Midnight Family, originally titled Familia de medianoche, is based on a documentary of the same name. It tells the story of private ambulances in Mexico City and the part the paramedics riding in them play in life-saving health care. The review is spoiler free. There are many surprises I won’t reveal here.

Midnight Family is a dramatized version of the story. The main character Marigaby (Renata Vaca) was added to the family for this series. It was a good decision to add her character because she makes the drama come alive. Renata Vaca is wonderful in this.

The family includes Marigaby, who rides in the ambulance at night and attends medical school during the day. She’s a gifted paramedic and will be a gifted doctor if she can make it through school with all the other demands on her life. She misses class a lot because of her duties at night.

Marigaby is in love with two guys at once. One is a professor at the university, Dr. Raul Luna (José María de Tavira). She, of course, should not be dating him although he teaches none of her classes. The other guy she’s sweet on is a medical student like herself named Bernardo (Itzan Escamilla).

Marigaby is determined to save everyone she helps. She cannot stand it when she loses someone she’s treated. We see this in important ways as the story progresses.

Ramón (Joaquín Cosio) is head of the family. He’s been driving his private ambulance all his adult life. Now he had a bad heart and never makes enough money.

Marcus (Diego Calva) is the older son. He’s gifted too – as a rapper. He’s working in the ambulance because his dad wants it. He wants to be with his girl Cris (Mariana Gómez) and make a living in music. She wants that, too, but in the United States.

Julio (Sergio Bautista) is still in middle school. He’s almost as good a medic as the adults in the family.

The mother in the family, Lety (Dolores Heredia), left them all behind years ago. She’s now with another man. The family goes through a lengthy reconciliation process during the series. They all want to be on good terms again.

In Mexico City, there are only 100 government ambulances to serve 10 million people. The private ambulance business thrives, but is very competitive. Ambulances race to be first on the scene and don’t want to let anyone out of the ambulance until they’ve been paid for their services. Hospitals and clinics where the patients are taken also pay for the deliveries.

Ramón often helps and delivers people without pay because he’s a kindhearted guy, much to Marcus’s dismay.

Every episode has an exciting emergency. Especially impressive in terms of staging were the fire and the earthquake episodes. Included in the earthquake episode were phone video and pictures of real first responders who rescued people during a real earthquake in Mexico City.

Marigaby saved Nayeli (Yalitza Aparicio) in the earthquake episode. Nayeli was an actress. Marigaby became fond of her and developed a friendship with her. Nayeli helped her clarify what she wanted to do with her life.

Each character had their own private arc and subplot in the series. I thought the character development was very well done. I was glad for the ten episodes in the series, which allowed time to let the characters breathe and be real people.

I found the series compelling and engaging. It was well done in every way. There were many scenes with hundreds of extras and they worked well. All the drone shots of Mexico City at night were a treat. The way the camera followed the ambulance down the roads and freeways gave you a sense of place and the urgency to get around traffic.

There was only one woman director. Natalia Beristain directed three of the ten episodes. The series is streaming on Apple TV+.