The world can’t get enough of drama, no matter the language it takes place in. In East Asia, dramas from South Korea, Japan, and China have come to dominate the international market, adding to a lengthy selection of English-language content that tends to be available no matter one is. But if there’s one genre that has continued to be iconic for several decades now, it’s Spanish-language telenovelas. Typically from Latin America and the Spanish-speaking world, telenovelas have often been compared to soap operas that can be found on English television platforms. Many of the typical conventions and attitudes found in soap operas can be spotted in telenovelas.
The first telenovelas appeared in Brazil in the early-50s, but not long after their first appearance in the country that they began to appear in other Latin American countries, such as Mexico. Although some say the influence and power behind telenovelas have faded throughout recent years, the genre is still alive and being made into show. Jane the Virgin is the perfect example of what a modern telenovela can look like, updating a television concept, the telenovela, that originated in the fifties decades later. That said, these are the best telenovelas available to watch on Netflix right now.
12 Club de Cuervos
When Club de Cuervos, which is also known in English as Club of Crows, first came out in 2015, it was Netflix’s first Spanish-language original series to land on the platform. Set in a fictional city in Mexico, the series follows a football club based out of that city. The team’s long-time owner has passed away at the beginning of the series, creating a vacuum struggle for who is going to succeed them as the next owner. Two prime candidates, who are siblings, are now fighting over who will have the chance to lead the football team to glory. The show ran for four seasons before concluding its run.
11 Dark Desire
Dark Desire is another one of Netflix’s original Spanish-language series, and it came out during summer 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was still at its height. Maite Perroni stars as Alma Quitana Solares, a law school professor who once had a career in law, but has left it behind in order to teach. She’s married with a child, but isn’t satisfied with the way her husband is acting towards her, and she begins an affair with a student at the school. But when a weekend away ends in tragedy, Alma must confront her life and everything happening around her.
10 The House of Flowers
A unique addition to the telenovela genre because of it how incorporates LGBTQ+ elements and satirizes telenovelas as a whole, The House of Flowers is not to be missed in many people’s deep dive into the genre. The series focuses on a single wealthy Mexican family that owns a struggling cabaret and thriving floristry shop, but when their dirty laundry is aired out for the world to see, they try to lock down their image and get back into the people’s favor. But of course, as this is a telenovela, this won’t be a simple process at all, and there’s going to be immense drama in each character’s storyline, making The House of Flowers a juicy watch.
9 Jane the Virgin
Highly accessible to the English-speaking world because it’s not in Spanish, Jane the Virgin is one of the more popular telenovelas outside Latin America. The series originally aired on The CW back in 2014 and concluded its run five years later, after 100 episodes had been released, due to the series’ popularity. In it, the protagonist Jane has made a vow to her grandmother to remain a virgin, but when a doctor accidentally artificially impregnates her in the middle of a typical checkup, Jane has to deal with the fallout and the consequences of this happening.
8 Ingobernable
Released on Netflix in 2017, Ingobernable begins with a political scandal: the President of Mexico attacks his wife one night, and when she is knocked unconscious by him, she wakes up and is horrified to realize he is dead. The gun that presumably killed him is in her hands, so when she realizes she has probably been framed for his murder, she has to flee to protect to herself from the police and the ensuing chaos that comes with a president’s death. Before all of this happened, she had plans with him to help Mexico become a more peaceful place
7 La Reina Del Sur
Known in English as The Queen of the South, La Reina Del Sur was originally based on a novel of the same name. A young Mexican woman has risen to a position of power, but not in a world where she should belong: drug trafficking. She originally was a naive woman who fell in love with a man who worked for the cartels, but when he is murdered by his employers, she ends up landing back in the same place she was fleeing from. When she ends up losing someone else to the profession, she decides to take matters into her own hands and start her own organization.
6 The Mafia Dolls
Colombia’s The Mafia Dolls originally aired on television in 2009, but was revived almost a decade later to run for a second season. The series ended up running for over a hundred episodes before concluding its run. Set in a fictional Colombian town, five friends increasingly are sucked into the world of cartels and drugs. As it turns out, they have a connection to a big figure in the local drug world, and the fact they keep ending up in certain situations is going to change the life — for the better or worse is what’s to come throughout the series.
5 Luis Miguel
In Luis Miguel, Diego Boneta stars as the iconic singer Luis Miguel. The series is about his life before he became famous, and how he was such a good singer and charismatic even as a young man who hadn’t stepped foot on a stage yet. But by the time he is a teenager, has already established a fanbase and is quite popular with those who know him, and Luis’ father decides his son is going to be a star. So he begins micromanaging his son’s career, which begins to take off to all-new heights, but not without its consequences on his personal life.
4 Elite
Some might find the premise of the Netflix series Elite a familiar one if they watch a lot of school-based dramas. In Elite, a fictional school called Las Encinas is for the upper crusts of society, the cream of the crop, and that creates a lot of competition and judgment between its students. The series focuses on three working class students who are able to attend the school through scholarships, and how they clash with their much wealthier classmates. The show is preparing for its eighth season, and has successfully woven in elements of mystery throughout its storyline to keep it fresh and going.
3 The Marked Heart
A Colombian thriller that was released originally on Netflix, The Marked Heart is not to be missed on one’s viewing of telenovelas. The series opens with a murder: the wife of Simón, the main character, has been killed. A crime syndicate wants her heart to transplant to another person, who is the wife of a wealthy and powerful man. Simón is devastated by his wife’s death and is willing to do whatever it takes to get revenge in her name, so he begins his journey of vengeance. But along the way, he ends up falling in love with the woman who was given his wife’s heart.
2 Rosario Tijeras
A Mexican telenovela, Rosario Tijeras ran for three years across three different seasons. Bárbara de Regil portrays a young student who is promising academically, but succumbs to her circumstances and ends up becoming involved with crime along with her brother. She wants revenge after being raped and living with the knowledge her best friend was murdered, and she is going to achieve it even if it means sacrificing her own life. As the series goes on, the stakes continue to raise higher for her.
1 La Dona
La Dona first began airing in 2016, and is based on a 1929 Venezuelan novel. The protagonist is Altagracia, who is one of the most successful women she knows. She owns what is essentially an empire in the construction world, and has become well know for her personality and beauty, earning her the respect she once didn’t have as a young woman. The show explores what made her into this strong, resilient woman and the traumas that caused her to overcome her situation. The series has run for two seasons.