Locked Up

Foreign TV Review: Locked Up

Walter IuzzolinoÔÇÖs series on Channel 4 ÔÇô Walter Presents ÔÇô selects the most popular, critically acclaimed television dramas from around the world, allowing anyone with a laptop and Wi-Fi in Britain to falsely feel like they are cultured through watching handpicked shows (such as SpainÔÇÖs Locked Up to Belgian black-comedy thriller The Out-Laws) for free on Channel 4ÔÇÖs streaming service All 4.

Each week Sinead McCausland will┬ábe reviewing a new show that the titular Walter has selected, hopefully encouraging more fans of world drama TV shows that arenÔÇÖt American. Here are her thoughts on the┬áLocked Up.


Dubbed the Spanish Orange is the New Black, and with a tagline that references this (ÔÇÿyellow is the new blackÔÇÖ), Locked Up deserves just as much worldwide recognition as its American counterpart. Created by Iv├ín Escobar, Esther Mart├¡nez Lobato, ├ülex Pina and Daniel ├ëcija, Locked Up (or Vis-├á-Vis as itÔÇÖs known in Spain), follows the downfall of seemingly innocent Macarena Ferreiro (played by Maggie Civantos) as she gets sent to seven years of prison due to being ÔÇô as far as the audience knows ÔÇô framed by her boss whom she was having an affair with.

The cinematography in the show plays a big part in its addictiveness, as Migue Amoedo and Javier Castrej├│nÔÇÖs work allows audiences to be familiar with quite a complex setting, the setting of the prison. By becoming familiar to the yellow railings that line the giant halls of the high-security private prison, along with the juxtaposing highly exposed shower room and creepy, cramped and almost claustrophobic office of Doctor Sandoval (Ramiro Blas), weÔÇÖre able to become more and more familiar with this world as Macarena does too. The word ÔÇÿworldÔÇÖ is not accidental here, either, as the way the series is shot cleverly creates a different shift in tone and atmosphere when filming from the outside and from the inside, with the colour grading and lighting between these contrasting worlds often questioning which side is safer.

Locked Up

Aside from the cinematography and world building, it is the acting and character development what makes Locked Up so special, and itÔÇÖs here where the show differs to Orange is the New Black. While the American Netflix original series is categorised predominantly under the comedy genre, Maggie Civantos has stated herself that Locked Up is a prison thriller, a thriller which the audience are taken along on with CivantosÔÇÖ character. By going on this journey with her, we meet protective prison guards, characters who are as guilty as (if not more than) the criminals, distressed parents who choose to become criminals, and evil characters that have a reason for being evil, making them more real, more sympathetic, and more terrifying. Through this, we witness the innocent main character go from being in-denial about her crime and afraid of the world with which sheÔÇÖs been forced into, to willing to kill anyone who gets in her way.

Locked Up will present you not only with a new world, but a new world of characters. The series will leave you questioning how far you would go to reach freedom, what you would have to treasure so much that youÔÇÖd be willing to kill ÔÇô and die ÔÇô for it, and when the next series is.

Locked Up is a part of the series Walter Presents for Channel 4. For more information on Walter Presents, click here. The first series of Locked Up is available to watch here.

Sinead McCausland