The Boat (2011–2013) User Reviews (41)

Highly Entertaining... Until The End...

[ecatalan98 · 8/10 · 21 March 2016]

"El Barco" (The Boat) was a highly entertaining if somewhat illogical Spanish TV show that mixed sci-fi, suspense, action and romance in a mostly well written package. A group of about 12 carefully selected kids in their early 20s embark on what is supposed to be a 2 month experience living in the high seas along with the boat's crew. With the boat already sailing, one night strange things happen: a strong magnetic wave makes all things made of metal inside the boat to rush to the ceiling and causing the navigational instruments to go crazy. A huge tsunami/squall threatens to tip the boat on its side but miraculously survives. Through further episodes the crew and its passengers find out that the tsunami was part of a series of events that caused the complete devastation of all land mass on earth, turning the planet into a huge sea world. Apparently, the crew and passengers of the boat (named, "the Polar Star") are the only survivors on the planet. We later find out that a mass of land did survive so the boat starts to desperately head for it.

"The Boat" lasted for only 3 seasons. The first season was fast paced and mostly well written. In this season, something of grave danger threatens the boat and its crew and by the end of each episode things always get solved, no cliffhangers. Cliffhangers were used in the last 2 episodes. We get to know the main characters through flashbacks of who they were and what they did before embarking on the Polar Star. Season 2 lowers the quality of the show with distracting parallel stories that ultimately did nothing to advance the storyline, even though some of the show's best episodes are within this season. Season 3, the last one, seemed to crumble under its own weight by trying to give closure to the multiple stories the writers threw at us. As the show went on, it seems the writers felt free to use the cheapest of ploys to get the storyline moving. At this point, I hadn't seen the American TV show "LOST", but I knew 'The Boat" bore a close resemblance. In "The Boat", characters suddenly appeared to have a common past, secret abilities, ulterior motives, etc. The main characters are Ricardo Montero, the boat's captain; Ainoha, the captain's daughter; Ulises, a stowaway kid who happens to be the Captain's right hand aide, Julian De La Cuadra's estranged son: Julia, the boat's doctor and one of the few people that know what happened to the earth; Roberto "burbuja" (bubble), a kitchen aide with cerebral palsy who also happens to be the boat's most intelligent passenger; Gamboa, an infiltrated "survival teacher" with special instructions to prevent the boat from ever reaching land.

Apparently the world came to an end due to a scientific experiment with a "particle accelerator". The people behind this project were warned that this experiment had a high probability of going "wrong" and the consequences could be "catastrophic" on a worldwide scale. My logic is: why do an experiment with such a high risk of failure? What is it for? Who profits? Who loses? If you kill the entire planet, who are you going to rule over? To me, this was the whole point of the show: why did those scientists blew up the world? In season 2, we find out there is a baddie, one who was behind the project "Alexandria" (code name for a "plan B", should the project accelerator go wrong), and this baddie is the father of one of the Polar Star's passengers, the sexy Estela. All along the show, we hear about this "project Alexandria". It's odd that one should put so much emphasis on a "Plan B", instead of making the original plan work. The show never explains what was the intention of the particle accelerator, the original "Plan A".

By the end of Season 3, it was almost impossible to give a logical conclusion to the multiple storylines the show's writers entangled themselves into. The last episode was a rush job at best, leaving a ton of unanswered questions that the writers tried to explain in a cheap afterword epilogue. It's as if the writers thought a 4th season would address all the inconclusive data, but that season never came and thus they painted themselves into a corner.

For all it's worth, "The Boat" was still highly entertaining despite some obvious plot holes and a very unsatisfactory ending (at least for me). Despite all of this, it's still the best Spanish TV show I've ever seen.

A group of survivors on a 246 feet ship, a single ocean covering the world.

[axnpictures · 8/10 · 5 January 2012]

"The North Star" is a ship meant to go on a journey for two months. On board we find its crew, a teacher, a scientist and a bunch of students about to start an adventure they would never thought of.

Julia Wilson (Irene Montalà) is a scientist working with the people in charge of the Particle Accelerator in Geneva. Something goes terribly wrong and a black hole will make the continents disappear under the water. They all survive the storm and the side effects of the particle accelerator and now the only solid surface they can step on, it's their ship. Nevertheless they are not safe, and more problems come across as they go on with their journey which is now finding a piece of land that is still standing.

