Stream It or Skip It?
Welp, Valeria DIDN’T end with its third season like it was reportedly supposed to, as Netflix greenlit a six-episode this-time-we-promise final season a year ago. And so season four of this genial Spanish Sex and the City wannabe is upon us, hopefully granting happily-ever-afters – or at least happily-enough-ever-afters, if we’re being realistic, which this glossy series really isn’t – to Valeria and her three besties, who we catch up with roughly a year after the events of season three, and find smack in the middle of something best described as Cohabitation Follies.
Opening Shot: A closeup of Val (Diana Gomez) as she narrates right at us: “It all begins 11 months after Carmen and Borja’s wedding.”
The Gist: Val continues with the voiceover ketchup: Nerea (Teresa Riott) is in love with Georgina (Mima Riera), and their relationship is going smashingly. Lola (Silma Lopez) and her younger beau Rai (Jose Pastor) are official, and he spends all his time at her place. Carmen (Paula Malia) and Borja (Juanlu Gonzalez) had a baby boy, prompting them to move to a new place, and as it goes with new parents, they don’t get out very much these days.
As for Val? She and Bruno (Federico Aguado) are doing the long-distance-relationship thing, and it’s going perfectly… OK. They tend to… sit around a lot. Reading quietly, things like that. And for someone whose writing is fueled by relationship drama, Val sits at her computer and stares at a blank space that should have much more of her novel in it. Her editor thinks Val should just, you know, write fiction. Make things up. If her real life isn’t saucy enough, well, too bad. She’s got a job to do.
Val struggles with that, though. She finds it easier to try to rediscover the “chispa” – spark – between her and Bruno. He arrives for the weekend and she attempts to seduce him with a little roleplay action, but it falls flat – she pretends to be a stranger buying him wine in the local cafe, but he’s pooped from the trip and just wants some coffee. We watch as they sit across from each other, staring at their laptops. She pretends to write (“fjadiajf;lasjfdo;asjf;lsda” is all that comes out) while he actually writes. Something has to HAPPEN here before Val loses it.
Meanwhile, Lola is in line for a promotion at work, and is partnered with a gent who, you might notice, is an attractive fella – hmm – and she also goes home to find Rai entertaining a zillion children after she forgot that his studio space is being renovated. Narea looks for a new place to live, and she’s hinting real hard that she’d like Georgina to move in with her – but does she want to? And Carmen, well, her boob is always falling out. That’s what happens when you’re nursing. She’s starting to go nuts being home all the time, and wants to go back to work so badly, she stuffs Borja’s head under her skirt (it’s the kid’s naptime, phew) so she can secretly read over his advertising pitches.
Val, bored and fidgety, sits across from Bruno. Pching! They’re invited to Lola’s for dinner. Bruno is in the middle of this thing and so he stays behind and when Val shows up solo, she learns that Lola invited – gasp – Victor (Maxi Iglesias). Apparently, Lola and Narea and Brujo and everybody spends time with the guy who pulled out her heart and salt-and-peppered it and stomped it and grilled it and fed it to the gerbils. Awkward! They were friends with the guy too, but kept it a secret to preserve her feelings. Then she goes back home to Bruno, who has good news: He sold a script, and he’s going to move to Madrid for work. They can be boring together all the time now! Yay! Right? Yay?
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? And Just Like That, this series will be over.
Our Take: Valeria is like eating delicious rich fatty hors d’oeuvres for dinner: It tastes great but probably is better if you don’t make a meal out of it. The performances crackle, the production values are slick and vibrant, the situations are familiar but funny and ultimately relatable. The series works through and celebrates its characters’ individual foibles, and brings us along on their paths to, hopefully, a bit of happiness. It’s so eminently watchable, it’s almost sickening.
That’s a compliment. This deep into the series – a sizable hit in Spain and a pile of other international markets – who’s going to turn away from six more episodes? Valeria is light enough on its feet that it’ll never get dramatically entrenched to the point where it can’t leap ahead a year and present its characters with a fresh set of problems to overcome; there are no happily ever afters, you know. It’s like real life in that fundamental way (even if it’s so bright and shiny and about people with enough money to live somewhat extravagant lives smack in the heart of a rather, shall we say, cost-y urban center), and that’s why it’s so good at what it does.
Sex and Skin: Plenty in this series. Plenty. In this particular episode, though? Carmen’s unclothed boob, the naughty under-the-skirt bit.
Parting Shot: Fresh off the GOOD NEWS from Bruno, Val slugs down an entire glass of wine.
Sleeper Star: The little girl who tugs on Lola’s pants and says she has to poop. You get the sense that Lola fears nothing – except this.
Most Pilot-y Line: Val’s editor sums it all up: “Look, I’m thrilled you’re all so happy. It’s great for your personal life, but not for your novel.”
Our Call: Who doesn’t want to see how Val and Carmen and Nerea and Lola’s sexy existences turn out after this new set of hurdles? It’s satisfying viewing, and pretty much guaranteed to rack up some numbers for Netflix. STREAM IT.
John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
