Francisco Foxá needs a detective, and he has found a man who played one. Benjamin Basil spent years portraying Sherlock Holmes on screen, which is qualification enough for the aspiring crime novelist once a hotel guest turns up dead. Basil keeps pointing out the distinction between acting and investigating. Foxá keeps asking for his opinion anyway. Their disagreement gives The Final Problem a way into its mystery: Basil has learned to look observant for a camera, but a real deduction could put suspicion on someone trapped in the hotel with him.
José Coronado makes Basil’s reluctance useful. His old fame has outlasted his career, and the invitation that brings him to the island comes with the prospect of another film role. He does not seize the murder inquiry as an obvious chance to play Holmes again. Curiosity draws him in while Foxá supplies the encouragement, and Coronado lets his authority grow without treating every observation as a grand reveal. The writing takes a convenient shortcut, though. Basil’s years in costume have apparently given him formidable powers of deduction. The series is at its most interesting when he resists other people’s faith in those powers, then spends much of its running time relying on them.
Fonseca, a producer Basil knows, has invited him aboard a boat bound for Mallorca. A storm diverts the passengers to a luxury hotel on the isolated island of Santa Agueda, where the guests and staff cannot contact the police. Elisa Mander is found hanging; Dr. Seruya calls it suicide, while Basil and Foxá suspect murder. The setup places a disputed death in front of a group that has no means of leaving or summoning an outside investigator. Basil’s celebrity makes him an unlikely choice to lead the inquiry, yet his reputation gives the others someone to turn to.
The hotel is well suited to that old fashioned arrangement. Dinner calls for tuxedos and gowns, while the 1959 setting leaves Basil with conversations, observed behavior and his own deductions. Its elegance makes the guests pleasant company to watch and difficult company to trust. Adela Figueroa, Elisa’s guarded friend, benefits from that tension. María Valverde gives her a composure that leaves room for Basil, and the viewer, to wonder what she knows.
A closed circle needs its suspects to gain definition as the inquiry proceeds. The Final Problem is less assured there. The discovery of another body gives the first episode a firm push forward, but additional danger cannot do all the work of changing how we understand the people still alive. Foxá has ample time beside Basil and does eventually question him, yet their exchanges tend to return to Basil’s deductions rather than open up Foxá’s own place in the group. Hotel manager Mrs. Ausländer (Maribel Verdú) has reason to figure in Basil’s questioning, though her role remains smaller than that position promises. Adela stands out partly because the series gives Valverde something substantial to hold back.
That restraint has a purpose. A mystery loses some of its grip if every suspect explains themselves as soon as Basil asks a question. Across four episodes, however, the withheld information puts pressure on the pace. The series can keep a viewer guessing while leaving its guests too composed to generate much friction between discoveries. Its handsome setting and Coronado’s steady lead performance carry those stretches, but the investigation works hardest when a conversation changes Basil’s view of someone, rather than simply adding another person to his list.
The eventual explanation brings ambition, class and exploitation in show business into the story, giving Basil’s former profession a reason to matter beyond the Holmes connection. Those concerns have weight, particularly the power that a producer or established actor can hold over someone seeking a career. Much of that weight arrives through the late explanation rather than through the earlier relationships at the hotel. The solution gives the four episode mystery an endpoint and lets its actor-detective premise pay off. It also asks the finale to reveal depths in people the preceding episodes have kept carefully out of sight.
The Final Problem is a Spanish period mystery miniseries that premiered globally on Netflix on September 25, 2026. Set in June 1959, the plot centers on a group of guests trapped by a violent storm at an isolated hotel in Mallorca, where a retired actor famous for playing Sherlock Holmes must step up to solve a sudden locked-room murder. The four-part limited series is available to watch worldwide exclusively on Netflix.
Where to Watch The Final Problem Online
Full Credits
Title: The Final Problem
Distributor: Netflix
Release date: September 25, 2026
Rating: TV-MA
Running time: 45 minutes per episode
Director: Félix Viscarret
Writers: Alberto Macías, Carlos Molinero, Marisol Farré, Arturo Pérez-Reverte
Producers and Executive Producers: Fernando Bovaira, Urko Errazquin
Cast: José Coronado, María Valverde, Martiño Rivas, Maribel Verdú, Gonzalo de Castro, Pepón Nieto, Cristina Kovani, José Condessa
Director of Photography (Cinematographer): David Omedes
Editors: Fernando Franco
Composer: Lucas Vidal
The Review
The Final Problem
The Final Problem has a fine lead in José Coronado and an elegant setting built for suspicion. Basil’s reluctance to become the hotel’s detective gives the mystery its best character tension, though the script soon treats his acting experience as sufficient training for the job. The four episodes remain watchable, but several suspects stay too guarded for the investigation to gather much force. The finale gives Basil’s profession a deeper purpose while asking late revelations to carry much of the character work.
PROS
- Coronado’s restrained lead performance
- Elegant, isolated hotel setting
- A promising actor turned detective premise
- Valverde’s guarded Adela
CONS
- Basil’s deductive skill comes too easily
- Several suspects remain thinly drawn
- The middle stretch loses momentum
- Key character motives arrive late