You have action, adventure, romance, mystery, sci-fi and some very amusing moments - all-in-one - as they face whats coming, as they start getting along with each other like a family (or not?) and as the mysteries get revealed. Good interpretation, screenplay and special effects.

It's been a while since the show aired and I don't even know what to write about it without spoiling. But I would compare it to LOST, The Event and even Kyle XY. If you've seen any of those and enjoyed them, I think you're gonna love this one! Totally worth it so far!

Intriguing and exciting SciFi series full of thrills , suspense, emotion and romance

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 5 October 2018]

At the beginning takes place a global catastrophe caused by a fatal accident caused by a particle accelerator. It is a machine that uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to nearly light speed and to contain them in well-defined beams. As the extraordinary collision among particles originates a global cataclysm in Geneve, Switzerland, that expands around the world. It will lead to the young crew of a vessel school called North Star or Estrella Polar navigating over the world where 99% is water and while suffering risks , dangers and perilous adventures throughout the wild sea.

This is an acceptable and decent series formed by 3 seasons of 43 episodes with plenty of intrigue, thrills, action, mystery and sappy romance . Dealing with a motley crew to live the adventure of their lives, as all of them suffering more and more problems when a cataclysm occurs during the implementacion of the particle accelerator, it eventually creates a black hole that will make the continent to be disappeared underwater . As the misfit crew come across several troubles and risked adventures, including appearance of big tidal waves, extremely hot sea, huge octopus , birds attacks, whirlpools , giant fish, venomous fog, illness, sea monsters, mutiny, martial court , killing and many other things . Finally , they discover there is 10% land , this one being shot in Peñiscola , simulating the long-awaited island they were looking for. The series being really filmed on a real ship called Cercantes Saavedra, in addition , in Elche Palmerale simulating the woods surrounding the cabin on the island and in Antena 3 studios and utilizing chroma. This "The Boat" takes parts here and there from other known American series such as Lost, The event and Lost in space . The large cast is pretty well, such as the tough captain Ricardo Montero, well performed by Juanjo Artero, who has two daughters : a small girl and the beautiful Blanca Suarez who falls for Ulises , the latin lover Mario Casas . Furthermore, Luis Callejo plays first officer who is also Ulises' father , Irene Montala plays Dr. Julia Wilson , Juan Pablo Shuk as the suspicious Luis Gamboa, Ivan Massague plays a mentally handicapped as well as sympathetic person nicknamed Burbuja , Neus Sanz as the likeable Salome Palacios and Marina Salas plays the young Vilma. Other guest stars who show up in some episodes are the followings : Hector Alterio, Guillermo Barrientos, Nerea Camacho, Alba Rivas, Juan Cornet , Paloma Bloyd, Leticia Dolera and the usual Belen Rueda .

It contains an atmospheric and thrilling musical score by Manel Santiesteban and Ivan Martinez. As well as a colorful and brilliant cinematography . This series was originally and competently created by Ivan Escobar and Alex Pina, both of whom created previously the successful El Internado with similar artistic and technical team . The series being efficiently directed by Carlos Theron, David Molina, Fernando Molina , Sandra Gallego and Jesus Colmenar .Rating : above average.

Such a rush and short work of the finale...

[chris-179-444409 · 10/10 · 4 July 2013]

I can't believe they just told us the end instead of playing it in a episode. Such a rush and short work on the most wanted and important moment - the finale. All these time we were waiting for the culmination. There are so many scenes which are filled with children's games or discussion but there wasn't actually a final episode. One of the best shows, great idea but why such a fast end in which we see nothing of what we waited for. How Ulises escaped from the hotel and got to the beach, where he took the things in the wooden box he dropped with the parachute, where the air plain got from how he survived the 4 bullets? We did not see the happy life of Barbuha and Marimar on the island, he deserved this. We did not see the meeting between Gamboa and his daughter and the moment she understand that he is her father? What happens with the other ships from the project? Do they ever reach the coast? What actually happen with the people from the hotel? What happens on the submarine and how Barbuha plays his role there? What happens with Alexander and his plans? They just told us what is in the red folder with one sentence?? I'm very disappointed with the finale.

I LOVED IT!

