We are living in the era of the epic. On the silver screen, movies like Dune and The Odyssey are showing just how vast and ambitious storytelling can really be. But on TV, we’re seeing a swing in the opposite direction, with more claustrophobic, smaller-scale stories finding success. The era of Game of Thrones is over, and now, smaller-stakes stories like A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms thrive. One of the most acclaimed new shows of last year, The Pitt, is set entirely in one shift in an ER. But there are still opportunities for feats of epic television, and Netflix proved that with Season 2 of its Spanish-language series One Hundred Years of Solitude, based on Gabriel García Márquez’s classic novel of the same name. In these eight episodes, ending with a feature-length finale, the Buendía family reaches its end not with a bang but with a whimper; but it still makes for one of the most impressive works of television in recent years. Much of Season 2 focuses on the twins, José Arcadio Segundo and Aureliano Segundo. | Netflix The last time we left the Buendías, they were embroiled in a massive conflict in the secluded town of Macondo, but modernity will always beckon. As more and more illegitimate children show up on Ursula’s door from Aureliano, the family gets bigger both in size and grandeur. But the pride goeth before the fall, and the flaws of the family begin shining through. The Colonel is too bloodthirsty, Aureliano Segundo is too lazy, and eventually, Fernanda del Carpio is too pious. But even with all the flaws, the mission of the family to further the town and preserve truth remains. José Arcadio Segundo witnesses a massacre that is quickly swept under the rug, but he dedicates himself to remembering what nobody else can. In this grand house, you either turn evil or you stick to your virtue long enough to go mad. The last gasps of the original story lie in Ursula, who sees how her great-great-grandchildren run around and warns them about the curse she believes she placed on her family by marrying her cousin: if more cousins marry, their child will be born with a pig’s tail. One Hundred Years of Solitude Season 2 sees Macondo go through military conflicts, labor disputes, and more. | NetflixIt sounds outlandish, but if you saw Season 1 of this series, then it feels natural. Márquez’s book is considered a masterwork of the magical realism genre, so surreal and fantastical elements can occur at any time without explanation. One character finds out he can encourage animals to breed when he has intercourse, while another gets research advice from a ghost. Just like in Season 1, the cinematography only highlights the lush worldbuilding. Macondo may not be as flourishing as before, but we still see plenty of visually gorgeous sequences, telling us all we need to know about characters even as we blaze through generation after generation. It all builds up to a tragic, 100-minute finale as the thesis of the book comes into light: Every dream, regardless of whether or not it was achieved, eventually just becomes a memory. We can have huge effects on the world, but over the course of decades, the world takes over. And that’s okay, because it’s not the end result that makes this series so interesting, it’s the 16 episodes that it takes to get there. One Hundred Years of Solitude is now streaming on Netflix.