The romantic drama series “Maestro in Blue” happens to be Netflix’s first Greek series, and as always, the production value shows as we are hosted on a sunny Mediterranean island filled with color and warm tones. But other than some visual splendor, there are, unfortunately, very few things to love or remember about this nine-episode series. Centered around a musician, Orestis, who arrives at the island of Paxos to help conduct the local music festival, the show presents a set of characters with whom Orestis gets involved. By the end, though, “Maestro in Blue” seems unnecessarily stretched and filled with clueless characters and unconvincing plot points.
Spoilers Ahead
‘Maestro in Blue’ Plot Summary: What Is The Series About?
Sometime after the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2021, the island town of Paxos in Greece decided to have its annual music festival in order to spread tourism as well as boost morale among the residents. The decision is headed by Fanis, a local businessman and politician hoping to become the next mayor of the town, and in order to organize this festival, Fanis brings in a musician named Orestis. On the very day of his arrival, Orestis runs into Fanis’ young adult daughter, Klelia, and from this moment onwards, the girl seems to have grown an attraction towards him. Orestis is also gradually smitten by the looks and charm of the girl, but he is also very conscious of the extensive age gap between them of almost twenty-eight years. As Orestis settles in at the town, he gets acquainted with the others who would spend considerable amounts of time with him over the next few weeks. At first, are Maria, the sweet and likable assistant that Orestis works with since she manages the keys to the music hall, and her family—a young son named Spyros and a scruffy, mean-tempered husband named Haralambos. Next is, of course, the family of Fanis, as the man invites Orestis to lunch at his house. With his wife Sofia, daughter Klelia, and slightly younger son Antonis, Fanis seems very well off with a close-knit, loving family, and his mother-in-law, Haris, also lives with them.
However, behind all the public displays of love and care, the family is a severely broken one, with everyone having secrets that they keep from each other. While Klelia gets more attracted to the difficult prospect of being in love with a much older man, her brother Antonis is gay and in love with Spyros, but both boys keep this a closely guarded secret since their family members and society look down upon homosexuality like a disease. Sofia is in a loveless marriage with her husband, and her real interest lies in the local doctor, Michalis, who is even supportive enough to take her for an abortion when Sofia accidentally gets pregnant with Fanis and wants to drop the baby. Finally, Fanis himself is an extremely shady man with an established business selling luxury boats. But behind this façade, though, is his business of smuggling drugs and other items illegally, with his image as a political worker only to ensure money laundering practices. As Orestis starts to work with the people preparing for the music festival and secretly starts getting attracted to Klelia, he has no idea that he will soon become part of all these problems and a few more too.
Can Orestis And Klelia Stay Away From Each Other?
The central point of the drama, or at least where things begin, is the romantic relationship or interest between Orestis and Klelia. Despite the difference in their ages, there seems to be a connection from the very first moment when they see each other at Paxos, as Orestis asks the girl for directions. But this connection actually turns out to have a different reason, for the two had earlier met each other away from Paxos. Only some time ago, Klelia had visited the nearby island town of Corfu with her family when Fanis had been invited to some inauguration ceremony. Spending a night at the place, Klelia intended to have a casual hookup with someone, for she had never done it before while all her friends had, and the girl had downloaded a dating app for this. On the other side, Orestis, visiting Corfu for a few days, had also downloaded the same app, and the two had made a connection with each other. Klelia had visited the apartment Orestis had rented with physical intimacy in mind, but the two ended up only conversing and doing nothing else. Although Klelia found her match very attractive, it was Orestis who stopped things because of their difference in age. He was not ready to get intimate with someone just above the legal age and had turned Klelia away, much to her frustration. Therefore, when the two met once again on the island of Paxos, and especially in a situation where Orestis is the maestro and Klelia is a skilled pianist, romantic sparks were bound to appear once more.
Klelia’s situation is actually very much like that of her grandmother Haris, for the woman had also once been in love with her music teacher during her early adult life. Haris had fallen deeply in love with the much older musician who had come to the island then, and she dreamed of a life together with him. The teacher too had reciprocated this love and dream of a life together, but he would never do anything to make those wishes come true. Unwilling to wait any longer and to unite with the love of her life, Haris left Paxos and went to her teacher’s address, only to find that the man was already married and had a daughter as well. Haris could not bear the grief that she was struck with, and upon returning to Paxos, she agreed to marry a groom her father had chosen for her. However, later on in life and even at present, Haris still visits this music teacher of hers, who is now a very old man living all alone in his home in Paxos. While Haris had not been able to fulfill her dreams of a happy married life, she did get to spend some time with her lover towards the end of his life, as the man one day died peacefully in her arms.