[flordalisalopez · 10/10 · 6 August 2018]

This is my first time watching Spaniard series. Coming from the States (NY), and watching a lot of Mexican novelas, this series was refreshing. At a Latin American, a lot of Spaniard slang, i don't know, I used the English subtitles a lot. It's a science fiction series, but each episode is well made. She character has a unit life of their own. The challenges are pretty unique. I like how the truth slowly unfolds as the series continues. an episode here (US) is normally 45 minutes long. The episodes in el barco are about an hour to 2 hours long. Both my husband and I became very obessed with the series, after long work days, we found ourselves watching Netflix until 3am! I LOVED LOVED the romance between Ulises and Ainhoa. Their chemistry is felt through the screen. I've started to watch more of their work, and I"m happy to see that in "real life" they are a couple (Mario Cases and Blanca Suarez- hope it blossoms for a lifetime). Season 3, wasn't my favorite. The challenges on land make sense, but, i was a bit disappointed with the ending. Gamboa just disappeared, and Burjua. A season 4 could have continued. and was so upset seeing Ulises die, but it was cool to have seen the true love from Ainhoa that committed to him, even after death. It's my first Spaniard series, not like Mexican novelas at all! Very much like America TV. Thumbs up! Days later after nonstop streaming I'm still thinking about the series!

General comments

[guynoto · 8/10 · 1 December 2018]

Thought it was very good. Didn't care for the silly romantic scenes, Salomie using the word Carina, honey in almost every sentence, her match making efforts, trying to get everyone paired off, just seemed too much emphasis. She acted too much like " Goody Two-Shoes" Instead of working together they were too much involved in hook ups. They must've had stock in Coke , always drinking it, just seemed unreal. Too much emphasis on Valeries fantasy land. In general I liked it and would recommend.

Burbuja is the best

[abigailrafu · 6/10 · 26 September 2019]

Only two characters totally worth watching: Burbuja and Salome

Grab a Coke and enjoy this imperfect, but fun Spanish TV series.

[fourbyfour-72864 · 8/10 · 31 October 2017]

In summary, the show has many imperfect and sometimes silly elements (particularly the scripting of romantic relationships among the characters), but the story-telling is rich with many hidden gems which keep the viewer engaged and wanting to know what happens next.

El Barco strikes me as a blend of Beverly Hills 90210 and Lost with a tiny bit of Star Trek thrown in to the mix.

Like 90210, El Barco invests a great deal of screen time exploring the relationships (mostly romantic) among the characters, including the older adults, which at times gets tiresome due to cliché plot devices such as love triangles and the angst of young love stemming from the would-be lovers' unwillingness to reveal their feelings for each other.

Like Lost and Star Trek, there is a sci-fi component to El Barco that is mostly fun (despite sometimes being unscientific) and follows the pattern of placing the characters in eminent peril forcing them to work together to snatch survival from the jaws of disaster by the end of each episode. Like Lost, there is a story arc that is progressively revealed through the series. But unlike Lost, most of the various plot lines are resolved cleanly by the series finale.

The cast are beautiful and a large component of the entertainment is watching them fall in and out of love and get into steamy situations. The setting of being on a ship at sea results in skimpy clothing- shorts, t-shirts (often wet), swimsuits, unzipped scuba gear, fun and sun, you get the idea. Even the extras could pass for underwear models. It's good fun, but the "pleasure cruise" lies at odds with the basic premise that the world has ended and they are in a fight for their survival.

The ship, the Estrella Polar, is a fantastic set piece and is beautiful to see throughout the series. However, too little time is spent depicting the operations of a sailing vessel so most viewers will be wondering why only two people out of forty ever work the rigging and why so rarely. And why is no one on watch during the night? We never see basic sailing operations, such as tacking, that would be very fun to see given a crew of students on a school ship. Additionally, while we see a few depictions of officers poring over navigation charts, we never see a sextant used for navigation nor do we get an explanation of the operation of GPS in the post-disaster world. What's worse is that the ship is a source of discontinuity - often establishing shots of the ship don't match the action of the scene (like one early establishing shot of the ship at full sail and good speed matched to a scene of the students swimming in the ocean with all sails clearly furled).

