‘Snakes and Ladders’ (2025) Netflix Series Review - In Which Cecilia Suárez Wants to be the Headmistress

Cecilia Suárez was just recently seen on Netflix in The Gardener. Now, she appears again on the same streaming service, thanks to Snakes and Ladders/Serpientes y Escaleras, in which her character once again does morally shady things, albeit with a different demeanor and a different energy. In The Gardener, Suárez was an ambitious, loving mother who turned her son into a serial killer to make money. In Snakes and Ladders, Suárez is an ambitious, loving mother who takes advantage of every chance to rise to victory. As Dora, the prefect of Andes San Javier School, she initially follows rules and upholds morality. Dora's sole aim is to become the headmistress of the school. She wakes up in the morning and writes "I want to be the headmistress" in her diary. Dora preaches ethical values - she prefers doing the right thing. At first, she doesn't care whether the right choices might hinder her objective. When she sides with Olmo (Juan Pablo Medina) and not Tamara (Marimar Vega) and Vicente (Martiño Rivas), Josefina (Margarita Gralia), the current headmistress, asks Dora why she is spoiling her chances to win the elections. You see, Tamara and Vicente are influential. The Governor is their friend. But Dora simply says that she did what was right. This perfect prefect is so upright that she looks both ways before stepping on the road, and rejects the severance package because she insists she quit.

How does a person like Dora get seduced by the world of corruption? An honest man becomes dishonest when his honesty gets him nowhere in life. Dora is constantly criticized for being virtuous, and at one point, Josefina tells her about the importance of using "dark diplomacy." It's from this point onwards that Dora starts tilting towards immorality. But even before this scene, we catch glimpses of Dora's affection for the dark side, like in the scene where Olmo asks her to come to his party. Dora asserts that it wouldn't be the right thing to do, since she's the teacher at the school where his daughter studies. However, we also see her smiling, which is no ordinary smile. She's not just being polite; she's wondering how easy life could be if she befriends a rich, powerful man like Olmo, who could help her achieve her objective. Yet, despite these subtle signs, Dora's "transformation" isn't very convincing. We hear her saying to herself that she will show Josefina that she, too, can do dark diplomacy, but the series doesn't properly build towards this scene - there are gaps in between. These gaps become more and more apparent as Snakes and Ladders reaches closer to its conclusion. So much narrative development occurs so swiftly that it feels as if the creators shabbily wrapped up the story because the Netflix bosses told them there wouldn't be a second season of this series. A friend is betrayed, a couple decides to return to their old place, a family servant shifts his allegiance, and someone ends up occupying a position in the realm of politics. All these threads needed to be ironed out. Unfortunately, they are just thrown at us swiftly and clumsily, without any dramatic weight or bite. Snakes and Ladders suddenly turn into a critique of Mexico and its dirty politics. It states that Mexico is filled with politicians who are successful only because they are corrupt schemers, backstabbers, and opportunists. So...basically almost every politician in almost every country?

Snakes and Ladders comes across as some sort of shrine to dishonesty, but director Manolo Caro's execution is cold and impersonal. Is this his way of rejecting immorality? Or is he just a bad filmmaker with a dull voice? Almost everybody is terrible in the series. Dora, though, goes one step ahead and double-crosses an ally. This is why she reaches the top - she achieves something greater than the position of the headmistress by the end of the series. If there's a message here, it's trite. It's also not delivered too satisfyingly. While the visuals are colorful and appealing, they lack emotional depth and energy. Caro has a few tricks up its sleeve. For instance, he opens one of the episodes with the POV of a bee. Things like these tell you that you should enjoy what you see. Yet, the scenes themselves feel staid and monotonous and dreary. Characters are quickly transported from one location to another by the time we cut to the next scene, and there seems to be a connective tissue missing. A stripper (and his depression) and a tarot card reader merely exist as quirks in the series. It doesn't matter what happens to these people, whether they get bitten by the snake or climb the ladder. The opening moments when we see the names of the studios are probably the only good thing about this series. Oh, wait, the actors do a weird dance during the opening credits, which is also quite entertaining. Except for these two things, nothing else seems worth watching.

Final Score- [4/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times