Exclusive: What’s powering Spanish scripted’s new wave?

Zorras (aka Tramps)

Spain’s scripted industry will launch more than 80 new shows this year, but what’s driving such numbers? Irene Jiménez explores the key trends and titles in the works.

From period drama to thrillers, crime series and biopics, Spain’s scripted industry is sizzling. According to data revealed by government-backed trade body Audiovisual From Spain, up to 83 new Spanish scripted series will be released in 2023, together with 31 returning seasons.

Many of these shows will find their ways to international shores and there are common global trends to be found in Spanish commissions. Period drama, for one, is back worldwide and the Spanish industry is aware.

At the beginning of 2023, public broadcaster RTVE launched The Vow (La Promesa), a daily series set in 1913, a new romantic drama from StudioCanal’s Bambú Producciones that has already been sold to Italy’s Canale 5.

More recently, RTVE greenlit another period drama for its daytime schedule: Mediawan’s Boomerang TV will adapt Tea Rooms, a novel by Spanish author Luisa Carnés, released in 1934 and portraying the life of different women at that time.

After launching the 1946-set The Patients Of Doctor García (Los Pacientes Del Doctor García), co-produced by Diagonal TV (Banijay Iberia) and DeAPlaneta Entertainment, RTVE will explore a risky love story set in wartime, with Operación Barrio Inglés. Produced by Onza, this new primetime drama has spies, Nazis and a British community, all gathered at the same time in 1940 in Huelva, Andalucía, known as the Spanish Casablanca.

Over at Antena 3, the commercial broadcaster and Buendía Estudios are shooting Beguinas, a new drama series inspired by the Beguinatos, female communities that stood for an alternative and marriage-free lifestyle back in the 13th century.

Both companies have also collaborated on Nights In Tefía (Las Noches De Tefía), a period drama mixed with the musical genre and inspired by true events. Between 1954 and 1966, the desert island of Fuerteventura hosted a concentration camp for homosexual men arrested under Franco’s dictatorship. With the aim to survive, a group of prisoners created an imaginary music hall to express themselves through their alter egos. It will be launched on Atresmedia’s streamer Atresplayer Premium during 2023.

Streamers such as Vix have also made moves into period fare: Las Pelotaris 1926 tells the struggle of three female Basque pelota players striving to achieve their dreams in a men’s world. The show is the first to have been originated from the strategic agreement between The Mediapro Studio and TelevisaUnivision’s streaming platform.

The Vow

Calling all crime

Appetite for thrillers and crime series, especially those based on novels, also remains strong and several productions share similar ingredients: an existing best-seller noir trilogy with significant international reach that has a female lead.

First, there’s Netflix’s The Snow Girl, renewed for two more seasons, while Atresmedia’s The Gypsy Bride has its second season coming later this year (to be known as The Purple Network). There is also big budget Amazon Prime Video show Red Queen, which also looks likely to be extended.

Prime Video also has the upcoming Memento Mori, a police thriller based on another trilogy – it will be available in in Spain, Portugal and Andorra – and the streamer has also already shown a sneak preview of The Farads, a new original series set in Marbella in the 1980s, in the heart of a family dedicated to arms trafficking.

Disney+ has also made interesting moves, acquiring Spanish rights to Tú También Lo Harías, a short-form thriller series produced by LA-based Legendary Television and Spain’s Espotlight Media, while Movistar Plus+ is launching the second season of Rapa, a crime series set in a small village in Galicia.

The Mediapro Studio’s most international production, The Head, is another thriller series that could also secure a third season, after being sold to more than 90 territories so far.

For Netflix, its next Spanish thrillers are El Cuerpo En Llamas, which is based on a real crime that happened in 2017 in Barcelona, and Mano De Hierro. The latter is set in the port of Barcelona, one of Europe’s most important entrances in the profitable business of drug trafficking. The streamer is also adapting Mikel Santiago’s bestseller The Last Night At Tremore Beach, set in Ireland and directed by Oriol Paulo.

