Reviews

In summary, the show has many imperfect and sometimes silly elements (particularly the scripting of romantic relationships among the characters), but the story-telling is rich with many hidden gems which keep the viewer engaged and wanting to know what happens next.

El Barco strikes me as a blend of Beverly Hills 90210 and Lost with a tiny bit of Star Trek thrown in to the mix.

Like 90210, El Barco invests a great deal of screen time exploring the relationships (mostly romantic) among the characters, including the older adults, which at times gets tiresome due to cliché plot devices such as love triangles and the angst of young love stemming from the would-be lovers' unwillingness to reveal their feelings for each other.

Like Lost and Star Trek, there is a sci-fi component to El Barco that is mostly fun (despite sometimes being unscientific) and follows the pattern of placing the characters in eminent peril forcing them to work together to snatch survival from the jaws of disaster by the end of each episode. Like Lost, there is a story arc that is progressively revealed through the series. But unlike Lost, most of the various plot lines are resolved cleanly by the series finale.

The cast are beautiful and a large component of the entertainment is watching them fall in and out of love and get into steamy situations. The setting of being on a ship at sea results in skimpy clothing- shorts, t-shirts (often wet), swimsuits, unzipped scuba gear, fun and sun, you get the idea. Even the extras could pass for underwear models. It's good fun, but the "pleasure cruise" lies at odds with the basic premise that the world has ended and they are in a fight for their survival.

The ship, the Estrella Polar, is a fantastic set piece and is beautiful to see throughout the series. However, too little time is spent depicting the operations of a sailing vessel so most viewers will be wondering why only two people out of forty ever work the rigging and why so rarely. And why is no one on watch during the night? We never see basic sailing operations, such as tacking, that would be very fun to see given a crew of students on a school ship. Additionally, while we see a few depictions of officers poring over navigation charts, we never see a sextant used for navigation nor do we get an explanation of the operation of GPS in the post-disaster world. What's worse is that the ship is a source of discontinuity - often establishing shots of the ship don't match the action of the scene (like one early establishing shot of the ship at full sail and good speed matched to a scene of the students swimming in the ocean with all sails clearly furled).

Fun Stuff:

Product placement is pretty funny in El Barco and it is incredibly comforting to know that in the post-apocalyptic future there is an endless supply of Coca Cola for everyone. It becomes a game (a la Where's Waldo) to discover how the screenwriters can insert a refreshing bottle of Coke into each episode.

There are a lot of hidden gems in El Barco that will be appreciated by those who pay attention and the cast and crew deserve recognition for their cleverness. I wish I had noticed these earlier so that I could have been on the lookout for them.

To give you an idea, watch for a radiation scanner used in the sick bay. The device is clearly labeled as having been manufactured by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation (recognizable by true sci-fi fans). Additionally, look for symbolism in a variety of t-shirts and in the photos on the crew's lockers (i.e. a photo of the Hindenburg).

The special effects work is pretty well done. For the most part, the CGI comes across believably because the animators do not overreach. They keep things simple and you'll rarely roll your eyes or groan.

As other reviewers have stated, the series finale is pretty much a dud. A few plot lines are left glaringly unresolved and the last moment feels like a typical ploy to get another season or a movie special.

Despite issues with the series finale and a few objectionable elements, El Barco is a fun time with beautiful and sexy people, a solid story arc, and some entertaining hidden gems that I, for one, enjoyed.