The Crystal Cuckoo: A Terrific Crime Drama?

The Crystal Cuckoo (Season 1/Spain/2025) Series offers an interesting perspective on the complicated world of humans. And, in a certain way, as the series title suggests, as to how the humans share personality traits and behavioural similarities with the wildlife creatures, such as “cuckoo” and “wolves”.

It is worth mentioning that this Spanish series is based on the novel “El cuco de cristal” by Javier Castillo. And, rather interestingly, the story of this Spanish novel has been moved from the USA (New York & Steelville, Missouri) to Spain (Madrid & Ambroz River valley towns) in this series.

Focus: The Crystal Cuckoo (Season 1/2025) Spanish Series Review

Spoiler-Free Series Review

Synopsis

A young medical resident, Clara Merlo (Catalina Sopelana), suffers an unexpected heart attack and receives a transplant that saves her life. After the operation, the donor's mother, Marta (Itziar Ituño) invites her to her town to discover who her son was. Hoping to learn more about her heart donor, a young doctor arrives in a mountain town where decades of mysterious tragedies plague the small community. But what seemed like a revealing encounter soon turns into a nightmare full of secrets. Upon her arrival, a mysterious disappearance shakes the community on the same day she arrives. The town hides a dark past: a father who never returned, an unsolved case from twenty years ago, and a thread of intrigue that connects lives marked by pain.

Poster (official)

[El Cuco de Cristal ~ The Glass Cuckoo ~ The Crystal Cuckoo]
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The Wolf (in the above poster) often serves as a symbol of strong community bonds, cooperation, and the defence of loved ones. Notably, wolves are highly social beings that live and hunt in closely-knit family groups (or packs).

Scarred Family

This psychological crime thriller oscillates between two different timelines, viz., the recent past (2022) and the distant past (2004) in Spain. So, in the first half of the 6-part series, one has to concentrate hard to get the drift of this layered and suspenseful crime tale.

⌛2004: We meet a small and happy family of four living in a small hilly town, namely, the Police Officer Miguel (Álex García), his wife Marta (Itziar Ituño) and their two young sons. The tragedy strikes the family when Miguel goes missing under suspicious circumstances. So, what really happened?

⌛2022 period: Despite the struggles and hardships, the single mother Marta (Itziar Ituño) raises her two young kids to be fine young men. But then, one of them dies under tragic circumstances, leaving Juan (Alfons Nieto) as the sole surviving son. Again, what actually happened?

Fascinatingly, as a case of successful heart transplantation, young Doctor Clara Merlo (Catalina Sopelana) in Madrid receives the healthy heart of the deceased son of Marta (Itziar Ituño). Later on, the mother, Marta, invites Carla to visit her small town to pay respect to her late son.

Then, soon after the arrival of Carla in the Ambroz River valley town, a young kid goes missing. Furthermore, she gets inadvertently caught up in the mysterious death of Marta’s son, as well as the unexplained disappearance of Marta’s husband. It seems that Martha’s family is scarred by the misfortunes.

And of course, Carla’s curious nature did not help her. As she goes searching for the truth, even while facing grave personal danger.

The Actresses

✅ The show is led by the female protagonist, Clara Merlo, who is a big-city Madrid girl. After her heart transplant, she travels to an unknown hilly town, perhaps trying to connect with a family who gave her a second life. But her quest to learn about her donor leads to a dangerous path. Did her curiosity kill the cat?

Notably, Clara Merlo has been admirably portrayed by young actress Catalina Sopelana. If we remember correctly, then we last saw her in the Sky Rojo series.

✅ The story of Martha, the widowed mother, plays on two timelines: 2004 and 2022. The seasoned actress Itziar Ituño plays the twin roles of young Marta as well as the older Martha with a lot of confidence and conviction. She is the real pillar of this tale, as she connects the past with the present.

In the not-so-distant past, we saw Itziar Ituño play the lead role of Raquel Murillo in the famous Money Heist (2017-2021) series, which was a global hit.

The Actors

✅Although the tragic story of Miguel only plays in the flashback, his role is also crucial to this crime tale. His childhood trauma and curiosity as a policeman led him to the truth. But then, tragedy happened. The supporting actor, Alex Garcia, has played his character quite well.

✅ Both the actors, Ivan Massagué (Rafael) and Tomás del Estal (Gabriel), are impressive in it.

As usual, in this emotional crime drama, there are quite a few unexpected twists and turns. No doubt, this suspenseful crime drama series needed a good set of ensemble cast to keep the above-mentioned mysteries under wraps. And all of them really delivered.

Rating

The Conclusion

Besides the good performances by the above-mentioned cast members, we also liked this intelligent tale of crime and karma. The thrilling and suspenseful crime mystery tale is the real winner here. On the one hand, we get to see the depravity and vicious acts by the villainous humans. On the other hand, this Spanish series also displayed the goodness of humans. Clara repaid the debt by giving Martha and her family a sense of closure and justice after decades. Thankfully, the series ending was satisfying, too. As its makers neatly tied almost all the loose ends of the crime drama. And the Karma prevailed.

We think this Spanish crime is quite a good (terrific) crime drama. With only 6 episodes, perhaps it is fit for a binge-watch.

Key Details

Episodes Summary | Spoiler Alert #1

A tragic fire arouses an officer's suspicion. Decades later, his son's heart saves a doctor who comes to town hoping to learn more about her donor.

Clara joins the search party after the latest disappearance. Back in the past, Miguel looks for answers about the fire but his efforts are shut down.

Unsettled by his findings, Miguel delves deeper into his sister's disappearance. At the Tamborada festival, Clara learns more about Carlos and the town.

Miguel's obsession with the investigation causes friction at home. Clara makes sense of Carlos' discoveries as Juan delivers Marta a shocking truth.

In 1979, a young Yesques resident received a severe warning from his mother. Years later, Miguel's growing doubts lead to an unexpected tragedy.

After another shocking event hits Yesques, the authorities do their best to prevent a tragic outcome while a helpless Marta fears the worst.

Trailer (official)

El Cuco de Cristal | Tráiler Oficial | Netflix España | YouTube.

Cuckoo Metaphor | Spoiler Alert #2

Lastly, also read the FM Series Review of the Nero the Assassin (Season 1/France/2025) Series in our Focus Magazine.

Poster and Featured Image of The Crystal Cuckoo (Season 1/Spain/2025) Series | Pictures Credit: Netflix.