Fun Stuff:

Product placement is pretty funny in El Barco and it is incredibly comforting to know that in the post-apocalyptic future there is an endless supply of Coca Cola for everyone. It becomes a game (a la Where's Waldo) to discover how the screenwriters can insert a refreshing bottle of Coke into each episode.

There are a lot of hidden gems in El Barco that will be appreciated by those who pay attention and the cast and crew deserve recognition for their cleverness. I wish I had noticed these earlier so that I could have been on the lookout for them.

To give you an idea, watch for a radiation scanner used in the sick bay. The device is clearly labeled as having been manufactured by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation (recognizable by true sci-fi fans). Additionally, look for symbolism in a variety of t-shirts and in the photos on the crew's lockers (i.e. a photo of the Hindenburg).

The special effects work is pretty well done. For the most part, the CGI comes across believably because the animators do not overreach. They keep things simple and you'll rarely roll your eyes or groan.

As other reviewers have stated, the series finale is pretty much a dud. A few plot lines are left glaringly unresolved and the last moment feels like a typical ploy to get another season or a movie special.

Despite issues with the series finale and a few objectionable elements, El Barco is a fun time with beautiful and sexy people, a solid story arc, and some entertaining hidden gems that I, for one, enjoyed.

Should have kept it to two seasons

[texasboyy · 6/10 · 20 May 2018]

Loved the first season, even with its over abundance of telenovela melodrama, but the series started to falter halfway through the second season. Most of the characters and writing weren't interesting enough to maintain interest across several episodes. They started getting redundant, some subplots about relationships carried on way too long, and the day-to-day issues they had to face were just monotonous. Walking Dead has the exact same issues, yet for some reason that clunker is still on the air.

The Boat should have focused more on the science fiction aspect of it and wrapped it all up by end of season two (same with Walking Dead BTW). I stuck with it through season three but it was obvious the writers had run out of ideas. The cheap cliffhanger they threw in during the last episode was just weak too.

If you want to see this, just watch season one and skip the rest. First season also has some interesting scenes with female nudity which vanished in later seasons.

So dissapointed by everything

[tecnogaming · 3/10 · 8 May 2018]

After watching La Casa de Papel by Alex Piña, I was thrilled to find out that he previously did El Barco.

We started the series with much anticipation, the premise is about as good as it can be but after 5 episodes, reality step-in and I was starting to see what this whole series is about: a pseudo sci-fi meet colombian sunday drama gone bad.

The series had such a good premise and good start but soon after, it is clear that the writers had nothing going for it besides doing a bachelor party inside a ship with people that feels more like children than wannabe adults.

One of the worse things about this series is how they portrait the characters. They are all one-dimensional teens with emotional complexes. I am Argentinian and I know that Latin Americans are emotionals by nature but these guys/girls surpases even my wildest expectations. For no aparent reason, everyone is bound to yell at each other, scream and have sex like there is not reasoning behind it.

If this is what's left of humanity they should just sink the boat and be done with it. The level of stupidity is amazing. By the fifth chapter, the only real interesting character is Ulises. It's like he is surrounded by complete idiots that loves to insult him for no reason at all, even the captain.

To make matters worse, the screenwrite just love tits, there is no other way of saying it. The girls are lovely but they are too much PLAYBOY type to fit properly into their characters and they insist on showing up close up of their titties without much consideration. The make up make it much worse as they they all look like they came out of the styling room.

0 realism. This is not normal people, this are actors in a reality show. Bad escenography, bad sript, idiotic one-liners, unidimensional characters, playboy girls with excessive makeup, constant titties closups and dumb emotional reactions does not make for a good series. This is a crappy sunday telenovel disguised as interesting sci-fi drama.

I just can't believe the director is the same behind La Casa de Papel. This is insulting.

worth spending time and seal into the apocalipse

[szilveszterdomotor · 9/10 · 24 October 2018]

Well we have a situation we play with some science stuff lead whole planet covered with water , well not a single movie about this mechanism , but inside of this new formed family daily tragedies and pleasures form a very good atmosphere. Some episodes are silly but in each episode a freakin game changer come to the picture. I remember long ages ago started to watch this series, but not end-to-end. With the sequental order and little patient a pretty good soap oper-scifi-post apocaliptic drama will form and make you addicted. It really worth extra stars actors has own each characters, playing well. Plot is exciting and bring up freaking new elements into the series. If you can enjoy the apocaliptic drama with a little comic spice , its your series. Especially worth as I have never seem such a good acting amd plot from spanish movies as movies (horror and scifi junkie:)). Based on this definetely minimum 9 star , great idea , and great made series , i can recommend this to anyone well done!

