Diksha Sundriyal
Created by Agustín Martínez, Netflix’s murder mystery thriller series, ‘Two Graves,’ (originally titled ‘Dos tumbas’) follows a grandmother’s quest to find the truth behind her granddaughter’s death. It has been two years since Veronica Marin disappeared, and her grandma, Isabel, is deeply dissatisfied with the way the police investigation unfolded. When a new clue surfaces, she decides to take matters into her own hands. However, she soon finds herself on a dark path that makes her question everything about herself. Her desperation for answers is presented with a sense of realism that makes the audience wonder whether an octogenarian could really push themselves to do the things that Isabel does.
The Fictional Two Graves Explores the Real Emotions of Grief and Obsession
‘Two Graves’ is a fictional story which comes from the mind of Agustín Martínez, co-written with his frequent collaborators Jorge Díaz and Antonio Mercero. The idea for the story started with Isabel’s character. Martínez wanted to write a thriller with an unconventional protagonist, someone that people would underestimate and shrug off in fiction as well as in real life. Over the years, he’d seen murder mysteries in small towns focused on parents, siblings, spouses, or police officers taking charge of getting to the bottom of the crime. Rarely, if ever, was a grandma put in that spotlight, and the writers were interested in exploring that scenario. They revealed that they had real-life cases like the Alcàsser Girls case and the disappearance of Marta del Castillo, but these and many other such cases were simply references and were not direct inspirations for the Netflix series.
The reason Isabel was chosen as the primary point of view for the story was that the writers wanted to present it through the lens of the grieving families. They noted that while the media sensationalises cases like this, the public often forgets that the trauma of the crime extends beyond the victims, and their family members and loved ones suffer for years to come, particularly those who don’t get any answers. This hook led them to craft a path for Isabel, but instead of making it in the tone of the clichéd murder mysteries, the creators wanted to give it a darker turn. They emphasised that at some point, the story became more of a revenge thriller than a grandma’s desire for justice, and this is where the darkness comes into the story as well as the character.
Two Graves Highlights the Dangers of Choosing a Path of Revenge
Finding the balance of tone was the main task for the show’s creators because they wanted to keep the sentimentality for Isabel’s character to showcase her love for Veronica, but at the same time, it was important to show just how dark a path she was ready to tread for that love. For this, the creators chose the Andalusian setting for the show. Choosing the southern town, which is full of light and warmth, served as a contradiction to the darkness and the cold nature of characters like Isabel and Rafael Salazar, whose daughter, Marta, is the other victim of the crime.
The writers also decided to keep the show’s length restricted to three episodes to maintain the breakneck pace of the story without beating around the bush and boring the viewers with unnecessary details. At the end of the day, they were interested in crafting a relatable protagonist in a realistic situation that would make the audience wonder about their own response to the fictional tragedy showcased in the story and, more importantly, to ponder upon whether or not they would choose to walk Isabel’s path of revenge.
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