Under Siege Review: ★★★½☆ (3.5/5)
Under Siege is an ambitious, serious drama built around three strong female leads. It tries to show every side of a painful event, but the busy timeline and large cast can confuse viewers who do not know the background.
Rating: ★★★½☆ (3.5/5)
Genre: Historical Drama
Language: Spanish
Creators: Natalia Santa and Mariana Berenguer
Cast: Natalia Reyes, Luna Baxter, Mariana Gómez, Santiago Londoño, Camilo Amores, Santiago Alarcón
Original Title: Palacio
Some stories need no extra drama, because the real event was already shocking enough. Under Siege goes back to November 1985, when the Colombian guerrilla group M-19 took over the Palace of Justice in Bogotá. The siege lasted two days and ended with a military raid that killed over 100 people, including several Supreme Court justices. Netflix now tells that story in a scripted series. Its original title is Palacio.
The show starts two months before the attack. A young man named Memo, played by Santiago Londoño, invites a woman named Mona, played by Mariana Gómez, on a date at the Palace cafe.
It sounds sweet, but he is really there to scout the fourth floor, where the Supreme Court justices have their offices. Memo belongs to M-19, and his group wants to take over the huge building and make demands of the government.
Tension between the guerrillas and the state has been building for a long time. Alfonso Reyes Echandía, played by Santiago Alarcón, even asks for extra protection for the Palace. The military generals do not think anyone would dare take such a big building. As the story shows, they are wrong.
Around this, the series follows other people. Olga Behar, played by Luna Baxter, is a TV journalist who digs into how the government is responding to the threats. Jimmy Beltrán, played by Camilo Amores, is a waiter at the cafe who just wants to save enough money to move his family to a bigger home. His wife Pilar, played by Natalia Reyes, is part of that dream.
What the show tries to do is bold. It is a fictional retelling, and the makers say clearly that some characters are made up. Still, it is based on research and interviews, including with survivors of the raid.
The goal is to look at the siege and the twenty years of aftermath from many points of view, without blaming only one side. In later episodes, the timeline jumps back and forth between the siege and the years that followed.
I like that the story is built around three women. Pilar, Olga and Mona give the series a human centre, and Natalia Reyes, Luna Baxter and Mariana Gómez make that choice work. Characters like Jimmy and Pilar, who are more bystanders than fighters, also give viewers someone to follow when events get tense. That is a smart way to guide us through a very complicated day.
Now the catch. The series asks a lot from the viewer. People in Colombia who know their country’s political past, or who watched these events on TV, will probably find a lot of depth and detail here. If you are not familiar with that time, though, the large cast and jumping timeline may feel confusing.
Without the background, it can seem like a plain action series, and the many characters and situations start to blur together. A quick read about the Palace of Justice siege before you press play will help a great deal.
The series may also remind you of recent dramas about the October 7 attacks in Israel, such as Red Alert and One Day in October. Like them, it deals with a real tragedy and handles it with care.
If you want to know more about the series, our Under Siege release date article has the key details. After such a heavy watch, you may need something lighter, and our Campus Drivers review is an easy romance to binge. For a quiet but uneasy drama on a very different subject, our Possible Love review is also worth a read.
Under Siege is serious, ambitious, and sometimes hard to follow. Do a little homework first, and it becomes a powerful look at a painful chapter of history.
Under Siege is now streaming on Netflix.