Here are 12 recent Spanish-language TV series worth watching

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One of the more welcome aspects of the streaming era is the vast number of series seeking and reflecting a global audience. Subtitles are no longer deal breakers if you’re looking for quality television that showcases a range of stories, actors and perspectives. Good TV is good TV, no matter its language of origin.

Whether you’re looking to supplement your daily Duolingo lessons or are eager to enjoy some of the best productions from Colombia, Mexico, Spain and beyond, here’s a guide to a few Spanish-language series that have arrived in 2024 across some of your favorite streaming platforms that are worthy of your time.

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Familiar faces

‘Betty, la fea: The Story Continues’ (‘Betty, la fea: la historia continúa’)

A woman sits at a desk with a pink high heel as four people stand behind her.

Few television shows have had the global impact “Yo Soy Betty, la fea” had upon its release. The Colombian telenovela has been remade in more than 20 languages and spawned a spinoff and even a children’s animated series. With the entire original cast on board — including Ana María Orozco and Jorge Enrique Abello, the central lovebirds of the 1999 series — this much-anticipated sequel found the once ugly duckling turned high fashion exec separating from the rake of a man she’d once swooned over. Gleefully undoing the happily ever after of the series and, in turn, adding a complicated relationship between Betty and her fashion designer-in-the-making daughter, this return to the hallways of Ecomoda keeps the broad comedy of the OG series intact while ushering in Betty into the brave new feminist world of the 21st century. (Streaming on Prime Video)

‘Land of Women’ (‘Tierra de mujeres’)

Three women sitting on a bed look at one another.

For their first Apple TV+ series, the creators of “Gran Hotel,” “Velvet” and “Cable Girls” offered up what they’ve long been known for: a visually sumptuous production whose romantic yarn keeps you hooked from episode to episode. Eva Longoria stars as Gala, a woman who has to flee to the small Spanish town that her mother left decades ago in search of a future away from her swindling husband. There she faces a family history she didn’t know she’d been encouraged to outrun; meanwhile, she’s also trying to modernize the local female-led winery — a goal made all the harder by the rake of a man who helps run it, whom Gala can’t seem to get away from. Co-starring Pedro Almodóvar muse Carmen Maura and the dashing Santiago Cabrera, “Land of Women” offers up the gorgeous vistas of Spain’s wine country as backdrop for a romcom made for the entire family. (Streaming on Apple TV+)

‘Zorro’

A man in black hat, mask and clothing staring directly in front of him.

There are few characters as iconic as Zorro. Created in 1919, the famed 19th century California vigilante is best known for his sword fighting and signature black mask; he’s arguably a pioneering caped crusader. Over the last century, he has endured because the character captures a clashing of worlds at a time when Los Angeles was in its infancy; it’s a story ripe for reinvention. For this latest iteration that was released in January, the masked defender of the defenseless is portrayed by “Élite’s” own Miguel Bernardeau, whose Diego de la Vega is recruited to become the next in line to don the iconic outfit. Only for Diego that responsibility comes with a dose of righteous revenge as he hopes to bring to justice those who killed his parents. In the process of this period adventure drama, of course, he’ll grow into the hero he was always destined to become. (Streaming on Prime Video)

‘La Máquina’

Five men sit at a long table covered in a red tablecloth during a news conference.

Any time Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal reunite on screen is cause for celebration. The “Y tu mamá también” actors have both enjoyed enviable careers since that Oscar-nominated 2001 film, on screens both big and small. This time around, García Bernal plays the titular aging boxer who’s egged on to continue vying for glory in the ring by his longtime manager (Luna). But as La Máquina readies himself for a comeback he may be too old to achieve, boxer and manager alike soon find themselves in a twisty plot that reveals the rampant corruption that rules the sporting world the two have lived in for decades. A portrait of a fraught but loving friendship as well as a scathing commentary on contemporary Mexico, “La Máquina” serves as another reminder that these two bring out the best in each other. (Streaming on Hulu)

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Inspired by true events

‘Women in Blue’ (‘Las Azules’ )

Four women in bright blue police uniforms walk down a cobblestone pathway.

The only thing more narratively enticing than recounting the story of four women who enlist in Mexico’s first-ever all-female police squad (known as “las azules” for the color of their uniforms) is setting such a fanciful real-life tale against the backdrop of a serial killer case — one that plays well to the four cops-in-trainings’ strengths. The series is equal parts police procedural and biting feminist commentary. At every turn, these policewomen are underestimated and undermined in equal measure by the men who’ve created their police pilot program as a mere publicity stunt. If this 1970 period piece feels timely, it is because of how accurately it depicts a society that finds little value in women in positions to change the very circumstances they’re trying to correct, escape and even survive. (Streaming on Apple TV+)

‘Coppola, the Agent’ (‘Coppola, el representante’ )

Behind every great man lies, sometimes, an equally eccentric man worthy of his own miniseries. That’s the case in this sporting drama centered not on Diego Maradona, but on the man in charge of keeping the famed Argentine soccer player’s affairs in order. With his frizzy white hair and a predilection for the flamboyant, Guillermo Coppola (Juan Minujín) is presented here like a partying ladies man who knows exactly how to leverage Maradona’s stardom for his own benefit: by leaning into the grandiose and the outlandish, living loudly and extravagantly for all to notice. That came with its own challenges, as this historical drama shows, especially as Coppola struggled to keep his lavish lifestyle, and that of the global sporting superstar, in check as their fame and fortune made them ever more reckless. (Streaming on Hulu)

‘The Hijacking of Flight 601’ (‘Secuestro al vuelo 601’)

A flight attendant looks at a man in a maroon suit and tie with a gun in his waistband.

