A young man accused of murder. An obsessed psychiatrist determined to break his silence. A city that watches everything but understands nothing. Muted (El Silencio), the Spanish psychological thriller on Netflix starring Aarón Piper, uses silence as its most unsettling weapon. Set in a cold, surveilled world where every glance is recorded, the miniseries explores how control can look like care—and watching can become manipulation. Tension builds through what remains unsaid.
Among Spanish psychological thrillers like The Snow Girl and Ángela, Muted stands out for its clinical focus and subtle unease. Released in May 2023 and reaching No. 1 in many countries, creator Aitor Gabilondo crafts a taut exploration of guilt, obsession, and redemption.
The lead actor of Muted is Aarón Piper, a beloved face from Élite. Alongside him are Almudena Amor (Ángela), Manu Ríos (also from Élite) and Cristina Kovani. A disturbing and magnetic story that confirms the strength of the contemporary Spanish thriller on Netflix.
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Muted – All the Details
- Title: Muted
- Original title: El silencio
- Format: Miniseries
- Episodes: 6
- Genre: Psychological thriller, drama
- Country of production: Spain
- Original language: Spanish
- Release date: May 19, 2023
- Direction / Creation: Aitor Gabilondo
- Main cast: Aarón Piper, Almudena Amor, Manu Ríos, Cristina Kovani, Ramiro Blas
- Production: Alea Media / Netflix
What Muted is About
After six years in detention for the alleged murder of his parents, Sergio Ciscar is released into a world that still fears him – and where he has never spoken a word about what really happened that night. His silence becomes both mystery and menace.
Psychiatrist Ana Dussuel sees him as the perfect subject for a radical experiment. From a hidden control room, she and her team monitor his every move through a network of cameras, tracking his gestures, habits, and micro-expressions to determine whether he remains a threat. But as curiosity turns into fixation, the line between science and obsession vanishes, and the watcher becomes part of the watched. In Muted, silence isn’t empty – it’s dangerous.
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The title itself is the key to the story. Silence, though not constant in form, runs through all six episodes like an invisible current. Sergio’s choice not to speak for six years defines both his identity and the narrative’s tension. His muteness is pierced only by the voice of psychiatrist Ana Dussuel and by the rare confidences he shares with a girl he met in prison – fleeting moments that reveal more through restraint than confession.
Over time, this silence grows louder, transforming from absence into presence, from mystery into menace. The viewer is left suspended between empathy and suspicion, torn between believing Sergio’s calm or fearing what it hides. The series plays precisely on that uncertainty – did he really kill his parents, and if so, why? – keeping the question alive until the final episode. That lingering doubt may well be its greatest strength. (Spoiler with the ending explained below.)
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Muted – Voyeurism and Surveillance
One of the central themes of Muted is voyeurism, explored in a distinctly modern key. What begins as a clinical experiment soon mutates into obsession: psychiatrist Ana Dussuel, charged with observing Sergio’s behavior, becomes ensnared in her own network of control.
The reference to Rear Window is inevitable – but here “looking beyond” takes on a digital, omnipresent form. The cameras spying on Sergio become a metaphor for a world where every gesture can be observed, analyzed, and manipulated. Like in The Woman in the Window or the Brazilian hit show Lady Voyeur, the boundary between observer and observed dissolves, – and the watcher becomes a prisoner of their own gaze.
The dark, rain-soaked atmosphere and cold geometric cinematography evoke the precision of Nordic thrillers, amplifying the story’s sense of alienation. Everything in Muted feels studied, controlled, and unnervingly symmetrical – and within that visual rigidity lies its real statement: true silence isn’t the absence of sound, but the erosion of freedom.
Muted – Cast and Characters
At the center of Muted is Aarón Piper, who sheds his teen idol image from Élite to bring to life Sergio Ciscar, an enigmatic and tormented young man. Piper builds the character more through body language and gaze than words: his silence becomes both a form of resistance and guilt. It is a mature performance marking his definitive transformation from adolescent face to lead in contemporary Spanish psychological thrillers.
