Critic’s Rating: 4 / 5.0
4
What do you get when you combine the talented Eva Longoria with a hilarious premise and a cast of incredible actors who can seamlessly shift between multiple languages?
You get an absolutely wild ride of comedic proportions with perfectly timed moments of heart between actual danger trailing the heels of these wonderful women.
While the series has done a fantastic job so far of not losing sight of its tone and general direction, quite a few moments have felt staunchly like a Hallmark movie.
Although considering the way Land of Women Season 1 Episode 4 left the characters and audiences at the edges of their seats, we may be headed down a road with very few romantic looks of longing.
Eva Longoria is Giving Glamourous Gala No Matter What
How can Eva Longoria look stunning in every sense of the word while being so pregnant, she’s literally bursting at the seems?
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And in a white dress, no less, while taking herself to the hospital because her dumpster of a husband is everywhere but by her side.
Unsurprisingly, she is likely developing feelings for Amat after everything she has endured.
The writing is on the wall because I have never seen two people who aren’t romantically involved bicker as much as Gala and Amat.
All that timber needs is one good spark.
This is especially true now that Eva Longoria‘s Gala knows that Amat isn’t actually in a relationship with Montse, who is quite possibly the calmest human being in existence.
At the very least, Gala and Amat must be destined for each other as business partners.
Not only did they manage to get all the wine from the women in town, but they also got them to work overtime, following Gala’s instructions.
And it might’ve even gone according to plan had the two bumbling excuses for thugs not shown up at the worst possible time.
Still no word on where Fred’s lying, cheating butt has scurried off to, but good for Gala in deciding to choose herself and her family over that rat bastard of a man.
Now, if only she could make it back to Amat and the women of the village before they completely wreck the rest of the usable wine.
No Matter How Hard Life Tries, There’s No Keeping Kate Down
While Maggie can hardly be blamed for her father’s shady dealings, despite Kate’s feelings, the character is not hard to see as dispensable.
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Especially when there’s a character as impressive as the mechanic who always seems to be right around the corner to give Kate a word of encouragement and more compliments than Kate may be used to.
The only issue with the character is that Maria de Nati’s charming role has not been named.
Four episodes in, and Apple TV+ has still not given a hint despite characters we’ve only seen once receiving official character names.
Hopefully, it’s deliberate on some level and not a complete writer oversight.
How else will we thank her for lighting such a fire under Kate because her reading that extremely unprofessional doctor and a waiting room full of gossiping towns folk was everything?
Keep Your Eyes on Julia
One thing that was made abundantly clear is that Julia has a pattern of leaving loved ones without a word of communication for years at a time.
She shows a lot of trademark traits of characters who experience trauma, leaving them in a similar state of mental maturity until the emotional scars are resolved.
In Julia’s case, she never stopped being a free-spirited young woman.
Still, she did bang a priest well on his way to doing the Lord’s work when she knocked his socks off in a barn while the young father was still in seminary.
There’s no shame in her game, and we are all for it, but it’s a little sad she made so many great memories since the Land of Women Season Premiere only to have them slip away.
But don’t let the woman’s dementia fool you; she is still as sharp and quick as a whip.
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If there was ever a laugh-out-loud moment in the episode, it was Julia suggesting they all have drinks with the thugs because she didn’t want to die sober.
The woman is an icon and a legend.
She pulled out all the stops, even trying to flirt her way out of captivity with a man holding a gun up to her.
And what did she do when that didn’t work?
She stole a gun from Andreu to threaten the thugs, and when that expectantly didn’t work, she grabbed a wine bottle and knocked one of them over the head.
Like I said, keep your eyes on grandma at all times.
Speaking of Andreu, that poor, sweet man is clearly still head over heels for Julia’s free-loving behind because he could’ve gotten off clear of having a daughter but came clean anyway.
Much to Julia’s chagrin by the looks of it, because now the only way to know who Gala’s birth father is will be with a blood test, and she’s going to need all she can get if those thugs decide to use their guns.
Honestly, the woman would have done amazing on Eva Longoria’s previous show, Desperate Housewives, because the woman is as wily as any wife on Wysteria Lane.
Things are in a rather precarious place at the moment, but if there is one trait the Xatart women can call a family aspect, it’s being a survivor.
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These women don’t back down, and every episode has been a treat to see how well they cope and adapt while leaning on each other.
That being said, it was good that the series didn’t let the plot get stale by fleshing things out and instead got right to the point of a gun.
Whatever happens next, we will be upfront and at the edge of our seats to see how things shake down on the next episode!
Were you surprised that the thugs managed to find the girls so quickly despite their apparent ineptitude?
When all is said and done, do you think these women will return to their previous lives or find a new home in La Muga?
Drop a comment below to let us know, and join us again when we review the next episode of Land of Women.
