After overcoming lengthy legal disputes, Prime Video has finally released all six episodes of Menem: The President Show, the political drama about the late former Argentine president, Carlos Saúl Menem, “El Turco,” who served as President of Argentina twice, from 1989 to 1999.

The series follows Menem’s path to the Casa Rosada and the essential milestones of his first term in office. Created by Mariano Valera (Insânia) and directed by Ariel Winograd (Coppola, El Representante) and Fernando Alcalde (Justicia Santa), the production invites debate on the Riojan leader’s legacy, including his fondness for women, luxury, and sparkling wine.

While the show does take liberties with historical facts, it certainly give us the opportunity to pull back the curtain on political power, and get a small taste of El Turco’s whims, his private struggles, and his triumphs and mistakes. It’s all told from the point of view of the official Casa Rosada photographer Olegario Salas, (a fictional character played by Juan Minujín). His lens offers a nuanced examination of the government and its excesses, as he and his family respond to the events as they unfold.

“The series was made with the idea of getting younger people hooked. It’s not a documentary series of Menem’s life, but a fictional series and that’s why some people are angry,” Zulema Menem, the former president’s daughter, told CNN Radio Argentina. Certainly, the filmmakers’ loose adaptation combines historical analysis with creative storytelling, a playful tone, and exaggerated and acidic humor.

“Follow Me, I Will Not Let You Down!”

In Argentina, Carlos Menem is synonymous with polarization and a whole decade of history. Lawyer, governor, President, and a native of the arid and mountainous northern province of La Rioja, he came to power as a populist caudillo and later devoted himself to governing as a hardened capitalist. His ten years as head of state were characterized by a series of economic reforms, social contrasts, corruption scandals, relationships with celebrities, and countless psychics and tarot readers.

Set in the 1990s, in the times of “pizza with champagne,” Prime Video’s Menem doesn’t ignore its subject’s family life, including his controversial relationship with his wife Zulema Yoma and the dynamics with his children, Zulema and Carlitos. “The series is fundamentally about how to manage something as monstrous as power and how it can consume you,” actor Leonardo Sbaraglia told Urbana Play radio.

The series opens in 1995, with Menem (Sbaraglia) about to be reelected, and plunged into deep grief by the unexpected death of his son, Carlos Menem Jr. (Agustín Sullivan), in an accident that has never been fully clarified. Immediately afterwards, the story goes back eight years, when he was governor of La Rioja with his iconic slogan “¡Síganme, no los voy a defraudar!” The ambitious politician thus begins his path to the presidency, defeating Antonio Cafiero in the internal elections and Eduardo Angeloz in the national ones. From the first episode, we know Menem as a rogue transgressor who pursues power at any cost.

Sbaraglia is at the peak of his faculties, brilliantly playing the enigmatic leader with an accurate Riojan cadence. Griselda Siciliani’s Zulema is wonderfully rough, feisty, and protective of her own.

Throughout its six episodes, the series presents crucial moments of the first part of “the Menemist decade”, ranging from the uprising led by Colonel Mohamed Alí Seineldín, to the bombings of the Israeli Embassy and the AMIA. “The season is structurally conceived as if it were the emotional arc of a movie, in which the character starts in one way and is modified at the moment in which the mask falls off,” Winograd told Página12.

Bouncing between light-heartedness and cynicism, screenwriter Mariana Levy (El Presidente) and her team explore the power relations, strategic alliances, and frictions that defined the Menem government and the opposition, highlighting the dangers of unchecked power and the human cost of unbridled ambition.

As usual, Winograd and Alcalde direct with provocation, while Natalia Mendiburu, in charge of production design, authentically recreates historical details, capturing the cultural essence of Argentina in the 90s.

In each of the episodes, artistic directors and set designers delve into emblematic scenarios of La Rioja (Anillaco, Chuquis, and the Anguinán Aerodrome) and Buenos Aires to convincingly portray one of the most unlikely presidencies in Argentinian democracy.

So, Should I Watch It?

Praised by Clarín as a “sharp portrait of the times,” Menem is one of Prime Video Latin America’s best works this year. Those with no cultural ties to Argentina may have a hard time keeping up, but with a little patience, the series becomes accessible and seductive. Those with closer ties will find a lot to discuss. With inspired performances, compelling production, and an acidly funny tone, Menem invites you to visit, understand, and satirize Argentina of thirty years ago.