Beside him is Almudena Amor, one of the most versatile actresses of the new Spanish generation: following breakthrough roles in El buen patrón (alongside Javier Bardem) and La abuela, in Muted she confirms her talent for portraying complex and tormented female characters. In this series, she plays Ana Dussuel, a young psychiatrist who observes Sergio from a distance and gradually becomes his emotional prisoner, torn between professional ethics and obsessive curiosity. Her gaze, often more eloquent than dialogue, becomes the emotional key of the series.
Another familiar face from Élite returns in Muted: Manu Ríos, here in a more mature and dramatic role than those that made him famous. He plays Marta’s boyfriend, the young woman who becomes Sergio’s apparent love interest but also a breaking point in the plot. His character embodies the desire for freedom and fear of control, two forces that run throughout the series. As in Élite, his figure combines charisma and fragility, but in Muted he finds a more adult dimension where attraction and guilt intertwine inseparably.
Cristina Kovani and Ramiro Blas complete the cast, delivering performances that enrich the moral and relational context of the story, where every character reflects a different form of control or fear.
Muted – What Critics Say (and Our Opinion)
Upon release, Muted received mixed reviews from Spanish and international press. The series was praised for its tense atmosphere and polished cinematography but criticized for the slow narrative pace and some writing choices considered unconvincing. Various outlets – from La Vanguardia to The Guardian – recognized the intensity of the finale and the courage with which it tackles themes like manipulation and surveillance, while describing it as a “cold” and at times “mechanical” story.
At Streamingmania, we see Muted as a deliberately detached experiment, one where emotional emptiness and visual control are not flaws but the very fabric of its message. This isn’t a thriller propelled by speed or shocking twists, but by underlying tension, by glances and pauses that often say more than words.
It may be imperfect – uneven in rhythm and sometimes overly clinical – yet it leaves behind a lingering unease, a resonance that stays with the viewer long after the final scene. In that discomfort lies its strength. Muted aligns with the Spanish tradition of psychological thrillers, but filters it through a colder, more cerebral lens. What remains is a series that dares to whisper rather than shout – and in doing so, turns silence itself into the loudest sound.
The Ending Explained (Warning: Spoilers)
The final episode is the most anguishing in the series and finally reveals the truth behind Sergio’s silence. After five episodes of mounting tension, Ana goes to the young man’s home and reveals a shocking personal connection: she is the adoptive mother of Noa, Sergio’s little sister, who was taken away after the murder.
The confrontation between the two reveals how thin the line is between care and dependency. Ana, now overwhelmed by an ambiguous feeling towards her “patient,” tries to reunite the siblings, but the truth emerges only when Noa recounts what she saw as a child: it was Sergio himself, in a rage attack, who killed their parents.
In the tragic epilogue, Sergio – aware of his act and the pain it caused – throws himself from the balcony from which he had pushed his parents years before. Ana, left alone and broken, follows him with her gaze in one of the series’ most symbolic sequences, hinting at a mirrored fate and a circular closure. Muted ends thus, consistent with its poetry: silence is not the absence of sound but the absence of peace.
Where Muted Was Filmed
Filming mainly took place in the Basque Country, with locations in Bilbao and surroundings. The urban, often rainy aesthetic helps build a sense of isolation and emotional tension that accompanies the entire narrative.
Why Watch It
If you enjoyed The Snow Girl or Ángela, this is a Spanish series to catch up on: a psychological thriller that doesn’t shout but digs deep. It talks about control, fear, and gaze – and leaves an echo that lingers after the credits roll.
Muted – Netflix Release Date
Available now. Muted is already streaming on Netflix. Release date: May 19, 2023.Watch on Netflix.
Watch the Trailer
Here is the official trailer to get into the atmosphere of Muted.