Great concept, but....

[barrymac1 · 6/10 · 5 September 2019]

Other reviews better articulate the premise of this uneven series, but no one addresses a huge flaw...the English subtitles are atrocious. Yes, you get the point, most of the time, of what the characters are saying, but at times the translation is so bad it gets in the way of enjoying a generally fun series. It's unbelievable to me that the producers couldn't, or wouldn't, cough up the dineros to ensure a satisfying translation. But all that aside, this is ultimately a mostly satisfying story, if you can get past the ridiculous soap opera aspect, and a couple of equally ridiculous characters...I'm looking at you Piti.

3 season I swallowed of this series

[cleardawn-1 · 5/10 · 22 February 2013]

And I did so, because being Spaniard, I really wanted it to do well, and I really wanted see something spectacular, as the theme is innovative. My bigger disappointment is with the writers, since in any episode that you may watch, suddenly they insert romantic scenes that are absolute "ludicracy" and spoils the thrill that could've been created, if any. Some times it seems they've run out of budget, others of ideas, qui lo sa! I am in my 70s, and besides being myself a writer, I have been divorced, widow and separated, thus, I know what I am talking about romance. The only part and actor wordy of congratulations is "Burbuja", Iván Massagué really plays not just the most difficult role of them all, but masterly, and all he does has its logic to be. So, if you are bored and have nothing else in view, watch it, if not... go for better winds. Blessings! ClearDawn*

Just Like Lost in Space meets Giligans Island, but on the Ocean...

[JimE-36-668522 · 8/10 · 16 January 2018]

Saw it on Netflix and since it had English subtitles I figured I would give it a try.

Lets see if we can break this down without giving too much away, A brilliant scientist devises an experiment, finds out that the evil rich guy wants to rule so he steals some data and hopes they won't go through with the experiment, but they do and it goes wrong, DISASTER...

But wait, Brilliant Scientist has a plan to save some people, they get on a boat for a 2 month long scholarship cruise, The DISASTER happens, and they wander the ocean for more than the planned two months.

The evil rich guy has HENCHMEN, and they try to get the Red Folder from the Brilliant Scientist...

They find an Island, Evil Rich Guy has more HENCHMEN,

There are more ships, some are good, some are bad, some we never see

There is romance, betrayal, giant sea monsters, big waves, whirlpools,

Three seasons total, the first two were decent, the last was less so, as it seems they either ran out of money and or knew they were being canceled so they tried to wrap things up quickly.

Overall the stories were pretty good, although like Lost in Space you wonder why they didn't just dump Gamboa into the ocean, There is quite a bit that is not explained until the last 15 minutes of the last episode of season 3. Being that all the dialog is in Spanish and I don't understand much Spanish the English subtitles made this a very watchable show. Some of the episodes are much better than others and some of them drag a little and seem overly complicated, this may be how the Spanish Networks wanted it done, I don't know. If you like shows that are somewhat silly and improbable with a decent plot you will probably like El barco, if you don't like the silly plot twists, the love triangles, the betrayals and the improbable disasters than you might want to skip this one.

best

[ahzr · 10/10 · 4 November 2018]

Best best best best best best best best .... ..............

Great series

[rejjiews-86745 · 10/10 · 2 March 2019]

I so enjoyed this series! All of the actors did a great job but more so I found impressive was the character of Ivan Massague'! To be able to portray his character as he did in two different perspectives was excellent! I hated to see this series end!

So-So

[jleeharris-36991 · 7/10 · 13 July 2019]

I enjoy Spanish series, so I thought I would give this one a try. The first season was good, the following two seasons were a little unbelievable. Lots of crimes, mystery, romance, hookups and a priest questioning his faith on a teaching ship, during an apocalyptic event. Some of the plot didn't have any continuity. I just found myself in season 2 and 3 wondering how they still had food, cell phone service and pressed clothes, since the rest of the world was underwater. A stowaway that had seen the fake teacher kill the real teacher just died in the infirmary and it was never mentioned again. That may be because I started fast forwarding though some of the lamer scenes. Coke got some really good product placement. It was fun for the first season, but so-so the last two.

