LogFAQs > #947603315

#107 - Rodrigo de Souza
Mozart in the Jungle (Amazon; 2014-2018)
40 Episodes (First Appearance: "Pilot", February 6th, 2014)

You know what you don't run into a lot these days? Television shows that focus entirely on the inner dynamics of a symphony orchestra. That maybe why Mozart in the Jungle shocked me and drew me in so completely. There are a number of factors complicit in the effort to steal away your imagination - the backbiting between strings and woodwinds can be hilarious and at the same time entirely surprising, and there's no dearth to the amount of backstage politicking that makes an orchestra tick - but the focal point of the show is actually a brand new conductor to the symphony. At first, Rodrigo de Souza seems pompous and arrogant, but as you dig into the character over the course of four seasons, you find that he is a true passionate advocate for the show's focal point: the failing New York Symphony. Gael Garcia Bernal, perhaps best known for his work in The Motorcycle Diaries as well as Pixar's Coco, knocks it out of the park as this rising star in the classical musical world.

I love characters that force me to re-evaluate them and their actions over the course of a series, and as Rodrigo is fleshed out more and more over the course of the show, he stops being this narcissistic prick that the series wants us to believe he is. He starts becoming a man who is demonstrating a veneer of heavy bravado to mask his own misgivings. As the orchestra grows and fights its way tooth and nail back into relevancy, Rodrigo is revealed to be less of a towering, self-centered mess and more nuanced.

Much like a real-life orchestra, Mozart in the Jungle succeeds predominantly because of the focal point - a director sets the tone, the pace and the conducts a symphony in the way that Rodrigo does the same for the series.

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