Stream It Or Skip It?

The Spanish thriller Wrong Side Of The Tracks proved to be a hit on Netflix last year because it not only had the “old guy as neighborhood vigilante” angle on lock, but it had an excellent ensemble cast that made the show’s intertwined storylines interesting to watch. Everyone is back for a second season, and the storylines seem to be bigger and even more ambitious than the were in the first season.

Opening Shot: A man who is sleeping in his apartment hears construction work outside and is grumpy that it wakes him up early.

The Gist: Tirso Abantos (Jose Coronado) retired from the hardware store he owned in the Madrid neighborhood of Entrevías — he gave it over to his son Santi (Miguel Ángel Jiménez) — but he’s still as angry as ever, especially with the increase in drug activity in the neighborhood. He also misses his granddaughter Irene (Nona Sobo), who moved back in with her mother Jimena (Maria Molins) after Tirso helped save her from the gangs that were after her.

It’s Irene’s 18th birthday, and she still misses her boyfriend Nelson (Felipe Londoño), who, after killing Sandro (Franky Martin), is now co-leading his old gang with Nata (María de Nati). As she’s getting ready to leave the house, she ends up passing out. When she comes to, Jimena is setting up what’s supposed to be a surprise birthday party for her. But all Irene wants to do is give her some personal news. Jimena is sidetracked by her real estate developer boss, who comes to the party to tell her he wants her to lead a project where he wants to invest in Entrevías.

Nelson gets into it with a rival gang who is trying to take over the corner by the bar owned by Tirso’s friend Pepe (Manuel Tallafé). When he manages to escape, bloodied but mostly just pissed off, Nata tells him that they need to battle to push the Latino gang off the corner. She brings her guys over to the bar to get into a brawl with the rival gang, but Tirso interrupts it by shooting his gun in the air.

Tirso is starting to feel that he alone is the only one who can keep the drug activity off the corner, especially when he learns Pepe wants to sell the bar. After breaking up the fight, he decides to sit on the corner in a lawn chair. At one point he almost gets into a shootout with Nata, who is passing with Nelson in a car. Nelson, of course, doesn’t want to get involved with Tirso, not just because of Irene but because Tirso is his neighbor and good friends with his mother Gladys (Laura Ramos). Later, Nata tells him that this is his life now, which prompts him to threaten Tirso with a gun.

Speaking of Gladys, she picks up Ezequiel Fandiño (Luis Zahera), the disgraced police detective who went to prison for his involvement in Sandro’s gang. He and Tirso face off for her attention, but he also makes a big show that he’s around the neighborhood again and working against his old boss, Inspector Amanda Armatose (Itziar Atienza). But we see that he was sprung early for a reason, and ingratiating himself with Nata is a big part of it.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? When we reviewed Season 1 of Wrong Side Of The Tracks we compared it to Gran Torino, basically because they’re both about two angry old guys who want to clean up their neighborhoods. The comparison stands this season.

Our Take: While Season 1 of Wrong Side Of The Tracks (Original title: Entrevías) certainly had a purpose to its many-layered story, Season 2 feels like it’s a bit more freeform in plot. he players are established, but the stakes are now higher. In a lot of ways, it feels like in Season 2, creator David Bermejo and his writing staff are throwing all of the elements of the first season into the pot and stirring it to see what comes out.

That doesn’t mean that the story doesn’t move as well as it did in Season 1, with the same extended-length episodes. In fact, it moves better because we know where everyone in the ensemble stands and what their motivations are.

But the somewhat tight story that Bermejo put together in Season 1 has expanded in scope. Now Tirso is going to take on any and all gangs in the neighborhood, instead of just making sure Irene is safe. Nata and Nelson are looking to take over the neighborhood with a big supply provided by a mysterious trafficker named “Ghost.” Ezequiel is trying to buy his freedom by infiltrating Nata’s gang. And Irene, who appreciates what her grandfather Tirso did for her by having her live under his strict rules, will be involved with Nelson in a way that will likely alienate both her mother and Tirso.

In a lot of ways, it feels like a second season of this show was never Bermejo’s intention, but it was such a hit on Netflix that he and his writers had to scramble a bit to create reasonable plotlines for a second season. Even so, it’s still fun to watch Coronado continue to be an ornery old son of a bitch, Ezequiel use his knowledge of the neighborhood to serve his own interests, and Irene try to figure out just who she’s going to grow up to be.

Sex and Skin: Nelson and Nata have sex near the end of the first episode, right as Irene leaves him a voice message telling him her big news.

Parting Shot: Irene says in her message that she’s pregnant, and the baby is Nathan’s. We see Nathan’s phone light up with the message in the pocket of his jeans, draped over a chair as he has sex with Nata in the background.

Sleeper Star: María de Nati plays Nata as a complete and total badass; by the end of the first episode, Nata is well established as this season’s “big bad.”

Most Pilot-y Line: When Tirso tells Pepe and Sanchís (Manolo Caro) that the three of them can patrol the corner, Pepe replies, “What are you talking about, Tirso? The three of us slapping people around as if we’re The A-Team?” Gotta love the reference, but The A-Team did more than slap people around; they shot at people but never hit them and drove around in a cool-ass van.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Despite the more sprawling second season storylines, Wrong Side Of The Tracks is still a pulpy ensemble thriller that has a slight undercurrent of camp beneath all of the gang activity and violence, which is an appealing combination.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.