If I were to tell you the new Netflix series “Oasis” begins with a flash-forward to a shocking crime at a luxury resort, your eyes might glaze over faster than I could say “The White Lotus.” The obvious comparison isn’t wrong, per se; “Oasis” even includes frequent B-roll of waves crashing on the beach, the same visual device “White Lotus” creator Mike White uses to suggest the turmoil beneath the hotel’s glittering surface. But “Oasis” hails from Spain, the same country that supplied the streaming service with eight seasons of the deliciously trashy teen soap “Elite” before that series concluded in 2024. In truth, “Oasis” plays out more like the latter show than a prestigious, high-minded exploration of class dynamics and extreme wealth. The characters are thin and the plot often ludicrous, but the sight of beautiful people making bad decisions is soothing enough to override one’s critical faculties.
Produced by the same creative team as the true crime series “The Asunta Case,” including Ramón Campos and Jon de la Cuesta, “Oasis” reveals these priorities early. When resort employee Celia (Victoria Kantch) goes missing, the show doesn’t investigate her disappearance through the lens of law enforcement or even her own father, who manages the resort. Fruitful as it might be to center the action around a man forced to appease his customers as he fears for the life of his child, the chosen protagonists of “Oasis” are instead Celia’s best friend Helena (Ana Garcés) and Dani (Tomy Aguilera), a guest who’s formed a romantic attachment to Celia despite meeting her less than 48 hours before her disappearance. Dani provides the voiceover, filled with strained metaphors about earthquakes and sermons on the importance of summer, but the pretense that the dialogue is taken from his interrogation is quickly abandoned. Can a couple kids really match the forensic skills of an actual police force? No, but their frantic attempts to find their friend while managing their own hormones are at least more telegenic.
