In the struggle to wade through the streaming slop, Netflix has a leg up on the competition. Amid all its cancelled shows, the platform presents true crime series that are more disturbing than anything else on television. These miniseries attract the fascination of viewers, including its newest production, The Predator of Seville.
Directed by Alejandro Olvera, the three-part series follows the accounts of several women who all encountered the same man during study abroad trips in Spain, which included traveling to other countries. The series mainly follows Gabrielle Vega, a young woman who was only 18 when she went on her trip. What should have been her first exploration of freedom turned into a nightmare when she was drugged and assaulted in Morocco by the tour guide, Manuel Blanco Vela. Vega was not the only one to experience similar treatment from Blanco Vela. After Vega publicly accused the Discover Excursion tour guide, many other women shared similar experiences.
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‘The Predator of Seville’ Points Out Systemic Issues in Society
When Gabrielle Vega first went public, she had no idea of the scope of Manuel Blanco Vela’s crimes. Explored in the first episode of The Predator of Seville, Vega was primarily interested in warning potential victims of Discover Excursions. When she learned that she was not his only victim, she went public. This inspired an outpouring of similar stories that shocked even Vega herself.
The Predator of Seville could have been just another account of sexual crimes that may or may not be believed. As it turned out, Blanco Vela was prolific in his crimes, and the accounts of his abuse were hard to ignore. The Netflix docuseries is more than just an account of a predator, but it shows the power of one person’s voice. Vega’s account gave other survivors the courage to speak up, which eventually led to the discovery of another gruesome crime.
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Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would Be Your Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt
Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn’t work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.
🎖️Rambo
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🍸James Bond
🏺Indiana Jones
🔧John McClane
🎭Ethan Hunt
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01
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You’re dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.
02
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You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.
03
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You’re pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.
04
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The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.
05
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How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.
06
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Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.
07
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Things go badly wrong and you’re captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.
08
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What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn’t replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn’t know you had.
09
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Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.
10
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It’s the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.
Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…
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Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Rambo
Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.
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James Bond
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
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Indiana Jones
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
John McClane
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Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Ethan Hunt
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
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One of the big tragedies of the story is how a criminal could go unnoticed for so long. Blanco Vela’s victims were mostly women from the United States, which allowed him some anonymity. In the series, Vega recounts how he targeted her on the last night of her trip. With her returning home and the crime happening abroad, it was easier for her assailant to slip through the cracks. It could also be the reason why so many women did not pursue charges when it initially happened to them.
Vega’s story starts a conversation about how survivors have to fight tooth and nail to get their story acknowledged, let alone prosecuted. Even in a post #MeToo era, these accounts can often be dismissed. Aubrey Joy, who worked for Discover Excursions, noted that Blanco Vela attempted to gain her sympathy, insisting that there was no evidence and that these women were trying to ruin his reputation.
These stories can so often be swept under the rug because of these attitudes. Vega’s perseverance and support of other women allowed this story to be told and be considered seriously. This perseverance paid off when Blanco Vela was eventually sentenced to prison in 2025. The Predator of Seville is not a series that tries to use grief as entertainment, but uses a platform to give hope to survivors who may be in similar situations. An antidote to the wave of serial killers being given pedestals in entertainment, The Predator of Seville is a celebration of perseverance.
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