Cardo

Creative evolution

While scripted series are growing, so are the sources of the ideas behind them. A new generation of Spanish writers is portraying the worries of young people of today, with shows such as Thistle (Cardo). This atmospheric drama focuses on a 30-something-year-old woman who is unhappy with her life, and has been created by Claudia Costafreda and Ana Rujas.

There’s also the continuing Selftape, a semi-autobiographical show created by sisters Mireia and Joana Vilapuig, who shared an acting career in their childhood and now have a complex relationship.

RTVE’s Ser O No Ser (To Be Or Not To Be), meanwhile, follows the emotional journey of a 17-years-old trans boy during his transition. The show has been created by Coral Cruz and will have a second season, while Tramps (Zorras) is an upcoming Atresmedia show about “free women, friendship, self-love and a lot of sex.” It is based on a novel by Noemí Casquet, a popular writer and journalist specialised in sex education who has been deeply involved in the development of the series.

Younger writers are also introducing series that touch on subjects that have been little-explored to date. This Is Not Sweden, a European co-production led by Catalan writers Aina Clotet and Sergi Cameron, will premiere next fall and delves into upbringing and the effects of different approaches.

Work from Series Mania winner and International Emmy-nominated Álvaro Carmona – who was behind People Talking – is also returning to screen, this time with Déjate Ver (Show Yourself), about a young girl who has started to disappear. The short-form series will premiere shortly on Atresplayer Premium, while The Left-handed Son (El Hijo Zurdo), written and directed by Rafael Cobos, and winner of Canneseries 2023, is another Spanish short-form series deserving of recognition.

Among the most valued young Spanish talents are Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi (Veneno), the creators, producers and directors of La Mesías, probably the most ambitious show of Movistar Plus+ in 2023. The series mixes several genres, from thriller to musical, and explores the childhood traumas and religious fanaticism through a wide cast of characters. The creative duo are also responsible for Vestidas De Azul (Dressed In Blue), the continuation of Veneno, focused on a group of six trans women in the 1980s in Spain. It will be launched later this year on Atresplayer Premium.

Balenciaga

Biopics, horror & reboots

After the biopics of singer and composer Miguel Bosé, porn star Nacho Vidal, and controversial 1980s couple Ángel Cristo and Bárbara Rey, the lives of singer Camilo Sesto and haute-couture designer Cristóbal Balenciaga are the next celebrities to be found on screen.

The first show will track how famous singer Sesto tried to bring the risky musical Jesus Christ Superstar to Spain in the 1970s, while Disney’s original drama series Balenciaga will explore what lay behind the Basque fashion genius.

It is not just celebs, however: Bambú Producciones is developing a drama series about the rise and fall of Spanish political party Podemos, while the lives of elite athlete Gervasio Deferr and Second World War spy Juan Pujol ‘Garbo’ will also be featured in coming projects.

Like other countries, Spain is also looking to its film business for inspiration – notably by tapping into the global recognition of Spanish horror movies. Several upcoming series are trying to gain the same recognition for TV, with supernatural terror present in Romancero, a short-form Amazon original set to premiere soon.

There is also the famed 30 Coins, initially an HBO Max original that was created by Álex de la Iglesia, which has a second season coming in October. The filmmaker will also shoot 1992, a new Netflix thriller that mixes suspense and political intrigue about a potential serial killer in Seville. Movistar Plus+ will also explore the horror genre with The Other Side (El Otro Lado), a ghost story that also offers comedy.

Despite the creative surge of original ideas, Spain has not avoided the reboot trend that has hit many other parts of the world. Female-led detective series The Mysteries of Laura (Los Misterios De Laura), superhero dramedy A Normal Family: The Comeback (Los Protegidos: El Regreso), mystery series The Boarding School: Las Cumbres, and iconic horror anthology Stories to Stay Awake (Historias Para No Dormir) have all come back in the last couple of years and dance series UPA Next, whose original edition was sold to more than 60 territories, is also returning.

Romantic dramedy Dates (Citas) also has a new season, with the city of Barcelona as background, and the first spin-off from global hit Money Heist (La Casa De Papel) – to be known as Berlin – is also premiering on Netflix in December. Its success will be closely tracked, despite the proliferation of series set to launch in the coming months as Spain’s scripted industry maintains its resurgence.