Meera of Tarth Posted June 26, 2018 Share Posted June 26, 2018 A thread to discuss this entertaining Spanish series about time travel and history that currently has three seasons. (Since the possibility of starting this thread was discussed in the Money Heist one... @Zorral @Ancalagon El Pistolero here you have it) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted June 26, 2018 Share Posted June 26, 2018 Terrific -- thank you! I'll soon be returning to the Time Ministry, as there are only two more episodes left to watch in Luke Cage season 2. Plus the weather's been uncharacteristically lovely, so I've been out a lot, beyond work (and also occupied with kidnapped kids), so watching a lot less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meera of Tarth Posted June 26, 2018 Author Share Posted June 26, 2018 1 hour ago, Zorral said: Terrific -- thank you! I'll soon be returning to the Time Ministry, as there are only two more episodes left to watch in Luke Cage season 2. Plus the weather's been uncharacteristically lovely, so I've been out a lot, beyond work (and also occupied with kidnapped kids), so watching a lot less. Your welcome! I'm also busy these weeks but at least there is now an appropiate place to discuss it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted June 28, 2018 Share Posted June 28, 2018 So, I'm in season 2. Just watched the first part (episode 7), "Time of the Brave," the two-parter set during the loss of the last parts of Spain's New World Empire at the end of the 19th century, in Cuba and the Philippines, i.e. what in the US is called the Spanish-American War. The writers of this show are without fear in mixing up everything -- and yet no matter how it is shaked and baked, it all comes out coherently, even if one isn't always entirely sure what happened or why it happened. So we have missing Julian show up again; a Spanish government audit of the Ministry's books; the theme of love too shy or too proud to reach out; revelations of children we never knew we had; and, as always, our pasts and presents all mixed up appropriately or inappropriately, with history and the present. And this is in just the first part, but it's all working. Yes, they have 70 minute episodes, but I can't imagine US tv doing all of that within those time constraints. It was so nice to see Julian again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meera of Tarth Posted June 30, 2018 Author Share Posted June 30, 2018 On 6/28/2018 at 2:41 AM, Zorral said: So, I'm in season 2. Just watched the first part (episode 7), "Time of the Brave," the two-parter set during the loss of the last parts of Spain's New World Empire at the end of the 19th century, in Cuba and the Philippines, i.e. what in the US is called the Spanish-American War. The writers of this show are without fear in mixing up everything -- and yet no matter how it is shaked and baked, it all comes out coherently, even if one isn't always entirely sure what happened or why it happened. So we have missing Julian show up again; a Spanish government audit of the Ministry's books; the theme of love too shy or too proud to reach out; revelations of children we never knew we had; and, as always, our pasts and presents all mixed up appropriately or inappropriately, with history and the present. And this is in just the first part, but it's all working. Yes, they have 70 minute episodes, but I can't imagine US tv doing all of that within those time constraints. It was so nice to see Julian again. I watched this one a long long ago, so I barely remember the subplots, but I do remember the performances, somehow. Yeah, agree. A really good return for Julian. Doing what he really likes doing. And in terms of showing the soldiers' emotions I think they did a good job in these episodes, in the first part setting the circumstances of each of them so as that we can get to know their backstories, and in the second, with the ending of that historical episode of the "Last of the Philippines" and the absurdity of the circumstances, but not because of that, less risky for the ones involved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meera of Tarth Posted August 5, 2018 Author Share Posted August 5, 2018 @Zorral I have just found it. It basically explains the origin both from the music and the design of El Ministerio. About the latter it says that they wanted something with puppets, like a fake 3D, a protagonist who was travelling and their inspiration was Saul Bass and "Catch me if you Can". They wanted to show trips, villains, doors, clocks... They wanted to create something a little bit humourous, and thus the shadows. And a little bit of SteamPunk as well. This is the article, in Spanish: http://www.rtve.es/television/20150227/cabecera-ministerio-del-tiempo-como-se-hizo/1105838.shtml This is the storyboard of the credits: http://www.rtve.es/contenidos/documentos/stroyboard_cabecera_elministeriodeltiempo.