Infieles, an addictive drama-comedy along the lines of the hit HBO series and ABC’s Desperate Housewives, is well worth watching. Binge-watching, even.
I turned one of my neighbors on to Infieles (Unfaithful) a while back, and she got hooked, binge-watching the entire first season in a few days as I had.
Set in Barcelona, Infieles (filmed in Catalan and dubbed into Spanish for US audiences) revolves around the lives of five close friends — women of various professions, ages, marital status, and the like — who, similar to Sex and the City’s Carrie et al, often have relationship ups and downs, occasionally have rows, and always have each other’s backs when all is said and done.
Lidia (Montse Guallar, El Cor de la Ciutat) is a psychiatrist and widow still mourning the death of her late husband. Cruz (Ingrid Rubio, Velvet) is a married wealth management consultant who hasn’t been able to have a baby. Joana (Montse Germán, Laberint d’ombres) is a housewife tending to her two kids while her husband is working in Argentina. Paula (Sílvia Bel, Xtrems) is a married journalist and wanna-be novelist having an affair. And Arlet (Aina Clotet, Estació d’Enllaç) is a single schoolteacher who blows hot and cold in her relationship with her boyfriend.
We meet them at the wedding of Paula and Marc (Marc Martinez, Nit I Dia), where a surprise guest shows up: Marc #2 (Nacho Fresneda, El Ministerio de Tiempo), who happens to be a guy from Paula’s youth and the love of her life. He’s married, too, but that doesn’t stop them… Yup, they get busy. And they get found out.
Fast forward to a year later, when the gal pals’ lives are about to change forever.
On the verge of her wedding anniversary, Paula learns she needs to have a risky operation, lest a premature death be a certainty. No one aside from Marc #2 knows she’s been having an affair with him at a love nest she bought, and she tries to keep her illness a secret, too… until she can’t… about either of them.
Lidia meets the streetwise Toni (Julio Manrique, Isabel) at a bar one night and brings him home for a night of passion. What she doesn’t know then is that he has a connection to a patient of her late husband Lluis (Francesc Orella, Merlí), who was also a psychiatrist. She also has no clue about where her marriage was headed had Lluis lived, or that Toni will become as important to her as he does.
Cruz’s marriage to Eduard (Joan Carreras, Zoo) is stable and happy, despite multiple miscarriages and his father’s nastiness toward her, until she catches hubby in flagrante delicto with another woman. What’s good for the goose is also good for the gander, or so she thinks. Actually, it is, in one sense, but it’s complicated. Less so is the aftermath of a stunt she pulls at work…
Arlet’s on-again/off-again relationship with clingy boyfriend Victor (Gorka Lasaosa, Los Nuestros) turns into a live-in situation, and the arrangement works enough well until Dani (Dolo Beltrán, Dinamita) ends up staying with them. She’s the five friends’ water aerobics instructor, and it is through her that Arlet discovers attraction can and does happen in a way one might not expect.
As for Joana, she has her hands full with two young children and a husband who’s rarely home. Soon after Francesc (Pere Ventura, El Internado) returns for a visit, she gets wind of something that stirs up her suspicions, and things begin shifting in their relationship. Ditto that for Joana’s friendship with Peter (Andrew Tarbet, The Promise), her hunky American neighbor.
The theme of infidelity runs through each of these women’s stories, and it’s not just about the marital or significant other kind. Overarching all of them is the theme of being true to oneself, in spite of what family, friends, and society would say about one’s choices. (This is brought home in Paula’s storyline.) That Infieles broaches these and other thoughtful subjects without getting heavy about them is one reason I like this series so much.
Another is that the lead characters are relatable and accessible. They are also, in their own ways, strong, as well as fallible, vulnerable, selfish, petulant, dutiful, caring, and loving.
And then there are the Ally McBeal-like fantasy sequences, notably in Joana’s storyline. These are hilarious.
I can’t wait for Seasons 2 and 3 to get here.
Infieles is streaming in the US on Amazon Instant & Prime Video and Hulu, and in the UK on Amazon Instant & Prime Video.
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