Spanish language soap operas anyone?

[BathFullOfEels]

In the first lockdown I started learning Spanish with Duolingo. I quite enjoyed it but after a while it demanded too much concentration and after home schooling kids, juggling work etc. I just found if too much.

As another lockdown looks imminent I thought I’d try and practice some again. I thought I’d I watched some Spanish/ Mexican soap operas I might learn some through osmosis somehow. But I don’t know where to start. Any recommendations? The more ridiculous, the better.

La casa de las flores, Mexican melodrama (paulina is great!), check the plot as it should come with a trigger warning.
Money heist will improve your ability to swear.

Club de cuervos (adult half siblings inherit a football club) I gave up with that one but enjoyed the spinoff about Hugo, can't remember what it was called now.

All on netflix.

2nd that recommendation. Paulina speaks the slowest Spanish you'll ever hear
Money Heist is brilliant. Both are adult material really.

Watch Money Heist in the original Spanish.
I haven't found anything on Netflix to live up to it.

The spinoff was "la balada de hugo sanchez"

Grand Hotel. Although its entirely possible I've misremembered the language.

If you are looking for ridiculous but not confined to soap operas, then Pedro Almodovar films will do nicely. Some available via Curzon Home Cinema.

All About My Mother tops the list.

Oh brilliant, thanks everyone.

whatsouldphylliscranedo tbh I’m unlikely to notice if it’s the wrong language. I just want to watch absolute trash but feel superior about it by convincing myself that it’s actually educational.

Seconding Grand Hotel. Amazing and lush period drama, a tiny bit like Downton Abbey but also completely bonkers in a good way. Terrific fun and also full of beautiful people.

Hilaria Baldwin - the mini series.

Aida is a brilliant and very long running soap opera from Spain. It’s definitely worth a watch!

La Reina Del Sur is on Netflix. It’s about a woman who takes over her dead husband’s drug empire and is set in Mexico and Southern Spain. Very trashy and addictive.

Elite is very good. It’s kind of a Spanish Gossip Girl, and if you start watching those sorts of shows, Netflix will recommend new ones to you until the end of time.

Worth remembering though, if you watch telenovelas they’re usually in different accents and dialects. Some of them can be harder to follow than others.

Wasn't the original Ugly Betty in Spanish?

Great recommendations thanks!

Grand Hotel and Velvet on Netflix!

Aida and La que se avecina are also brilliant and super funny, but the language is very casual like people would speak on the streets. It's the current slang, lots of swearing included and they speak VERY fast (contrary to the former 2, which are period series with "1900 upper class" Spanish).

Also, bear in mind the differences between Spanish from Spain (Castilian) and Latin America are huge. The accent is completely different and some words have opposite translations in Spain/Mexico/South America. If you stick to Netflix you should be fairly safe as they mostly use internationally-accepted words so you won't get too confused. You probably won't notice either way but I'm a language nerd as you can see, and Spanish is my first language

@Nunoftheother

Wasn't the original Ugly Betty in Spanish?

Yes it was! Original version is Colombian but many Spanish-speaking countries made their own version too.

The best of the best is the Colombian “Betty la fea”

It’s fab