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted August 5, 2018 Share Posted August 5, 2018 Este es muy interesante. I wonder how Turn, first season 2014, came up with the same concept though -- as el Ministerio's first season was 2015. I haven't found any information on this though, particularly since so many of the snarky young white males who review tv hated the show from the gitgo and even hated this really elegant title sequencing that condenses the variety of spying techniques and episodes and spies from both sides quickly, set to a nice bit of music. They called it 'lame' and those of us who like it, 'lamers.' The central figures weren't unrealistically sexy and bloody enough, so they were bored beyond belief by our national history. Whereas it does seem that the Spanish tv audience who is interested in Spanish history is large enough that El Ministerio was able to last for a while! This question is partly of interest to me in the light of how the US series, Timeless, utterly ripped off, to the point of a law suit: https://news.avclub.com/nbc-can-t-stop-the-clock-on-the-timeless-lawsuit-1798257832 https://deadline.com/2017/05/timeless-lawsuit-settled-shawn-ryan-eric-kripke-sony-nbcu-1202103021/ Quote What we do know, thanks to Onza’s initial complaint of September 27 in U.S. District Court for Central California, is that the company was deep in talks of bringing the Spanish show to the U.S. Those negotiation for an American version of the format went into late-July 2015, when Sony agreed to produce the show and gave terms including an 18-month option. Then suddenly everything stopped and next there was an August 2015 Deadline report that NBC had bought a project, then titled Time, from Kripke and Ryan — both of whom were under overall deals with Sony. That project had a pilot production commitment, with Sony and John Davis’ studio-based Davis Entertainment set to produce. Time was picked up to pilot in January of this yearand landed a series order as Timeless four months later. Sounding a lot like the Spanish show, the NBC series premiered on October 4 starring Matt Lanter, Abigail Spencer and Malcolm Barrett. “Obviously, it does not take a lot of time to put together a ‘new’ and creative product ripped off from someone else,” noted Onza’s filing of last September with no small irony. “Oddly, at the moment of the August 26, 2015 publication of the Deadline Release, Sony abruptly and without any warning terminated all negotiations relative to Onza’s American Version.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meera of Tarth Posted August 5, 2018 Author Share Posted August 5, 2018 6 hours ago, Zorral said: Este es muy interesante. I wonder how Turn, first season 2014, came up with the same concept though -- as el Ministerio's first season was 2015. I haven't found any information on this though, particularly since so many of the snarky young white males who review tv hated the show from the gitgo and even hated this really elegant title sequencing that condenses the variety of spying techniques and episodes and spies from both sides quickly, set to a nice bit of music. They called it 'lame' and those of us who like it, 'lamers.' The central figures weren't unrealistically sexy and bloody enough, so they were bored beyond belief by our national history. I liked the credits I saw on the clip. And I read the premise and it sounds really interesting. Mmm...I would not trust those TV reviewers. Well, I don't actually read much from them, in fact. Quote Whereas it does seem that the Spanish tv audience who is interested in Spanish history is large enough that El Ministerio was able to last for a while! As for the TV audience. Well, that depends...in fact I must say that this series has struggled quite a lot to reach three seasons. And the reason why it had a third one was....the online fan base pressuring a lot. I think that the original audience was not quite large as they'd like to, (even if it's not to be dismissed), but they know that this is not a product that could interest great masses due to the"cultural" part of it. And even if they are proven wrong in some way (first season had a lot of success, or other historical series produced by the National Public channel), and even if it was aired in the National Public channel, TVE (which should produce a variety of products, and in fact they do, for instance, purely historical series like Isabel and other high-quality period dramas) it was still hard to convince them, apparently. I basically think that Netflix' arrival was the reason they decided to pursue the third. And now...the fourth could arrive or it couldn't. The creator was not happy with the treatment it had there (in the National Public channel) because this channel had some kind of love-hate relationship with El Ministerio. In the sense that they premiered it on a theatre but later....they said it would be aired on a certain month but it didn't come. Then they changed the day it was scheduled in a bizarre way in