Though no one has ever said so explicitly, The Mallorca Files was clearly designed to remind the British of the benefits of a close relationship with Europe. The show is filmed in a Spain where everyone speaks fluent English, with one British and one German lead actor, and a supporting cast which is entirely Spanish. As a set-up for a sunny, low-stakes’ cozy mystery’ TV show it could hardly be bettered. The third season of The Mallorca Files has found a home on Amazon (while remaining a joint production with the BBC), which allows for some alterations to the chase-of-the-week formula. It’s just a shame that the larger budget and scope of this season seemed to hinge upon making its female heroine more quote-unquote likeable.
The Welsh Miranda (Elen Rhys) and the German Max (Julian Looman), while full members of the Mallorcan police, tend to investigate minor crimes, or those involving the expat community. Due to their bad Spanish, among other things, there is some debate about their levels of competence. Certainly their supervisor Ines (an underused María Fernández Ache) rarely gets to express an emotion other than exasperation towards them. Max is an easygoing man, thrilled with his life in Mallorca and his girlfriend Carmen (Tábata Cerezo). His most noticeable attribute is an endearing enthusiasm for new experiences. This is despite the fact he is a large man who has spent his life ensuring his physical size is not threatening to anybody, a trait often seen in real life but rarely on screen. Mr. Looman is to be commended at how he enables Max’s sheepish physicality.
Miranda’s characterization on The Mallorca Files
But where the show has a sharper tang is in its characterization of Miranda. Miranda is largely by-the-book with an aggressive, competitive demeanor, a stickler for the rules, and prepared for confrontation if they are not being followed to her satisfaction. Normally she wears suits and sneakers so if she is dressed up (or in a dress) for any reason it’s worthy of comment. The first two seasons slowly revealed she transferred to Mallorca because of not being well-liked at her job in the UK, and in her career there she endured sexual harassment and bullying that was not handled appropriately. Her crankiness and curmudgeonly attitude extends to Max, who is sympathetic to and largely patient with her, and his kindness and understanding sands down Miranda’s sharper edges. Miranda wishes she was different without quite having the ability to make things easier for herself, a fine line which Ms. Rhys walks with ease.
Of course some of Miranda’s troubles are due to her principles. Season one made sure to show there was a mutual physical attraction between Miranda and Max, one which Max, despite Carmen, was willing to address, but Miranda wasn’t. It’s unusual to see a woman prioritizing another woman’s happiness, even as men have their cake and eat it all the time. But people they encounter over the course of their cases routinely mistake them as boyfriend-girlfriend, which Miranda’s speed at correcting leaves no doubt about how she feels on the subject. Or does it…
In the first two seasons the episode’s formula always included an extended foot chase (hence Miranda’s sneakers) as well as the pair driving to a case in Max’s convertible BMW from the eighties. It’s also worth mentioning Max carries a gun, often drawn but rarely used, but Miranda, in common with most British police, isn’t armed. Ines has her fashion sense and a daughter, goth pathologist Roberto (a very good Alex Haufner) clearly has his own strange thing going on, and Max has Carmen and Carmen’s father Joan (Carlos Olalla), who owns his favorite bar. But Miranda is alone, with no friends or family shown and no life outside of the workplace. It’s clear that the directive for season three was to shift all of this.
The extra Amazon money allowed for some of the chase sequences to take place on boats, and for some high-end locations to be used, opening up the world of Mallorca a little more. There’s even a diving sequence in the first episode for Mr. Looman. But the arc of the season is less ‘pretty people solve low-stakes crimes‘ and more ‘what are these two good-looking idiots doing here?’ It’s a significant shift in tone and one which, without meaning to, kind of undermines the purpose of the show. If they don’t think they ought to be doing their jobs, it’s hard for viewers to stay invested.
And yet. In A Girl’s Best Friend, Max and Miranda end up investigating thefts undercover in a luxury hotel, though the crime they solve ends up being much larger than that. Max also ends up being called a ‘beautiful puppy‘ to his face by some of the other housekeepers, and Miranda ends up providing some pretty good advice and friendship despite herself. In The Spanish Prisoner, they pose as a couple, marks for a famous (yet anonymous) con artist and must spend the night alone together in a luxury villa. Miranda insists its amenities cannot be enjoyed as they are working, not that this stops Max from leaning in for a kiss. To convince the con artist, of course. And despite the unserious tone which the show trowels on top of Mr. Looman’s solid decency, more episodes this season have a political undercurrent: Clandestino heavily features the island’s undocumented immigrants, while Water Water Everywhere is about the natural resources in a small, close-knit village.
But all of this is under the shadow of the interpersonal drama from the end of the second season, when Max asked Carmen to marry him. After an absence of a few episodes, Carmen returns with the news she has a job in Madrid and asks Max to join her. Max refuses, putting their relationship into an awful limbo and causing viewers to ponder whether this is Miranda’s big chance. And yet. When an escaped prisoner (The Fast Show‘s Charlie Higson) prompts a manhunt led by an officer from Barcelona named Benny (David Mora), no one is more surprised than Max when he later catches Miranda kissing him.
If they are separated by Benny or Carmen the entire premise of the show is at risk, but with all these obstacles is it even a good idea for them to end up together personally as well as professionally? The penultimate episode Madre, which takes place on a women-only island retreat run by a ‘priestess’ (Leonor Watts), distracts from an unusually dark plotline with additional hints about why Miranda is the way she is. The trouble is that in the final episode, The Enemy Within, both Max and Miranda must act uncharacteristically for their issues to come to a head.
Hopefully a fourth season will find a way to restore equilibrium regardless of whether the show turns into a modern remix of Hart to Hart. Its cozy attitude should include letting its characters be true to themselves. Though between Ms. Rhys and the writers, Miranda should maintain enough bite that this won’t be too much of a problem. For the most part the show succeeds admirably at what it set out to do. The trouble is it risks losing the edgy characters that made the sunny setting even more enjoyable.
The Mallorca Files Season 3 is now streaming on Prime Video.
Learn more about the show, including how to watch it, at the Prime site for the title.
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