Welp, Valeria DIDNâT 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 â or at least happily-enough-ever-afters, if weâre being realistic, which this glossy series really isnât â 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.
VALERIA – SEASON 4: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: A closeup of Val (Diana Gomez) as she narrates right at us: âIt all begins 11 months after Carmen and Borjaâs wedding.â
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 donât get out very much these days.
As for Val? She and Bruno (Federico Aguado) are doing the long-distance-relationship thing, and itâs 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 isnât saucy enough, well, too bad. Sheâs got a job to do.
Val struggles with that, though. She finds it easier to try to rediscover the âchispaâ â spark â between her and Bruno. He arrives for the weekend and she attempts to seduce him with a little roleplay action, but it falls flat â she pretends to be a stranger buying him wine in the local cafe, but heâs 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 (âfjadiajf;lasjfdo;asjf;lsdaâ 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 â hmm â 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 sheâs hinting real hard that sheâd like Georgina to move in with her â but does she want to? And Carmen, well, her boob is always falling out. Thatâs what happens when youâre nursing. Sheâs starting to go nuts being home all the time, and wants to go back to work so badly, she stuffs Borjaâs head under her skirt (itâs the kidâs naptime, phew) so she can secretly read over his advertising pitches.
Val, bored and fidgety, sits across from Bruno. Pching! Theyâre invited to Lolaâs 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 â gasp â 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 heâs 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 donât 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 charactersâ individual foibles, and brings us along on their paths to, hopefully, a bit of happiness. Itâs so eminently watchable, itâs almost sickening.
Thatâs a compliment. This deep into the series â a sizable hit in Spain and a pile of other international markets â whoâs going to turn away from six more episodes? Valeria is light enough on its feet that itâll never get dramatically entrenched to the point where it canât leap ahead a year and present its characters with a fresh set of problems to overcome; there are no happily ever afters, you know. Itâs like real life in that fundamental way (even if itâs 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 thatâs why itâs so good at what it does.
Sex and Skin: Plenty in this series. Plenty. In this particular episode, though? Carmenâs 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 Lolaâs pants and says she has to poop. You get the sense that Lola fears nothing â except this.
Most Pilot-y Line: Valâs editor sums it all up: âLook, Iâm thrilled youâre all so happy. Itâs great for your personal life, but not for your novel.â
Our Call: Who doesnât want to see how Val and Carmen and Nerea and Lolaâs sexy existences turn out after this new set of hurdles? Itâs 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.
The post Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Valeria’ Season 4’ on Netflix, the Final 6 Episodes of the Hit Sexy Spanish Sitcom appeared first on Decider.