the sense that people didn't know the day it was supposed to be aired the following week, etc. Not only once.... . Not to mention how the hour that the series was supposed to air was nonsensical (as if people would not notice 30 minute delays....when they already air it too late). All of these I'm explaining can be found in the original online fan bases (of course, the audience was highly disappointed). However, I do think it has chances to continue. If it's not with TVE+Netflix, it could be Netflix alone or with another plattform (Atresmedia for instance is creating/adapting interesting products with Netflix nowadays, for instance Money Heist, and recently the Cathedral of The Sea). Quote This question is partly of interest to me in the light of how the US series, Timeless, utterly ripped off, to the point of a law suit: https://news.avclub.com/nbc-can-t-stop-the-clock-on-the-timeless-lawsuit-1798257832 https://deadline.com/2017/05/timeless-lawsuit-settled-shawn-ryan-eric-kripke-sony-nbcu-1202103021/ Yeah, I knew about that. I think they finally reached an agreement with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toth Posted August 7, 2018 Share Posted August 7, 2018 Soo... I finally watched the last episode of season 3. Took me long enough, but certainly not because it wasn't interesting. I love the premise and the show really makes a lot with it! I also learned a lot about Spanish History, even if only because I looked up the subjects they were dealing with (which is also kinda necessary because of the show's tendency to white-wash certain things... really, they could have made much more out of their El Cid storyline). The show really shines with its episodic format in when they bring history to life, making it as mundane as possible. Special mention goes to the way historical ministry agents just kinda roll with the technologies of the future, with only the occasional silly interaction with it. Well then, a few general, but spoileriffic comments below: Spoiler So... I find it interesting that two seasons in a row they end it with a single episode about drastic changes to the timeline from which they have to recover. At first I though the finale in its silliness would just plagiarize Stargate's "Wormhole X-treme" episodes (and I'm fairly certain that was the intention with the whole RTV Ministerio show suddenly popping up in 1966). But then it took a fairly grim and serious turn (what with the human hunting and the very realistic consequences of what massive pollution of the timeline would actually cause... though it is a bit odd how exactly that timeline even came about... Then again, it was a great final episode, just like the season 2 finale about how Philipe II. took over the world. Which brings me to the only grave downside I can think of (aside the rather annoying cast shuffle, but that's not something I can really hold against it): This series is utterly atrocious in resolving its overarching plots! Like I can't believe that the whole Darrow arc of season 2 was just resolved by one bullet of a pissed off Lola and then immediately fizzled out. Or just now in season 3 how it turned out that these sinister time-travelling secret organizations suddenly only consisted of 12 unwashed peasants each who inexplicably decided to go into a fist-fight despite having modern firearms, and with them gone the whole thing was suddenly over. Both instances of threats that were present in entire seasons suddenly just being shrugged away really harms the narrative and comes as huge anticlimaxes. Seriously, with what they have, they should really do better. Especially since their one-episode finales do better! Also, while I am at the season finales, I'm really not sure what to think of Alonso going in retirement. With that they would have switched out the entire cast for the next season. And while I grew to like Lola (mostly because she currently has by far the most interesting private troubles), I'm still not all that certain about Pacino. His antics cause me to just roll my eyes more often than not (though then again, so did Julian creepily stalking his dead wife...). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meera of Tarth Posted August 8, 2018 Author Share Posted August 8, 2018 On 8/7/2018 at 7:26 PM, Toth said: Soo... I finally watched the last episode of season 3. Took me long enough, but certainly not because it wasn't interesting. I love the premise and the show really makes a lot with it! I also learned a lot about Spanish History, even if only because I looked up the subjects they were dealing with (which is also kinda necessary because of the show's tendency to white-wash certain things... really, they could have made much more out of their El Cid storyline). The show really shines with its episodic format in when they bring history to life, making it as mundane as possible. Special mention goes to the way historical ministry agents just kinda roll with the technologies of the future, with