The 30s can be that stepping stone for one that may remind you of how unfulfilled your life is (or at least as movies have often told us) and push you into wondering about the millions of what-if scenarios, Netflix’s If Only (Si Lo Hubiera Sabido) is just about that. Starring Megan Montaner, Miquel Fernandez, Michel Noher, Eduardo Lloveras, and more, the 8-episode series, with each episode having a runtime ranging from 31-37 minutes, released on October 28, 2022.
In an off-the-wall take on the same trope relayed in a compact packaging of the 2004 American film 13 Going On 30, the Spanish Netflix series has a lot going on underneath its surface other than the theme of romantic comedies being at its center. Emma (Montaner) is stuck in her fading-out marriage while grieving her father’s death. She watches every aspect of her life fizzle out of control and wishes for a do-over. That’s when the blood moon grants her erratic wish, changing everything around her for better or for worse.
Iris Award nominee Megan Montaner stars as a young wife and mother in Seville who finds herself suddenly reliving the past 10 years of her life.
-If Only Review Does Not Contain Spoilers-
Engrossed in the steamy visions of televised content, Emma compares her own dull married life to lacking a spark and having derided her of any individuality. She looks at her husband, who was once the love of her life, and only disappointment looks back at her. The only thing keeping her going is her two children, who too won’t look at her with the same affection, yet she can’t give up on them.
Doing a double-take, she pictures the night when Nando (Fernandez) proposed to her, wondering how different her life would’ve been, presenting her with countless opportunities if she hadn’t said yes. Fast forward to some time later, she takes a ride to the same restaurant in the present and wishes to take it all back, thinking of all that she could’ve achieved in her life instead of being stuck as a young wife who had to give up all her dreams and even her higher education mid-way.
Thankfully for her, it’s the night of the blood moon and as in a cliched science-fiction plot, she gets her fantasy handed to her by taking her back in time to the night that she looks on with the most remorse.
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Reminder: Dreams that get handed out on a silver platter easily should be taken with a grain of salt. Considering it to be a win after some bewilderment, she realizes that traveling back in time has also cost her dearly and resulted in the loss of the one thing that anchored her all her life till now, her children – Mia and Mario.
What is so admirable about this series is that it takes one step at a time and that is possible only because the span of 8 episodes allows the story to flourish gradually while taking into count the repercussion of this drastic change in her life. When we reach the middle, we realize that a lot of genres are packed in together, giving the story a dramatic change of color, contradicting the nature of her lived present (which is now rather her past after the switching of timelines). The same spice that she craved while watching TV in the first scene is replicated in this fantastical transposition and her new reality.
For the series itself, this spice is obviously Megan Montaner herself, especially with the ease that she jumps from enacting the emotion of each of these moments. To put it briefly, the series is not at all what it’s presented to be. Nevertheless, Montaner’s Emma is able to communicate that vexing amount of chaos and disarray as if it’s no big deal.
While some aspects of the storyline can seem a bit underdeveloped the last jarring twist will be an explanation of why that is, but only as the viewer takes time to digest it all. Comical spins interspersed throughout the plot are entertaining enough to keep you watching till the end, even if you accept the series as a one-time watch, which most of us would. There’s a major specificity to the prime themes featured throughout the course, which may be a magnet for those who often slip into the ‘guilty pleasure’ consumption of content.
If Only: Worth the Watch?
The most important advice of all is to not take the show seriously. It’s one of those things which after having consumed, you’ll be left to yourself wondering why you chose to watch it, but not because it’s all in the negative. The reason for the same is mostly because you’ll be just as puzzled about your feelings as the trajectory of the story is.
Montaner’s intensity of desperation for reuniting with her children is one of the striking highlights of the series because, with all the time travel, other counterparts following the same drill often leave out such details. Imagine having something paramount to your existence sitting next to you one moment and then not the next. It’s bound to leave a scar on your conscience. With Emma as the leading piece of the story, this aspect is covered as a whole and not compromised for a second.
However, you do wish that it had taken a different turn in dealing with the pressing issue of her life with more poise. Despite the attention being fully drawn to one aspect – her relationship with her children – it lacks profundity while treating the existentialism of her situation.
Additionally, the series leaves out expanding on other bits that arise at the last moment after the big twist. The viewer is not only dumbfounded by the reveal but is also left with a lot of questions about some characters and their relationships with others, having popped out of nowhere. Some problematic obsessions also arise and become clearer by the end, revealing the intoxication that can be introduced if you’re driven too far along the way of merely desiring to ‘spice up your life’, ultimately also bittering the taste of a sensitive subject initially proposed to us.
If Only is now streaming on Netflix.
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Yo la disfrute mucho, lastima que no la siguieron…