The Gardener Review (2025, Netflix) | Leisurebyte
Director:
Miguel Sáez Carral
Date Created:
2025-04-11 12:30
The Gardener Review: In this Spanish romantic-thriller series, Elmer and his controlling mother, La China Jurado, run a gardening centre as well as a gun-for-hire business on the side. However, when their latest victim, a nursery school teacher called Violeta, charms her way into Elmer’s heart, he must overcome his coldness and learn to love while his mother does everything in her power to get the job done.
The series has 6 episodes, each with a runtime of 45 minutes.
The Gardener Review
Netflix’s The Gardener feels peculiar and choppy from its first episode, and not just because its protagonist is an odd man who awkwardly tries to fit into society. The first episode rushes through the facts surrounding its characters and situations within the first few minutes, and sometimes it feels really awkward and abrupt. It becomes a bit more stable a few minutes afterwards, but the first few minutes will feel like a slap on the face if you remain unprepared.
The series follows socially awkward Elmer and his overbearing mother. He lost the ability to feel emotions after a devastating accident when he was younger, and has been playing catch-up since then. Of course, the other thing about their relationship is that they murder people for money — just casual, no big deal. However, all that changes when he meets Violeta, the target of his next assignment, and starts to feel things for her. Fighting with his own feelings and his mother’s demands, Elmer is forced to make a choice he might not like.
La China Jurado, Elmer’s mother, narrates the story from her perspective, making Elmer’s first brush with emotion a problem born from falling in love. I found that detail interesting, and Cecilia Suárez’s husky, almost pained voice is haunting to listen to as she recounts her experience with a tone as if she already knew what the future holds from the moment Elmer met Violeta.
As Elmer and La China Jurado try to come to terms with their new, big emotions, it makes for an interesting discussion. His feelings overwhelm him because it’s the first time he’s feeling them. Love and anger are so intense and big that you feel for Elmer’s confusion, regardless of the murder aspect. As he starts to rebel against his mother, China Jurado’s desperation becomes apparent and the butting of heads is what adds to the drama of it all.
That’s one thing about The Gardener — it’s extremely dramatic. Elmer and China’s relationship is the only interesting part of the series because their co-dependence makes for a striking and disturbing time. The fact that she uses her disabled son as a murder weapon is bad enough as it is, but that she gets agitated when he finally starts to feel things just makes it all the more disturbing because it becomes clear that this is all about control for her. She’s not doing it out of love — she’s doing it to control her son in every way possible.
The other aspect of this story is the detectives who try to understand the many odd disappearances. The storyline is one of the most annoying parts of this thriller because, for some reason, two adult detectives fight over starting an affair instead of handling the murders at hand. They turn Carrera into this needy woman who just can’t fathom not having an affair with Torres. I don’t understand why this becomes a deal. Why would anyone want to start an affair with a married man anyway? It’s so odd. It becomes the defining factor of that story, and it feels so unnecessary.
Final Thoughts
Sigmund Freud would find this story rather amusing, and I can’t blame him. The series has a spooky vibe and disturbing thoughts, but is a bit too dramatic for its own good. That being said, I think it has a hold on its thrilling aspects for most of its runtime but plays it too safe for things to be remotely memorable.
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