On Wednesday, May 30, 1973, a plane leaving Pereira, Colombia, took off with little fanfare. But by the time the flight was over the Andes Mountains on its regular route, two armed men stormed the cockpit in what was to become one of the longest air hijackings in Latin America history. It was also one of the most bizarre, involving a pair of soccer players and endless protracted negotiations with Colombian officials. Retelling that headline-grabbing story within the trappings of a pulse-pounding episodic thriller, this Netflix miniseries directed by C.S. Prince and Pablo González (“The Great Heist”) captures the tension brought on by the two hijackers, whose two requests were the release of dozens of political prisoners by the Colombian government and $200,000 in cash. (Streaming on Netflix)

‘Midnight Family’ (‘Familia de Medianoche’)

A boy and a young man sit in the edge of the back entrance of an ambulance.

Audiences at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival were greeted by a knockout documentary directed by Luke Lorentzen. Shot mostly at night in Mexico City, the film chronicled the Ochoa family, which owned and operated a private ambulance in the bustling city. Following the family members as they responded to emergency calls they hoped would turn into profitable exploits (they’re seen often asking bleeding patients if they can afford their care), the documentary has now been adapted into an Apple TV+ series of the same name. Starring Renata Vaca, Joaquín Cosio and Diego Calva, the series is centered on Marigaby Tamayo (Vaca) as she juggles her medical studies by day and her family’s ambulance business by night — all while laying bare a broken healthcare system in one of the busiest cities in the world. (Streaming on Apple TV+)

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Contemporary issues

‘Breathless’ (‘Respira’)

A group of doctors with dirty, bloodied scrubs stand in a hallway.

The medical drama has long been a staple of episodic TV precisely because it allows audiences entry into one of the most dramatic spaces you can dream up — a hospital — and the one depicted in this Spanish drama plays backdrop both to pressing medical issues and broader political ones. As the Joaquín Sorolla public hospital faces more budgetary cuts that keep its doctors and nurses at their wits’ end, a presidential visit looks to upend its fate. A strike is called and the public health workers have to stand up for what they believe in, even if it means leaving that politician adrift as she is dealing with a troubling diagnosis of her own. From the creator of “Élite” and starring Manu Ríos and Blanca Suárez, this series is a high-stakes take on a well-worn genre that’s as timely as it is thrilling. (Streaming on Netflix)

‘Raising Voices’ (‘Ni una más’ )

A girl stand in front of gateway with a banner hanging above it.

It’s fitting that a “Skam España” alum would headline a provocative, school-set #MeToo-themed miniseries like this one. In this adaptation of Miguel Sáez Carral’s novel of the same name, Nicole Wallace plays Alma, a rabble-rouser who sets off an escalating series of events when she unfurls a giant banner at her private school that reads, in scarlet letters, no less: “Watch out, there is a rapist hiding in there!” The accusation, vague if pointed, rocks her school — and the friendships Alma had long treasured. It prompts, in turn, an intriguing interrogation of what sexual abuse victims — especially those who are already cast off as outsiders like Alma — endure when they want to tell the truth and own their story. (Streaming on Netflix)

‘Six Is Not a Crowd’ (‘Felices los 6’)

Romantic comedies have historically, perhaps even exclusively, been about finding the one. But what happens when you want to keep looking? Or, as it happens to Damián (Nicolás Furtado), you find out the person you wish was your one (that’d be Delfina Chaves’ Carolina) isn’t content to be part of a traditional twosome? As it turns out, she’s part of a polycule, a word and concept that will have him questioning everything he’s ever thought about what it means to commit to one another (emphasis on the one). And, yes, that does involve meeting the other folks Carolina is involved with sexually and romantically. Polyamory, as this Argentine comedy series showcases, is ripe for examination. This show upends what audiences can expect from modern rom-coms and what anyone can expect from modern relationships. (Streaming on Max)

‘Red Queen’ (‘Reina Roja’)

A woman in with bangs and shoulder-length dark hair stares ahead.

Antonia Scott (Vicky Luengo) is the smartest person in the world. She is also, as so often happens in procedural thrillers of this kind, the only person who may be able to help solve a string of disturbing crimes rippling all over Spain. The globetrotting series depends on an ultrastealth secret agent program — are there any other kinds? — that pairs Antonia with a grump of a cop (Hovik Keuchkerian), who is recruited to keep her safe as she tries to figure out whether a figure from her past has come back to haunt and maybe even destroy her. In the spirit of well-worn spy capers, but with a welcome twist on Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous detective (Antonia may well be a modern-day Sherlock), this adaptation of Juan Gómez-Jurado’s novels is a binge-worthy watch designed to keep you at the edge of your seat. (Streaming on Prime Video)

From ‘La Máquina’ to ‘Reina Roja,’ here are 12 Spanish-language TV series worth watching

Familiar faces

Inspired by true events

Contemporary issues

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