General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

Hache (2019 TV series)

Hache is a Spanish crime thriller television series created and written by Verónica Fernández for Netflix, set in the Barcelona of the early 1960s and centered on heroin trafficking. It follows Helena, a prostitute who rises from a minor role in a mafia gang to seize control of its heroin operation, and it is inspired by real events.¹ The series premiered on November 1, 2019, ran for two seasons, and was canceled in 2021 without a third season.²^•³

Key fact	Detail
Original run	Season 1 premiered November 1, 2019; season 2 premiered February 5, 2021²
Status	Canceled after 2 seasons; Netflix confirmed no season 3³^•⁴
Creator / director	Created and written by Verónica Fernández; directed by Jorge Torregrossa¹
Production company	Weekend Studio, led by Tomás Cimadevilla and Jorge Iglesias⁵
Main cast	Adriana Ugarte (Helena), Javier Rey (Malpica), Eduardo Noriega (Alejandro Vinuesa), Marc Martínez (Arístides), Pep Ambròs (Julio Senovilla)¹
Setting	Barcelona in the early 1960s, during the rise of heroin trafficking¹
Ratings	IMDb 6.5/10; Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer 75%; TVMaze 6.8/10⁶^•⁷

Spoilers

Premise and setting

The story takes place in the Barcelona of 1960, in a criminal underworld far from the elites of the Franco dictatorship. Helena, played by Adriana Ugarte, begins as a prostitute and a pawn in the hands of Malpica (Javier Rey), head of a gangster band operating in the city. A steep and hazardous learning curve takes her from the lowest rung of the organization to the top, where she seizes control of the heroin operation.¹

Opposing the gang is the newly established Narcotics Brigade, led by inspector Alejandro Vinuesa (Eduardo Noriega), with his partner Eladio Pérez (Josep Julien) and Commissioner Clemente Larrubia (Àlex Casanovas). Vinuesa arrives in Barcelona from Madrid to investigate a powder whose nature and origin the police do not yet know; Noriega explained in interviews that Spain at the time had neither recreational heroin use nor drug trafficking as known phenomena.¹^•⁸

At the center of the story is The Albatross Club, a nightclub that serves as the operations center for Malpica's gang. Celeste (Ingrid Rubio) runs the club, and its main musical attraction is the singer Julia Bloomsbury, played by the British actress Tonia Richardson, accompanied by the pianist Ramiro Larrocha (Toni Zenet).¹

The series is inspired by real events. Actor Pep Ambròs told the Catalan news agency ACN that Barcelona in the late 1950s and early 1960s "was a commercial port for heroin that arrived from Italy and went to the United States," a fact he said would surprise many people.⁸ The show's premise also gives Malpica a commercial deal with the gangster Lucky Luciano.⁹

Production and release

Netflix announced the series on June 18, 2018, in Madrid, as a global original starring Adriana Ugarte and Javier Rey, created and written by Verónica Fernández, and produced by Weekend Studio. The announcement described it as an eight-episode thriller of 60 minutes each, to premiere in more than 190 countries in 2019.⁵ Erik Barmack, then Netflix's Vice President of International Originals, said the company was ready to add Hache to its growing list of Spanish series intended for global audiences.⁵

Season 1 debuted on November 1, 2019 with eight episodes. The series was renewed quickly after the first season, and season 2 arrived on February 5, 2021.²^•⁴ Listings disagree on the season 2 episode count: several databases record six episodes in season 2 and fourteen in total,³^•¹⁰ while Netflix's own page lists sixteen episodes and JustWatch lists eight episodes in each season.¹¹^•¹² Episode length is likewise reported as roughly 45 minutes by streaming guides and 50 minutes by FormulaTV, against the 60 minutes stated at announcement.¹²^•²

Cancellation

In July 2021, Netflix confirmed to the outlet What's on Netflix that Hache would not return for a third season, even though season 2 had deliberately set one up. The site reported that the show had become one of the highest-rated Spanish series on Netflix among viewers worldwide.⁴

Reception

Audience scores have been moderate. IMDb users rate the series 6.5/10 from about 2,100 votes, TVMaze gives it 6.8/10, and the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer stands at 75% from a small number of reviews.⁶^•⁷ Spanish critical reception was cooler: HobbyConsolas's reviewer gave it 50/100, calling it the third Spanish Netflix original (after Las chicas del cable and Alta mar) and criticizing the historical production design and the performances, while praising the real story that inspired it and the soundtrack.¹³ A later retrospective in the Italian press described the series as underrated, reading it as a portrait of a society marked by dictatorship, social change, and poverty rather than only a crime story.¹⁴

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026