A surprisingly good Cold War spy series comes to us from Portugal. “Gloria” is also the first Portuguese series bought by Netflix, and fortunately, it is far from most of the sloppy, stupid and sleazy content that can usually be found on the biggest streaming platform. “Gloria” was also the most expensive Portuguese series of all time, and the plot was set by creator Pedro Lopes in 1968, on the eve of the Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia. And the biggest plus of this series for me is the high-quality presentation of historical circumstances, but also a fine, somewhat old-fashioned, slow development of the story that does not get lost in banalities and silliness.
The Cold War is at its height, and Portugal has been a dictatorship ruled by the military junta of Antonio de Oliveira Salazar for more than half a century. Just like Spain under Franco, Portugal was for many years an authoritarian non-democratic regime that was overthrown only in 1974 by the Carnation Revolution. The year 1968 is very important for Portugal and for the reason that in that year the old and sick dictator Salazar resigned, who would die two years later, and Portugal continues to wage colonial wars in Africa, hoping to preserve its territories. The young engineer Joao Vidal (Miguel Nunes), the son of a powerful man from the ruling military junta who should soon become a minister, also returned from the war in Angola.
Upon his return to Portugal, Joao was recruited by the KGB after he had previously seen everything and anything in Africa, realized that his country was on the wrong side of history and became interested in communism. The fact that his father is high in the ruling elite will serve the KGB, which is extremely strong in Portugal, as an ideal opportunity to infiltrate their man into the American RARET base located next to the village of Gloria do Ribatejo. Although RARET is nominally a radar base, it is actually a front for the CIA to monitor the situation in Europe, the Atlantic, and Africa, where numerous wars are being waged, in which America and the Soviet Union are fighting directly over advanced rivals.
But Joao will also arrive at RARET for private reasons to find out what happened to his lover Mia, also a KGB agent who has disappeared. Of course, no one will initially suspect that the young and charming engineer, whose success with young ladies could be envied by James Bond, could be a mole and a spy since his father is high up in the conservative, nationalist government that America nominally supports. Very soon, Joao will start sabotage, and at the same time he will be hired by the Portuguese secret services to spy on what the Americans are doing there, not knowing that he is already working for the Soviets. To the end, we will follow not only Joao’s efforts to find out what happened to Mia, the struggle for the supremacy of influence, intrigues, intrigues, subterfuges, the disappearance of many people, sabotage and even murder, but we will also understand to some extent what could have been the reasons of a young adult with a golden spoon in his mouth to join his enemies.
It will only partly be out of spite for my father, and as time passes, it will become clear to us that there are no positives and negatives, and that numerous suspicious and ugly things are happening in RARET and the nearby village. We will see that there is also an almost invisible war in which the USSR is trying to organize a communist party in Portugal, which is especially strong in the villages, and we see that the people are angry and indignant at an unjust and cruel regime that does not differ in the way of governance from the Soviet Union. “Gloria” was an intriguing political-thriller series, an interesting Cold War almost noir with interesting characters and solid actors that is worth watching.