If you’re looking for something new to watch on Netflix, check out this guest squee from Laura!

Lara is a teacher, feminist, knitter and proud co-parent to the greatest three-legged black cat in the southern hemisphere.

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Note:  To set the scene, play Baccara’s “Yes, Sir, I Can Boogie” while you read this review.

Oh, Bitches of the Bitchery, do I have a treat for you. Do you like drama? Do you demand a happy(ish) ending? Do you long for drag queens? Do you like a twisty pretzel of a plot? Would you like your characters to be so well-dressed it hurts to look upon their sartorial magnificence?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of the above, I humbly present for your consideration… La Casa de las Flores. My reckless and rash Netflix habit has brought this show into my life and I am so much the richer for it.

The setting is a wealthy suburb in Mexico. The lawns are green, the staff are loyal (yes, there are staff) and the money flows down these golden streets in (almost) never-ending rivers. Into this lavish setting, we place Ernesto and Virginia de la Mora. Together, they run a flower shop called “La Casa de las Flores”. Along with their three children, they are the perfect family.

This façade holds for all of the first 10 seconds of the first episode. Then, Roberta, a former employee of La Casa de las Flores and Ernesto’s mistress of the last 20 years, kills herself in the flower shop during Ernesto’s birthday party. I! Know! We are now the grand total of 1 minute into the first episode.

The de la Mora children are a wonder. First, Paulina, mother to Bruno, and stealer of my heart. She is a loyal, steadfast ally – more so to her dad than her mom, which her mother does NOT take well. Paulina has an interesting relationship with her ex-husband, Jose Maria / Maria Jose. (To give you an idea of how fantastic Paulina is, one of the drag queens is named after her – but more on that later!)

There is a middle daughter, Elena. She has been living in New York and has returned home with her African-American fiancé. Nobody knows that he is her fiancé, but she’ll get the courage together to tell her family eventually. Her story line – blessedly – does get a bit more exciting that just a secret fiancé.

The only son, Julian, is feckless and clueless but you can’t help but forgive him. He is in a relationship with Lucía (a blonde socialite – they have sex EVERYWHERE – most notably on a public squash court). However, the real love of his life is Diego, the financial adviser to the de la Mora family. Diego and Julian have been in a relationship for 5 years. Julian’s parents have no idea he is gay. Again, we’re not even 10 minutes into the first episode.

In Julian-adjacent news, this man is involved in an interesting subplot… NOT what you might be thinking.

There are also Roberta’s children: Claudio and Micaela…one of whom is Ernesto’s child. Roberta and Ernesto (along with the loyal Paulina) have been running the other La Casa de las Flores – a drag queen revue bar.

There is also an astounding, glorious cast of supporting characters, including: La Chiquis! Dr Salomón Cohen! Chuy! Carmelita!

Most of this detail is revealed in the first 30 minute episode. There are SO. MANY. MORE. twists and turns to this plot. It is not a case of the remaining 12 episodes simply untying this initial knot of circumstances. Oh no. So many more things go wrong and right and weird for the de la Mora family. This show had me gasping and begging for more. There is no news yet on whether there will be a second season, but surely IF THERE IS ANY JUSTICE IN THE WORLD there will be a second season.

A note on subtitles. The show is filmed in Spanish. I am very grateful that I watched it in the original Spanish with English subtitles. For research purposes, I re-watched the first episode dubbed into English. It is was a horror, if only because the glory and wonder of Paulina’s expression is totally lost in English.

The storyline itself is progressive and positive and D!R!A!M!A!T!I!C! and wonderful! The soundtrack has fostered in me a deep love for Spanish-language music, especially that which is played in drag queen revue bars or sung by Virginia de la Mora in her massive Mercedes Benz while crying. There is an official Spotify playlist of all the songs in the show.

Living in southern Africa, my knowledge and experience of telenovellas is minimal. For me, La Casa de las Flores, is what I would like telenovelas to be: drama-filled, plenty of romance, progressive values, a family holding together, and drag queens. At the end of season 1, some of the plotlines are tied up in neat bows, while others are left dangling into an unknown future. I did find this lack of resolution frustrating, but only because I cared so deeply for the characters and wanted them to be happy. The season finale combines: HFN, HEA, and HU (happiness unknown). Side note: Please let there be a season 2!

In terms of plot points that might hurt or trigger viewers, the most likely trigger can be found in the first minute of the pilot: Roberta’s suicide. The tongue-in-cheek, satirical feel of the show puts a completely different spin on what in the real world is a tremendously painful event. The characters always feel like characters – they are a story book creation, quite separate from real life. Yet, the magic of the show is that the characters are so finely wrought that you feel connected to them, while they remain story book figures.