In the Mud – Series Review | Netflix

IN THE MUD on Netflix is a new crime thriller series that takes place in a prison in Argentina (org. title: En el barro). It’s a spin-off of the Netflix series El marginal by the same creator, Sebastián Ortega. Read our In the Mud season 1 series review here!

IN THE MUD is a new Netflix crime thriller series with eight hour-long episodes in the season. It’s a spin-off of El marginal, where we follow a character from that show as she goes to prison. Her name is Gladys “La Borges” Guerra, and you’d better put some respect on her name!

The story plays out in a prison in Argentina (org. title: En el barro), and it’s scary. The prison, I mean. It is truly brutal while also being an entire world of its own, where everything is possible. As long as you know the right people and can pay them off – with money or favors.

Continue reading our In the Mud series review below. Find it on Netflix from August 14, 2025.

From the mud to prison

In the Mud begins with our main characters in the mud, so the title is very literal in that sense. It all happens when a group of female inmates is transported to La Quebrada prison. Among them is Gladys Guerra “la Borges”, who you’ll know if you’ve watched El marginal on Netflix.

Of course, she may be the “familiar” face in this spin-off series, but she’s not the one who lands them in the mud. Instead, it’s one of the other prisoners who has people on the outside waiting to break her out of prison before she even gets there.

Several cars arrive and manage to push the transportation van into a nearby river. While the targeted inmate gets away, the rest are left to fend for their lives, as the van is going under. This ends up being a critical situation that will bond them once they arrive at La Quebrada.

However, they don’t decide where to stay in the prison, so each will have to find their own “tribe”.

Get to know the women

Right at the beginning of In the Mud episode 1, we see flashbacks of what each woman has been arrested for. It’s just a few quick scenes to help us understand what they’re capable of and who they were before going to prison.

And once they arrive in prison, the real survival begins.

This is not a place for the weak of heart, so you need to make alliances fast. However, before you can do this, you need to figure out who you can trust. Or rather, where it’s wisest to place your allegiance.

Forget about the humor of Orange is the New Black because this gets much darker from the very beginning. Of course, there are things that feel familiar if you’ve watched other prison series. And still, this particular prison truly is a myriad of worlds attempting to co-exist.

All while those at the very top do whatever they can to make a quick buck. Or rather, to make fortunes on the back of these very unfortunate women, who seem doomed to this life of survival. Then again, for some of them, it’s not an unfamiliar way to live.

Watch season 1 of In the Mud on Netflix now

Creator Sebastián Ortega has managed to build on the world of the series he co-created by following one of those characters into prison. I have only watched a quick recap of El marginal, so I can’t speak about how closely the two are in style, but they appear to be equally brutal.

The main cast of In the Mud features several familiar faces. Among them are Ana Garibaldi,
Valentina Zenere (Cable Girls), Rita Cortes (Wild Tales), Silvana Sabatar (When Evil Lurks),  Marcelo Subiotto (The Eternaut), and Gerardo Romano (On The 3rd Day).

Whether you’ve been a fan of El marginal or prison series such as Wentworth, Bad Girls, Vis a vis, or even Orange is the New Black, then In the Mud should be perfect for you. It’s very dark and cruel in many ways, but also character-driven with great (and some awful) characters.

In the Mud (org. title: En el barro) is on Netflix from August 14, 2025.

Details

Creator: Sebastián Ortega
Cast: Valentina Zenere, Ana Garibaldi, Erica de Sautu Riestra, Camila Peralta, Carolina Ramírez, Carla Pandolfi, Ana Rujas, Juan Molina, Julieta Ruiz, Cecilia Rossetto, Rita Cortes, Gerardo Romano