Fading Grandeur Review: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)
Fading Grandeur is a pleasant, easy watch built on a fun idea, with a strong lead and a standout supporting actor. It is predictable, and it loses energy toward the end, but its warm heart makes it a good low-key pick.
Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)
Platform: Netflix
Genre: Comedy Drama
Creators and Directors: Álvaro Fernández Armero and Juan Cavestany
Cast: Antonio de la Torre, Alexandra Jiménez, Enric Benavent
Episodes: 6
Language: Spanish
Some shows try to make you gasp. Others just want you to smile for a few hours. Fading Grandeur belongs to the second kind. It is a light Spanish comedy about people who would rather lie than admit they have changed, and it goes down easily.
Antonio de la Torre plays Don Leandro, a marquis who still has his title but very little else. He lives in a crumbling mansion in Madrid, and his biggest dream is to be named a Grandee of Spain, the top rank of Spanish nobility. The problem is that his money is gone. When his daughter gets ready to marry into another noble family, he decides the only way out is to sell the mansion.
That is easier said than done. Leandro is proud, and he has a habit of telling big lies, which doesn’t make him a good salesman. His own family also isn’t happy about the sale. Then a buyer arrives. Sofía Carrington, played by Alexandra Jiménez, appears to be a rich businesswoman, and she offers a large cash deal for the house. She also seems to take an interest in Leandro.
But Sofía is not who she says she is, and that is the show’s biggest hook. We soon learn that she is hiding her real life behind a made-up identity. So we have two people lying to each other, and part of the fun is waiting to see whose lies fall apart first.
The best thing about the series is how it plays with that double deception. Leandro is trying to protect his status, while Sofía is trying to escape hers and live a life she dreams about. Neither is very good at lying. Leandro’s family and friends seem to know he is in trouble, and Sofía’s cover story is always one slip away from falling apart. That keeps every scene a little tense and a little funny.
The show also avoids becoming a loud, silly farce. It has solid laughs, but it never goes wild with zany gags. Instead, it lets Leandro slowly change. He starts as a rather pathetic figure, but as the story pushes him into a corner, a sweeter, kinder side comes out, especially around Sofía.
Antonio de la Torre carries the show with ease, and he and Alexandra Jiménez make a believable pair. The standout, though, is Enric Benavent as Fidel, Leandro’s loyal worker, who comes up with silly money-making schemes for the mansion. His quiet panic and dry reactions bring many of the best laughs.
The show is not perfect. The idea feels familiar, since stories about wealthy people hiding their troubles or outsiders sneaking into rich circles have been told before. Many of the jokes also rely on well-known setups.
The biggest issue is the ending. By the last episodes, the series seems to run out of energy and can feel like a short film stretched into a series. The supporting family members get very little to do, and some of them rarely feel like real characters. Sofía’s helper and her family, for example, mostly play along without much depth, and Leandro’s daughter barely appears.
Fading Grandeur is not sharp or daring, but it is warm, short, and easy to like. Its leads are charming, its humour is gentle, and its heart is in the right place. If you want a simple comedy to fill a quiet evening, it is a decent pick.
If you want something different afterwards, our Lupin Season 4 review covers a master thief who is locked up, framed, and more magnetic than ever. And for something from India, our review of The Legend of Hanuman Season 7 looks at a quest through time that gives the series a new direction.