I read Marquez’s novel in college some 2 decades ago so I can’t remember anymore the plot details (but surprisingly I remember the names of the main characters and the town of course) and maybe I didn’t have the right faculties for the story and its themes to make an impact. So I treated this adaptation as if I’m being introduced to the novel anew. It’s visually sumptuous, from production design to costumes. But I have to single out its standout cinematography. Creating the language of magical realism through glacial tracking shots, it complements the seemingly hermetic treatment and linearity of the story and suffuses it with the oneiric feel that collapses time and history and sense of place. Not to mention the epistolary feel of the narration, like being told of the story from a particular point in history that feels graspable. Here’s a magical, pre-industrial town that arose from scratch, continually being forged by political upheavals and personal afflictions as a new world beckons. Only learned that a second season is in the offing after finishing episode 8 which is good because I feel the need to read it again.