I want to start this post by saying the series gets points off for no cameo from Nicholas Cage. Yes, I know he said he wouldn’t be in the series before it came out and I read those articles, but it’s still a miss for me. I wanted to see him even if it was just him walking pass a window or a coffee show or being in the bar. Anything!
Ok, so this series did a lot of different things, and I liked them all. So, let’s break them all down.
Disney said diversity! We’re doing diversity. As a black woman, I appreciate the diversity, but I don’t want people to do it just to do it. So, Jessita, or Jess as her friends call her, is a wiz at solving puzzles. She loves a good escape room or a math puzzle. She is also a DACA kid. DACA stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Jess and her family are Mexican and came from Mexico to the US due to her father’s treasure hunting/protecting. Being a DACA child means that she is allowed to stay in the US and not be deported due to the fact that she came here as a child under whatever circumstances. Many don’t agree with this law, but I will say that whoever has come to America with their child was looking for a better life in America for those children. Didn’t necessarily have to do with them, and if they are smaller, they don’t remember their homeland. I think they should have the power to decide where they want to stay. I say all that to say that Disney decided to introduce us to someone we’ve never really seen before. With her being a DACA kid, the treasure hunt was more about family and tradition and less about solving a grand mystery. In the original, there was an element of family and tradition, but as the story progressed, it seemed that it was about solving a big mystery with some history.
Let’s move to her friends. All but two were minority actors. I was almost about to say colored. LOL. It was cool to see how Jess interacted with all her friends and how we were able to learn more and more about their backgrounds. The only problem I had with her team was her best friend, Tasha. I didn’t have an issue with her. I had an issue with how she was able to use her tech to do things that I was like…I don’t think she should be able to do that. Or at least do it as fast as she did. I always hate when movie movies or tv tv’s and I’m left like, “How?!” It bugged me the entire series.
Where the original hinged on American history and the second branched off into America’s interaction overseas, this series played with both. The center was always Latin American history. Like the original, that was the grounding point. This series centered on Malinche and her role with the Conquistadors. It seems like this series wanted to clear her name of being a traitor, which I never understood how you could label slaves as traitors. They were forced to do work or die in most cases, but whatever.
Anywho, you had a couple of storylines here that could have becomes too much if not done right. Glad they did a series instead of a movie, which probably helped. You have the following storylines:
- Jess’ journey as a DACA kid
- Jess and Ethan wanting and trying to be together but them not actually trying to make it work
- Jess and Liam’s budding romance, which started rough in the beginning
- Billie as the antagonist that is thwarting Jess and team’s effort
- Agent Ross starting her new career in Louisiana after making a bad call in Quantico
- Agent Ross and the morgue guy’s budding romance
- Sandusky’s secrets
- Tasha and Oren’s on/off again relationship
- Hidden or not well known Latin American history as a whole
These are just a few plot points that stood out to me, but when you look at them, it can seem like, “They did all that?” Yes, yes that did.
Other than no Nicholas Cage, I didn’t like that they threw so much at us in the last two episodes. It seems like a running trend with series now. The pacing was so good until I got to the end and so many things started to unfold and come at me at once.
Has anyone else watched National Treasure: Edge of History? What are your thoughts?
BLACK WATCH 