El Cid season 2 review

El Cid is a Spanish historical drama TV series about the historical figure, El Cid. Season 2 was released in mid-2021 on Amazon Prime. With five episodes, each with an average time of one hour. There are multiple scenes of violence and sex, as well as cursing. Though the nudity and sex scenes are quick and only briefly show partial nudity. But all said, it is not suitable for children, teenagers or the squeamish. It has received mixed reviews, though it has had a mostly positive reaction.

Jaime Lorente plays Ruy (El Cid), Francisco Ortiz as King Sancho II of Castile, Elia Galera plays Sancha (Queen), Alicia Sanz plays Urraca oldest daughter of the former king, Pablo Álvarez as Orduño Count of Leon, Jaime Olías as Alfonso VI (king of Leon), Nicolás Illoro as García II King of Galicia, with a string of supporting and other main characters.

Season 2 picks up from where season 1 finished, it continues to follow Ruy (El Cid) and his actions during the splitting up of Ferdinand I kingdom to his sons. The show still suffers from the same faults as the first season did, but to a lesser degree. This maybe the writing/acting improving or that I am simply more used to it now, same goes for the dubbing. The backgrounds and locations are again a strength for the show, as are the action scenes. The show continues to be overly dramatic and less of an historical biopic, with this season drifting a little more away from realism, but it is still early in the series run so it may improve, but I think season 3 will be the test. The show does take some liberties with history, yet again, but it is more dramatic license than a deliberate reworking of history for the most part. The violence is quite tame in comparison with other similar shows, so are the sex/nudity scenes but they are still there, they are quite easy to skip without affecting your appreciation of the show as they are very short and not really necessary.

The series could go either way, it could go completely off the historical path really quickly, but we will have to see in season 3 which direction it goes. Overall, the show is entertaining and there are good actors, scenes and plotlines, with some good fight scenes. There does seem to be something missing and this season I know what it is, it is that the plot armour of certain characters due to history or favouritism that stops there being any sense of danger, or that characters have to become “baddies” or likewise they have to quickly become good guys in minutes, for plot to continue, it feels forced and it disengages you from characters and the show at times. Maybe better writing could fix this issue, but I think the limited number of episodes really hurts the series overall.

If you have Amazon Prime already and you are not squeamish, then give it a try, however I would say that it is not worth going out of your way to watch. It has made me go back and look through my early medieval Spanish history books again, so that is a positive and maybe this would be a good device for that.