only the occasional silly interaction with it. Well then, a few general, but spoileriffic comments below: Hide contents So... I find it interesting that two seasons in a row they end it with a single episode about drastic changes to the timeline from which they have to recover. At first I though the finale in its silliness would just plagiarize Stargate's "Wormhole X-treme" episodes (and I'm fairly certain that was the intention with the whole RTV Ministerio show suddenly popping up in 1966). But then it took a fairly grim and serious turn (what with the human hunting and the very realistic consequences of what massive pollution of the timeline would actually cause... though it is a bit odd how exactly that timeline even came about... Then again, it was a great final episode, just like the season 2 finale about how Philipe II. took over the world. Spoiler Oh, wasn't that one also when the Ministry breaks its own rules and they (BIG SPOILER COMING) Spoiler travel to the future? Maybe I'm not remembering quite well and it was not this episode, though. What I found weird is that they think that none of their engineers would have also made a pic of the book..... Or are their engineers completely trustworthy on that matter? then about the last episode. Well, I didn't dislike it, but I thought that both finales were kind of repetitive, while entertaining. I thought that they were a little bit rushed. I suppose I need a rewatch. However I really liked how they portrayed the "time travel" experience. Hilariously creepy. And I loved those 60's vibes. ............... There was an interesting thing about the old RTVE Ministerio though! A little homage to the real actors. The actors who play Amelia and Julian are the parents of Cayetana Guillen Cuervo (the actress who plays Irene). That's what she says she likes them. (Gemma Cuervo and Fernando Guillen.). https://www.huffingtonpost.es/2017/11/02/el-pequeno-homenaje-a-cayetana-guillen-cuervo-en-el-ultimo-capitulo-de-el-ministerio-del-tiempo_a_23264204/ Then Alonso makes an observation and Salvador says like "Juan de Austria" in "Jeromín". The actor who plays Salvador, Jaime Blanch, played John of Austria when he was a kid in that film. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045933/?ref_=nv_sr_1 On 8/7/2018 at 7:26 PM, Toth said: Hide contents Which brings me to the only grave downside I can think of (aside the rather annoying cast shuffle, but that's not something I can really hold against it): This series is utterly atrocious in resolving its overarching plots! Like I can't believe that the whole Darrow arc of season 2 was just resolved by one bullet of a pissed off Lola and then immediately fizzled out. Or just now in season 3 how it turned out that these sinister time-travelling secret organizations suddenly only consisted of 12 unwashed peasants each who inexplicably decided to go into a fist-fight despite having modern firearms, and with them gone the whole thing was suddenly over. Both instances of threats that were present in entire seasons suddenly just being shrugged away really harms the narrative and comes as huge anticlimaxes. Seriously, with what they have, they should really do better. Especially since their one-episode finales do better! Spoiler Yes.....I have to agree with that. And what do you think of the story of Marta? Her ending? I really liked her "tragedy". On 8/7/2018 at 7:26 PM, Toth said: Hide contents Also, while I am at the season finales, I'm really not sure what to think of Alonso going in retirement. With that they would have switched out the entire cast for the next season. And while I grew to like Lola (mostly because she currently has by far the most interesting private troubles), I'm still not all that certain about Pacino. His antics cause me to just roll my eyes more often than not (though then again, so did Julian creepily stalking his dead wife...). Spoiler I'm not sure if he will retire? I had to look at it up. I think that Elena says that one of his promises to her was a lie. (Not sure which are those promises now but that's what the article said). ................................... It's also true that the creator has stated several times that Alonso, Amelia, Julian and Pacino are not indispensable for the Ministerio to continue. But I think we'll see them again and especially Amelia and Alonso. Spoiler And while I grew to like Lola (mostly because she currently has by far the most interesting private troubles), I'm still not all that certain about Pacino. His antics cause me to just roll my eyes more often than not (though then again, so did Julian creepily stalking his dead wife...). Spoiler Lola? I can't believe what I'm reading!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meera of Tarth Posted December 29, 2018 Author Share Posted December 29, 2018 So El Ministerio has its 4th season confirmed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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