But Klelia’s struggle is of the present, and with time, the girl finds it hard to even think of life without her maestro. What starts to mess things up is that Orestis, too, starts to feel a strong attraction toward his student, but he initially keeps it to himself and tries to stay away from Klelia. But such measures hardly ever work, even less so in a drama series about such passionate love, and ultimately, Orestis ends up kissing Klelia and then forcing himself to be unavailable right after. Ultimately, though, the two start a romantic relationship towards the end of Orestis’ stay at Paxos as the music festival gets closer. Fanis learns of this relationship and is furious at the musician, threatening Orestis to get as far away from his daughter as possible right after the music festival. To make matters worse, Orestis’ estranged wife, Alexandra, had suddenly come to the island and started to live in the same house as him. Despite all of this, Klelia remains hopeful that her love for Orestis will stay intact, and he, too, gives her the promise to seriously think about their relationship even after the music festival is over.
Why Had Alexandra Come To Visit Her Estranged Husband, Orestis?
Six episodes into the series, “Maestro in Blue” introduces a new character in the form of Alexandra, a woman who can really shake things up for Orestis since she introduces herself as the man’s wife. This is a shock for the residents of Paxos, as Orestis had always claimed himself to be single, and perhaps their loss of trust in the man starts from this moment. But Orestis and Alexandra were actually divorced, and an episode is spent establishing their relationship in the first place. After having lost his parents at a young age, Orestis was lost in his own life when he found shelter in music and started to play the piano at any show or event. It was during one such event that the man first met Alexandra, a supremely rich oil broker with romantic mischief on her mind. After connecting and making love instantly on that very night, the two started to date, and Alexandra even introduced Orestis to her father. Almost all of the friends and family members liked Orestis and even seemed interested in his works, as he was an artist and therefore had perspectives very different from them, who were all into business. The couple stayed married for ten long years, but it was not always smooth sailing, and their relationship started to deteriorate only sometime after their marriage. Orestis gradually grew disillusioned by what he had done, especially since now he was made a part of Alexandra’s business firm and therefore had to handle such affairs. He seemed like an artist stuck in the world of pure capitalists, and eventually, they had to break up after he even found Alexandra cheating on him with her close friend and business associate. Although Alexandra never wanted the divorce, it was Orestis who forced his way out of their emotionless marriage.
During their happier times, though, the couple had tried to become parents, but all natural methods had failed. They had then tried IVF and had frozen up a number of fertilized egg cells in order to keep trying. Unfortunately, these attempts failed as well, except for one time when Alexandra was pregnant, and it was diagnosed that her baby would be born with a life-threatening disease and very little chance of having a healthy life. Alexandra decided to drop the baby, and after this, her relationship with Orestis also worsened. While Orestis had decided to take on the responsibilities of the maestro at Paxos in order to keep away the thoughts of his sad, lonely existence, Alexandra had been busy running her business in Athens. But now, she had a sudden change of heart and decided to try out the one last frozen egg, which fatefully worked, and the woman was now pregnant. Preparing to embrace this new change in life, Alexandra left all her business affairs unattended and came to Paxos to reunite with her ex-husband. She tells Orestis that she wants to have a complete, healthy family, even though she is not necessarily in love with him anymore and asks Orestis to be there in her life because of their child. Orestis finally agrees to a settlement, saying that he could never be back together with Alexandra but would definitely support her and their child by being in their lives.
What Problems Arise From The Love Of Antonis And Spyros?
The very first and most difficult problem that Antonis has to face is coming out to his own family, for he decides to do so after initially hiding his sexuality. Although his sister and grandmother fully support him, his parents are not impressed at all since they still consider it to be the worst thing to have a homosexual son. They try to convince Antonis that it might be a phase and even push him toward dating a girl. Ultimately, his mother Sofia also starts to turn her support towards him, understanding that her son truly wanted to be with his lover and that his happiness was more important than society’s perception. But the corrupt and hypocritical father Fanis keeps objecting to it till the very end, always trying to “turn his son back” into heterosexuality and doing everything in his power to keep Antonis away from his lover Spyros.
Then there is also the fact that Antonis’ lover, Spyros, does not want to come out with his sexuality and is internally trapped between two worlds and choices. On the one side is the option to keep his sexual preferences suppressed and hidden forever, just like every other queer person on the island belonging to previous generations. Or, his other choice is to let go of everything and pursue his love for Antonis. For a very long time, Spyros tries out the first option, getting a girlfriend for himself, only to show the world and society that he is a heterosexual man. Although the girlfriend, Gianna, does understand that her boyfriend is gay, she tries her best to keep the pretensions of the first option intact, trying to convince Antonis that his preference was just a phase that would soon pass and that the two of them would settle down and start a family together. After many shifts in his perspective, Spyros ultimately chooses the second option, lets go of everything that society has to offer and decides to start a relationship with Antonis.
