Two years ago, Fake Profile premiered and became a big international hit for Netflix. Despite being a profoundly silly show, it benefitted from a sexy story that was slickly done, and a dynamic lead performance from Carolina Miranda. Now, a new way into the “fake profile” idea has been found, still involving the main characters from the first season, Camila and Miguel.
FAKE PROFILE SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: Scenes of Cartagena, Columbia. A man is enjoying a beach day with his family.
The Gist: While he’s doing that, he’s answering Tinder text messages from someone with the handle “Red Velvet.” After a couple of weeks of hot and heavy texting, she sets up a meeting. We don’t see the woman’s face, just her blond hair. The two of them quickly go to a well-appointed hotel suite, where things get a little rough. The man is tied to the bed, and the woman wears a mask. Just as the two of them reach climax, she puts a plastic bag over his head and suffocates him.
In the meantime Camila (Carolina Miranda) is getting ready to marry David (Lincoln Palomeque), but her old flame, Miguel (Rodolfo Salas) won’t stop until they’re together again. Of course, Miguel made a fake Tinder profile and didn’t tell Camila that he was married to Ángela Ferrer (Manuela González), from a prominent Colombian family. So Camila wants nothing to do with him. But Miguel, who is now divorced from Ángela, thinks their love is undeniable.
Camila is surprised to hear that Ángela is being released from prison, 18 months into the 5-year manslaughter sentence she got for killing her father, Pedro Ferrer. She gets a call from Miguel during her bachelorette party and blows him off. She sees her friend Inti (Julián Cerati) on a docked boat and says hello; he wants to extort more money from the Ferrer family, but Camila doesn’t want to engage with them any more than she already has. She then gets drugged and knocked out, waking up in the hospital. She vows, however, to go through with the wedding later that day.
When Ángela gets out of prison, she goes to meet with her brother, but sees him tied up, unconscious, in a pool, a victim of the same killer that killed the family man in the hotel. In the meantime, Miguel calls Camila during her wedding reception, and she meets with him to tell him to leave her alone.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The first season of Fake Profile was a reverse Fatal Attraction, but the second season feels more like Basic Instinct.
Our Take: Fake Profile proved during its first season that as long as there’s a lot of twists and a whole lot more sex, deep characters and a compelling story mean less. It also succeeded because Miranda was so dynamic as Camila. That continues in Season 2, where she flashes love and anger with equal effectiveness, and is charming not matter what situation Camila is in.
In this season, which is subtitled Killer Match, the “fake profile” in question is now someone impersonating Camila on Tinder and using it to lure men — good looking ones only, of course! — and kill them. The bodies pile up quickly in the first episode, and we wonder how many more will die before the police and Camila — with the help of Miguel and Ángela, of course — find out who’s impersonating her.
It all feels a bit silly. But creator Pablo Illanes knows what will attract eyeballs; the show is slickly done and has just enough in the way of quality performances to keep the show from getting overly ridiculous.
Sex and Skin: Lots of both.
Parting Shot: Indira Martinez (Alejandra Borrero), a CTI detective investigating the murders, comes to a post-wedding brunch and tells Camila that three murder victims have been contacted with her Tinder profile.
Sleeper Star: Camila’s friends Milenka (Nicole Santamaria) and Erika (Maria Daniela Sarria) are like a Greek chorus in her life, and they look like they’ll be there for her during this latest crisis.
Most Pilot-y Line: David and some of his friends push Miguel out of a boat while taking him away from the wedding, but they then throw a float out for him to grab onto. Why even bother to push him overboard?
Our Call: STREAM IT. Is Fake Profle silly? Yep. Is it sexy? Absolutely. Did the writers find a creative way to keep the “fake profile” concept going? Definitely.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
The post Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Fake Profile’ Season 2 On Netflix, Where Someone Is Killing Colombian Men Using Camila’s Old Tinder Profile appeared first on Decider.
