Little Nicholas: the life of a scoundrel is a three-part docuseries about how, at the age of 20, Francisco Nicolás Gómez Iglesias, nicknamed “Little Nicolás” by those who loved and hated him, had enough influence in the Spanish government to attend the coronation of King Felipe VI in 2014 as a guest guest. Nicolas himself is interviewed throughout the series, as are government officials, his mother, and several journalists, all of whom give conflicting reports about who he was and what his connections were.
LITTLE NICOLAS: LIFE OF A SINABLANCHE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Initial shot: “I’m going to tell you the story of a nobody who made it to the top. But this person who reached the top should not have been there,” says Francisco Nicolás Gómez Iglesias, whom we see reflected in a bathroom mirror.
The essence: Almost since his birth in 1994, Nicolas had an interest in being a leader and always made himself visible to the people he thought could be influential. We see him, at the age of 10, speaking in a report about the death of Pope John Paul II in 2005, and persuading his mother to enroll him in an expensive private secondary school, despite his class background. worker. When his grades fell short, he somehow managed to call in favors and was transferred to a school for elite athletes, even though, as one journalist puts it, he “didn’t even know how to play chess.”
According to Nicolás, he had connections with the National Intelligence Center (CNI), the country’s intelligence agency. But journalists who investigated for the documentary series found no connection; In fact, the house he claimed the CNI rented to him in an upscale Madrid neighborhood was actually owned by a construction company suspected of exchanging favors in exchange for lucrative government contracts.
But how did he find himself at the coronation, a 20-year-old boy who hadn’t even graduated from college yet? That’s what many of those interviewed ask themselves. Did he have anyone operating behind the scenes? Is he as cunning as an inpidual? And what precipitated his downfall?
What shows will it remind you of? Little Nicholas: the life of a scoundrel It has all the makings of a docuseries about scammers on the line. The lady and the valley.
Our opinion: There is a lot of style to Little Nicholas: the life of a scoundrel, in which the filmmakers used bold graphics and depicted Nicolas and some of the other players in his plan as pieces in a huge board game; Nicholas’s set piece is especially well done, looking exactly like the college kid he was, with his shirt untucked, tie loosened, and a casual jacket that passes for business attire.
What is left somewhat unexplored in the first episode is how Nicolas got to the point he did when he was so young. Sure, he was charming, but how could someone so quickly achieve the level of influence he had over a major European government? Surely it was more than just knowing the right people.
That’s the part that is essentially revealed in the first episode. There were rumors that José Manuel, a Madrid police chief, was the power behind the boy, but Manuel denies this. It appears that Nicolas was taken down by whoever might have been supporting his efforts at the time, but at the end of the first episode, it is still unknown who those people are.
But let’s be clear: Nicolas had some real influence at a young age. The arrogant attitude he adopts during his interview segments makes us think of him as real-life cousin Greg from Succession, although with more charm. He’s a guy who snuck up on those in power and helped them enough to get into their circles of trust, even though he actually had no idea what he was doing.
We don’t even know how much of what Nicolas says in his interviews is actually true. It may not even matter, given how amused we were by his exaggerated opinion of himself.
Sex and skin: None.
Parting Shot: “The matter of the coronation is very simple. Very simple,” says Nicolás.
Sleeping star: Nicolás’ mother, María del Carmen Iglesias, seems to have some pretty prepared explanations for everything her son was involved in. Don’t you have suspicions that something more sinister was going on?
Most pilot line: This isn’t a bad thing, but a good thing: the filmmakers were kind enough to repeat the identification charts frequently for each person interviewed, so we didn’t have to try to remember what role each speaker had in the story.
Our call: TRANSMIT IT. Even if you don’t know the story told in Little Nicholas: the life of a scoundrel, It remains fascinating to watch this seemingly unremarkable college student amass so much power and influence before even reaching the legal drinking age in America.
Joel Keller@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and technology, but make no mistake: he’s a couch potato. His writings have appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.comFast Company and other places.
