Wine expert Gala is married to the wealthy Fred. He’s treated her to a spectacular New York apartment, designer swag, and an engagement ring with a diamond the size of a small-to-medium egg. But not all is as wonderful as it seems in Apple TV+‘s new drama Land of Women, which segues from NYC glamour to muddily wholesome Spanish vineyards by way of three generations of women played by Desperate Housewives legend Eva Longoria, Spanish acting royalty Carmen Maura, and Mexican newcomer Victoria Bazua.
The series begins with the opening of Gala’s fancy new wine emporium, and the party is in full swing. Fred (James Purefoy) is nowhere to be seen, however – turns out he owes some scary men $15m and – as they make clear to an increasingly distressed Gala – if they don’t get their money, they will come for her mother and her 17-year-old daughter.
Liquidating her assets (which turn out to be worth far less than Gala would like – Fred has been faking it for a while now) she tears her daughter from her elite boarding school and grabs her mother Julia from the nursing home where she’s been merrily dealing drugs. They’re off on a plane (Gala with $50,000 taped beneath her designer dress) to La Muga, the Spanish wine town just south of Barcelona where Julia grew up and where she still owns half a house.
La Muga is a Catalan fantasy of rolling hills and vines bathed in a permanent sunset. But upon arrival, Gala finds out the house has been sold to a wildly attractive grape gatherer, Amat. In an effort to take back what Gala believes is theirs, they break in, but Amat summons the police and they are carted off to jail.
There must be something in La Muga’s water, for everything and everyone is low-key sexy, from the policeman locking eyes with Julia to the mechanic rolling out from under Gala’s broken-down car, all tumbling raven hair and push-up bra. Amat is a textbook love interest (he cooks! he has a dog!) and he’s kind to boot, eventually deciding not to press charges against Gala. When she offers to help him make his terrible wine drinkable, we have a pretty good idea of what will happen next.
The dialogue flits between Spanish and English, as do the subtitles, but Land of Women is by no means a taxing watch. As Gala, Longoria is funny in both languages and – perhaps in deliberate reference to the role that made her famous – she is indeed the most desperate of wives: desperate to find sanctuary, to protect her family, to reconnect with her daughter. She spends much of the first two episodes running in heels so high I feared for her tendons, but her moments of stillness are a joy to behold.
Maura also delivers a nicely low-key performance as Julia, smiling gently and demanding alcohol at every possible moment.
The tension will surely ramp up as the series progresses – the debt collectors are on Gala’s tail and we are very aware that Kate’s surreptitious phone calls to her girlfriend at school are a bad idea – but in these opening two episodes it’s all about sun-soaked nostalgia, sometimes mildly painful, but mostly very pleasant.
Not every great series has to be innovative. Land of Women delivers a golden glass of entertainment, well-written and beautifully made. This is the kind of series you crave on a drizzly summer evening when the British weather has failed to deliver. Pour me another glass.
The first two episodes of ‘Land of Women’ are streaming on Apple TV+ now. New episodes stream on Wednesdays.