Snakes and Ladders Review
Director: Manolo Caro
Date Created: 2025-05-14 17:33
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Snakes and Ladders Review: Manolo Caro is the creator of this Mexican drama series, starring Berenice Mastretta, Benny Emmanuel, Michelle Rodríguez, Cecilia Suárez, Juan Pablo Medina, Marimar Vega, Martiño Rivas, Loreto Peralta, and others. The show consists of eight episodes, each with a runtime of 35 to 45 minutes.
The Serpientes y Escaleras series plot is set in the elite Guadalajara school, and starts with a minor fight between two young students. The minor fight, however, turns into a full-blown war between the powerful families, involving the adults in their web of influence, especially Dora, a school’s prefect teacher played by Cecilia Suárez. As things get more and more complicated and dark, Dora has to choose whether to stand by her principles or go low and dirty in order to survive.
Snakes and Ladders Review
The moment I started watching the first episode of Netflix’s Snakes and Ladders, I knew that it was something bonkers and insane. It’s not your run-of-the-mill school drama, mystery series, it has this uneven kind of dramatic thing going for it. The music, dancing title opening credits, and the entire way in which the characters spoke to one another, even at the premiere, was too much, but the right kind of too much. Initially, I did not know if I was prepared for it, but before I knew it, the weirdness was thoroughly worth it.
Most surprisingly, how quickly a little school thing was turned into an ugly adult fight. I marvelled at how pride and pressure have the ability to spoil even the most apparently boring things. That is where this show shines in turning little differences into enormous, ugly fights with the strange combination of being funny and disgusting.
One of the highlights of this Mexican series Snakes and Ladders, was how the people all get on so perfectly in front of everybody else, while behind everyone’s back are doing nothing short of terrible to one another. They are all fighting over power, respect, money, and control, and they will stop at nothing to attain it. There is plenty of lying, cheating and double-crossing, but it seems plausible, as it is approached as human nature being pushed to extremes.
The standout performance is given by Cecilia Suárez as Dora. Dora is reserved and introverted in the beginning, but you notice as the series goes along that she is just as clever as the rest of the girls and has no hesitation about getting her own hands dirty. I liked how she grows, not suddenly, or with a switch, but in general, naturally. Her character reminds you that human beings are not good or evil the whole time; we’re stuck somewhere between grey, depending on the situation.
The show touches on actual issues such as corruption, temptation, and ethics, but is able to find a way to make it humorous in a dark, perverted manner. The humour is not silly or obnoxious; it is more intelligent, subtle. I mean, I was laughing at the moments when people stand up in other people’s faces and call names in cleverly edited manners.
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I also appreciated how much the series mocked the rich and the powerful. It demonstrates how stupid some of their choices are, and how they will play dumb so as to keep their status. Director Manolo Caro appears to enjoy bringing these characters down from their pedestals and as a viewer, I was pleased to observe.
There aren’t huge action scenes in the Snakes and Ladders series, but it messes around with how it’s shot to make it intimate and close. Most of the scenes are filmed in rooms that are small or close-up (you’re in the room with them), so you hear the characters’ secrets and get to see their reactions close up. It was perfect for a story like this, where the actual drama lies in the conversation and the way they try to outsmart one another. There were moments where it felt as if you were in a play, where each step and every line of conversation had to be climactic.
Although I thoroughly enjoyed the show overall, it was not flawless. Firstly, the subplot of the teens was not strictly needed. Not that they weren’t integrated into the larger mythoses, per se, but they were less engrossing and, occasionally, I wanted to look away. The boring adult characters of the series were more engrossing, and I wished that it were more focused on them.
The ending also felt a little rushed. I wanted more substance in the finale, considering all the chaos and turmoil I’ve witnessed over seven episodes. Rather, it seemed like all the loose ends were tied up with a big bow too hastily. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t the show’s other great intelligent storytelling.
Summing Up
Overall, Snakes and Ladders is a weird, raucous play that careens off in weird directions. But that is also why it is so compelling. It dares to be different. I will not say it is perfect, but I did enjoy seeing it. The acting is good, the writing is raw, and the tone, between black humour and drama, is amazing.
Snakes and Ladders 2025 is now streaming on Netflix.
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