burned the money. She was angry.
Fans seem to generally love the show with many claiming that this is their new favorite binge-watch. There was also, of course, a great deal of appreciation for the somewhat-gratuitous display of nudity and sex on the show. While most people were sharing heart-eye emojis in that regard, one unlucky viewer noted, "Yeah so watching White Lines with my mum and dad was a tad awkward."
But what fans seemed to have a problem with, was the Manchester accents of Zoe, Axel, Marcus, David and others. One Twitter user commented, "White Lines is irritating as f***, they just HAD to use the worst English accent out, Axel isn’t even fit and reminds me of a frog." Another viewer said on Twitter, "#Whitelines is class so far but some of the Manchester accents are f****** woeful. Should’ve been an actor me, there’s evidently a shortage of moderately attractive northern chaps."
Yet another said, "#WhiteLines What a disappointment. Sorry for all cast involved, but at least the North London BBC luvvies won't have to do bad northern accents anymore."
Manchester accent apart, the thing that really weirded viewers out, as per several accounts on Twitter, was the icky relationship between the Calafat mother-son duo Conchita (Belén López) and Oriol (Juan Diego Botto). Oriol, by his own admission, was sexually attracted to his mother. Conchita too admitted that she could sense it but let it go because she did not want her son to grow up unhealthy by shaming his erections.
Two things that most viewers of the show agreed on social media were: one, they loved Nuno Lopes's performance as Boxer, the kind-hearted, sensitive henchman; two, they wanted to go to Ibiza after watching the show. One viewer, who did not seem to enjoy the show much, noted, "The only good thing about this show is being able to look at Boxer who is a dream come true."
‘White Lines’ is available for viewing on Netflix.