MIA Review – The creator of the new Ozark drama is as good as being mauled by a 12ft alligator | Television

Miami, Florida and the US at its worst. The virtual economy is all over the place, some legal, some highly illegal, most of them in the gray area between the two. All of this is fueled by the hard work and cherished dreams of refugees, people whose struggle for a better life is growing – the few who go to the top must decide if, now that they are no longer used, they are ready to exploit their peers.

All of which provides a major part of MIA, the new drama created by Bill Dubuque (Ozark). But any thoughtful attention to immigration is overwhelmed by the sheer stupidity of the main story, a revenge thriller played by Shannon Gisela as Etta Tiger Jonze, a woman in her early 20s whose entire family was killed by a drug cartel. Weeping with grief and losing nothing, Etta starts from scratch, sleeping in the Haitian neighborhood of Miami as she prepares to kill 12 criminals: the bad guys she saw killing her loved ones.

Like OzarkMIA spends the entire first episode on backstory, namely the destruction of Jonzes. But the opening here is less interesting than Ozark was, because it is full of complicated dialogue and a simple plot that all the other dogs have followed (there is a scene that is as hidden as being crushed by a 12ft cow), because it asks us to invest in already destroyed characters. You can also skip ahead and do it with the “In the past…” montage at the beginning of the second episode: by then, Etta has been adopted by the intelligent, Haitian from Haiti Lovely (Brittany Adebumola).

Etta and Lovely join the underworld of Miami society, finding work as cleaners and maids. He quickly realizes that he has no right or recourse if something goes wrong, a problem that is exacerbated by Etta’s refusal to remain impartial – this behavior is what led to the death of her family. But as a US citizen, Etta has several advantages: she grew up in the city, so she has local knowledge, even if she has lost her old culture. Also, instead of just being smart, intelligent and verbally fast, as we first thought, he has a photographic memory! This works, not when he has to remember a dozen ugly faces he’s sworn to destroy.

Etta’s vivid memory of detail is not the only way that MIA, after creating a heroine facing impossible odds, cheats by giving her unexpected legs. His mother had an estranged sister, but she is in Miami and can be traced. Wouldn’t you know it, he became a villain who runs a nightclub where criminals come! It’s a good place for Etta to start around her meat.

Another job that Etta and Lovely find is at a motel run by Lena (Tovah Feldshuh), who seems like any other unsympathetic employee until Etta joins her by going full Sherlock and taking small clues to discover that she is the daughter of Nazi victims. Now friend, Lena proves to be another villain with unusual skills and resources! Etta is not so lucky after all.

In another part of town, the Rojas group is unaware that they have failed to kill all the Jonzes, so they are busy arguing about how to continue the business in the absence of their recently deceased parent, a wise leader who passed his legacy on to his foolish children. “We need another way to raise money – one that has the same benefits!” says Mateo (Maurice Compte) who has a hot head, when he talks to his clever brother Samuel (Gerardo Celasco) to give people-selling a whirlwind. Their sister Caroline (Marta Milans) runs the legal side of the operation, a real estate company planning to develop apartment buildings in the middle of Little Haiti.

In a show that alternates between the boring and the funny, the villains are very tired, with the rivalry between their brothers and the killing of their friends that Mateo finds dangerous. An off-duty Cary Elwes contributes as the magical gumshoe who investigates Jonze’s murder, and seems to have wandered in by mistake from a fun dog show he’s filming outside nearby.

The “found family” Etta gathers when she’s at a low point with an MIA spirit, but they, too, get lost when they start chasing what they want. There’s another big, stupid twist at the end that calls for a second season. By that time, any reason to view this as a potentially solvable scam is gone.