La Jauria
By Joyce Slaton,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Rape, gendered violence, language in Chilean mystery series.
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La Jauria
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What's the Story?
Spanish-language mystery LA JAURIA (The Pack) is set in a moneyed part of Santiago, Chile, where the disappearance of high school student Blanca Ibarra (Antonia Giesen) has caused waves at an upscale high school already reeling from accusations of sexual abuse against a popular drama professor (Marcelo Alonso). When homicide detective Olivia Fernández (Antonia Zegers) is called in on the Ibarra case, Father Belmar (Francisco Reyes) and other school officials seem to be throwing up barriers to her investigation. Meanwhile, Blanca's sister Celeste (Paula Luchsinger) is looking into her sister's life herself when she stumbles upon an online game that organizes boys into packs who dare each other to abuse girls and film themselves doing so.
Is It Any Good?
Affecting and intriguing if predictable and cliched, this Chilean drama takes on nobly feminist themes and has enjoyable twists, but the plot is too gimmicky and the characters too thin. Granted, everyday sexism and misogyny can be hard to capture cinematically; it's a lot more subtle than a fictional online game that ropes high school boys into ritualized abuse of girls. So La Jauria's central device comes off as a bit silly, something that might be the centerpiece of an episode of Law & Order: SVU. It's also notable that La Jauria's characters tend to be split along gender lines -- women and girls are either suffering victims or benevolent protectors; men and boys are either actual abusers or apologists.
For all that, the zigs and zags La Jauria takes are grabby. It's hard not to care about the chorus of impassioned high school students who want to see an abusive teacher punished and their missing schoolmate found. Antonia Zegers also makes an effective, stalwart, and gimlet-eyed detective on the Ibarra case. Her arc and that of her son, the bullied Gonzalo (Clemente Rodríguez) are arguably the most interesting that La Jauria has to offer. Unfortunately, their backstories play second fiddle to the plotlines about gendered abuse and the failure of authorities to believe women who report violence. Make no mistake, that's a truly valuable notion, but we can laud La Jauria's goals while being still a little disappointed in the execution.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about La Jauria's plotline about an online game that ritualizes abuse. How realistic is this idea? Has anything similar ever happened in real life? Is it notable that the violence was directed only at girls, by boys? Is that realistic?
Aside from the language, what sets this Spanish-language series apart from their American counterparts? Why do you think some content (swearing, nudity) is more accepted in other countries?
This series touches on timely issues, including bullying, tolerance, sexual violence, misogyny, the dismissal of victims' claims of sexual abuse and bigotry. Depending on the episode's content, talk to your kids about these and other topics, drawing comparisons between the characters' actions and your own family rules. Did the show encourage you to see a situation differently than you have in the past? How does peer pressure play a role in your decisions about what you will and will not do? How do authority figures set a tone for civility and kindness or abuse?
TV Details
- Premiere date: August 9, 2019
- Cast: Antonia Zegers , María Gracia Omegna , Daniela Vega
- Network: Max
- Genre: Drama
- TV rating: TV-MA
- Last updated: February 28, 2022
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