Today marks one of the first days this summer where I haven’t had family in town or been traveling–ahhh, summertime! One of my goals for this summer is to devour another tv series in Spanish in order to give my listening skills a boost and just to enjoy the story. Having lived with an exchange student from Spain this past year, I recognized how much my vocabulary and comprehension improved as a result of the tv shows I have watched over the last couple of years. Interestingly, our student hadn’t seen several of them and so we watched some together. She also introduced us to some of her favorite shows in English that we hadn’t seen. 🙂
While we actually watch very little TV in our house, we have found several series that we enjoy. If you are looking for a new series, here is a brief rundown of some shows to consider: (I’ve finished the series marked with *)
- *Gran Hotel (Netflix): kind of like Downton Abbey with a murder mystery thrown in. Lots of actors from Internado & other shows on this list. Could be used in some classes; show has ended. Find episode guides for class by Mike Peto here.
- *Sin Identidad (atresplayer): not for class, but compelling plot around deceitful identity theft in Franco’s regime and how that plays out in modern times. Human trafficking is a theme woven throughout the show. Both primary actors are also in Gran Hotel. Show has ended.
- Velvet (Netflix): probably not for class, but excellent and fascinating show that is kind of like Mad Men of fashion in Spain. Several actors from Internado & Gran Hotel star in this show, and it is still running. I still have a season to go on this one.
- *El Tiempo Entre Costuras (Netflix): not for class use. Set in the early days of the Spanish Civil War, most of the action is set in Morocco.
- the show I started today: El Ministerio del Tiempo (DVD’s from Amazon, or stream it here) Intriguing premise of fantasy/time travel that aims to prevent people from changing the outcomes of history. I’ve already seen some old “friends” from other shows, and I wish this had English subtitles so that my husband could watch it with me easily. This show is still in active production, and I had high hopes for being able to use it–or at least clips–with an advanced class due to its rich cultural & historical background. The first 44 minutes of the first episode were all good… and then there had to be a naked woman to ruin it for consideration at school. Nonetheless, I’m excited for episode 2. The premise for the show seems similar to the new show coming this fall called Timeless. The creator of EMdT reacted to that claim here.
What are you watching this summer?
Aventuras Nuevas 
Bajo Sospecha with Yon González (Iván from Internado) is great. It has 2 seasons so far and is still in production. I watch it on Antena 3’s (Network in Spain) Atresplayer. I think you have to subscribe to watch it for 4 euros per month. It works out to be about $4.50 a month, but well worth it since you can access all sorts of other shows they offer. You can pay via PayPal, which makes it easy to cancel as well.
I am watching El secretario–a soap from Colombia. Funny and the Spanish is much different from Velvet and Gran Hotel. Not really appropriate for classroom use–the cheating boyfriend with the Argentine accent is one heck of a player!