Entertaining

[cc0077 · 8/10 · 28 December 2021]

I watched until season 3, and was really excited for season 4 but was highly disappointed. The storyline kind of seemed to shift during season 4 so I stopped watching the show. However, until the end of season 3 was really entertaining. I loved how they were able to solve each issue by the end of each episode, and all the episodes were so entertaining and creative.

Too stretched

[dkdm-41812 · 6/10 · 7 November 2019]

This is a very honest review, I think El barco is a great series, however its just too big and too confusing. You will find that there is unnecessary story in between. Unnecessary breakups and patch ups, and I wish god had helped them to write a much better ending. Seriously the ending is shameful to the entire series. Plus the shooting of the ending also sucks. If the production could just make a different ending it would be great. I watched the series because of blanca suarez and mario casas, but leaving the first season, in the rest 2 season the plot was completely haywire of these two charaters.

Sappy Romance posing as Sci Fi

[shoppsi · 5/10 · 27 July 2017]

This could have been so good, but ended up so disappointing. What could have been a great sci-fi action series ended up being a pre-teen soap full of the most unbelievably stupid characters ever written. I actually felt sorry for the actors.

The only bright spot is the Bubble character; that actor does an amazing job and the writers took some time to make him into a dimensional human being. The others characters are shallow and have the emotional intelligence of a 12 year old. Most of the episodes are narrated by the 5 year old and she is one of the smartest ones there.

Almost every scene that COULD be fast paced and interesting is cut away and a sappy romance is inserted. All of the action is halted and we have to look at cut scenes where they centre in on the character's motionless faces...to convey depth of feeling, I suppose, but in actuality it makes the characters look stupid.

It's like a Harlequin Romance novel dressed up as Science fiction.

None of the science is even remotely believable. They even make basic mistakes in 3rd grade level science, like saying mallards don't migrate. Since when?

If not the best at least the best i ever liked

[cosmin742000 · 10/10 · 12 January 2019]

A serie who has everything : the best catastrophe serie , the best adventure serie, the best mystery serie, the strongest suspance serie, a serie with a lot of dramatism,a serie who makes you laugh and cry in the same time, a serie with an unexpecting end a serie witch I realise is little under La casa de Papel (same producers),but i liked better.La casa de Papel is still a thriller , genre in witch spanish rule the world, the worst spanish thriller beeing 1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 times better than the best american one

COULD HAVE BEEN 1000 PERCENT BETTER

[andyeoli-18531 · 5/10 · 9 November 2018]

The writers of this serie are the dumbest people ever....Such an amazing beggining but then looks like their lack of imagination took them to common soap opera path of dealing with the same stupid issue for more than two (2) seasons with the killer of the boat....and to make it worst they finally put together the best couple of the boat to break the relationship in in one stupid episode...No imagination at all and situations happen with no common sense at all either...Very sad that some people get the chance of their lifetime and throw it in a garbish-can in a blink of an eye...

Very good story

[markus-41219 · 9/10 · 9 July 2018]

First two seasons are fast paste, very well told and shot realistically. Third episode is too slow. Images too clean and scenes too long, like adverstising. Not real enough. So I did not like the photography of the third season. A pity. The story itself is very cool. Very good development of the story and the characters. Although sometimes it seems that they developed the characters during the shoot. Would give 10 stars if it had been shot throughout like season 1 and 2. Season 3 makes it lose one star.

Awesome show.

[tamararomo2012 · 10/10 · 19 July 2021]

I am very sad that I cannot find it anymore with English subtitles like they had on Netflix. Pantaya should really offer subtitles. I would watch this show over and over again.

Very well done series

[soneagu · 10/10 · 13 March 2018]

Yes, there was some sort of abrupt ending, and of course, for the sake of building tension in this biting nails series, there were some not that plausible situations. These shortcomings are however easy to forgive given a very solid scenario, with more than interesting developments, an excellent cast with solid actor skills, a very good Sci-Fi that will keep you going and going. I started seeing it by accident but, after that, I was looking for some other Spanish series and I've had another great surprise with "El Internado". Of course, after I was devouring those two I set my expectations pretty high on "Ministerio del Tiempo". Let's see.