Netflix’s Spanish resort drama Oasis opens with a disappearance and a lockdown. Celia, played by Victoria Kantch, goes missing at the luxury property, and the chief inspector orders the entire resort sealed while the search continues.
That is the hook now because Oasis is being searched as a new Netflix series from Spain, and it arrives with an immediate comparison to The White Lotus and Elite. The show starts with a flash-forward to a shocking crime at the resort, then pulls the viewer back into the scramble around Celia’s disappearance and the people trapped inside with her story.
Helena, Celia’s best friend, is played by Ana Garcés, and she gives the series its most grounded thread. Helena is trying in vain to find a scholarship so she can keep pursuing her education, while Dani, a guest played by Tomy Aguilera, has already formed a romantic attachment to Celia despite meeting her less than 48 hours before she vanished. Dani also provides the voiceover, which keeps the search for Celia threaded through the entire drama.
The lockdown does more than fence people in. It traps the haves and have-nots in cramped quarters, the air conditioning gives out, and staff members are pushed to sacrifice their room fans to sweaty guests. One high roller sneers at a staffer who is reaching above his station, saying he can live off those who make the world go round. Esperanza, played by Mercedes Sampietro, speaks to her granddaughter Laura, played by Laura Simón, like a full-fledged business partner, while spoiled teens Maca and Pablo, played by Berta Castañé and Manuel Duarte, are already fraying because of his philandering. The series wants the sharp edges of a class-dynamics drama, but it often plays more like teen soap than prestige social satire.
That gap is part of the show’s problem and part of its appeal. The creative team behind The Asunta Case produced Oasis, and the series keeps reaching for seriousness even as its plot turns ludicrous and its characters stay thin. Still, the central question is the one the first episode refuses to answer: what happened to Celia, and who inside the resort knew enough to turn a luxury stay into a lockdown?