In the context of their love, the families of the two boys are also deeply involved, for there is more than just a neighborly connection between the two families. Spyros’ father, Haralambos, is a fisherman by profession, and he also works the illegal activity of smuggling drugs under the orders of Fanis. In fact, Haralambos is the primary and most important worker in Fanis’ fleet, and the politician regularly keeps paying the man for his illegal services. But Haralambos always wants more, owing to the fact that he knows he is being exploited in some way, only for Fanis to turn him down every time. Haralambos is a vile and disgusting character himself, beating up his wife and son at every opportunity that he gets. He even sexually forces himself upon his son’s girlfriend, Gianna, and has no guilt or contempt for his drunken actions. Haralambos is detestable in every way; being a stubborn, uneducated man with only anger and abuse as his characteristics, and dedicating an entire episode to talk about the abuse he himself faced from his own father as a child does not help with anything. But it is also such a man who gets to know about all the personal secrets on the island and tries to make use of them, mostly by threatening Fanis that he would tell everyone about his broken family unless the businessman paid him more money.
Haralambos’ wife, Maria, is mostly docile and submissive, even and especially to the physical abuse that is meted out on her every night by her drunken husband. It is not like Maria had not tried to escape or fight back—in fact, she had gone to the police during the very early days when Spyros was just a baby, but the police’s reaction made her realize that nobody would support her if she left her marriage. But beyond everything else, Maria is a fierce mother as well, wanting only the best for Spyros, even if that means going against the wishes of Haralambos. Spyros gradually finds a great supporter and ally in his mother when he sort of comes out to her. She agrees to go to Athens with Spyros so that he can be with Antonis for a few days and so that Haralambos will not be suspicious of him. But Haralambos does get a whiff of this through the other patriarch, Fanis, and he follows his wife and son the whole way to Athens to then forcefully bring them back home.
‘Maestro in Blue’ Ending Explained: Who Killed Haralambos? Does Orestis Decide To Stay Back Or Leave Paxos?
At the end of every episode, starting from the first one, “Maestro in Blue” teases a murder that takes place only a few days before the music festival, and eventually, it is found out to be that of Haralambos. However, it is only in the last episode that we find out the exact manner of it and who committed the act, and why. By this time, Spyros and Antonis were madly in love and comfortable being open about it. Taking along the rifle that always stayed at his house, Spyros would often go to practice shooting in the woods along with Antonis. During one such trip, the furious father Haralambos followed the two boys in his car and caught them in the act of lovemaking. Losing all wits from the terrible anger, Haralambos started beating up Spyros and was even about to hit him with a heavy stone, which would have killed the boy. At this moment, Antonis, shaking with fear, was desperate to help his lover, and for this, he used the rifle that was still in his hands. Antonis shot the devilish Haralambos twice, ultimately killing him. Although the loss of Haralambos would perhaps not hurt anyone, it is still an act of murder for Antonis, and both boys are extremely scared of what they have done. Orestis, who had seen Haralambos follow the boys and had himself then followed, stumbles upon this scene and drags the dead body to his own house. From here, they call Fanis and ask for his help, and the soon-to-be mayor rushes down to the place. He then devises a plan to dump the dead body, and unlike before, he now asks for Orestis’ help, saying that he wants to protect his son at all costs. Together, Fanis, Orestis, and a shocked Spyros dump Haralambos’ body in the middle of the sea with an anchor tied to his feet and also leave his boat at the place, making it seem like an accident or a suicide. Alexandra, who had witnessed all of this, also helps Orestis by cleaning up the blood and mess at their house, and she has no wish to speak out against her ex-husband.
A day or two later, the music festival is conducted as scheduled, with no repercussions from Haralambos’ death whatsoever. It is hinted that Maria seems to understand something must have happened between her husband and Spyros, but she is not bothered at all since her son is right by her. Spyros looks visibly relieved and happy now that his father is gone, just like Haralmbos once felt after drowning and killing his own father at sea. Maria had been concerned that along with the physical abuse that he engaged in, Haralambos was also having a terrible effect on Spyros as well, turning the son into an abuser as well. Now that there is no trace of the man, Maria is relieved as well. The music festival is finally conducted successfully, which also means that it is time for Orestis to make a choice.
Ultimately, Orestis is seen leaving Paxos with his ex-wife Alexandra and returning to their lavish house in Athens. Although Orestis moves into the same house, he chooses a different room on a different floor for himself, denoting that he is maintaining his earlier choice of being there for the woman and their child but not being romantically involved with her. But his decision to leave Paxos is a major shock to young Klelia, who was genuinely imagining a future with the musician. Perhaps Orestis always knew that such a relationship would never work out, and he could never bring himself to explain it to Klelia. But in turn, what he had done was perhaps worse: make false promises and then move away from the very place. Klelia is broken and has only Thanos beside her, the man who had shown genuine interest in her and who promised to be with her once Orestis went away. Just like her grandmother, Klelia also will probably marry Thanos and continue an ordinary life at Paxos, giving up all aspirations of leaving the island. At least that would make her evil father Fanis happy, even more so since he also wins the mayoral elections in the end.
“Maestro in Blue” is a 2023 Greek Drama Thriller series streaming on Netflix.
