General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

The Innocent

The Innocent (Spanish: El inocente) is a 2021 Spanish thriller miniseries created and directed by Oriol Paulo for Netflix, adapted from Harlan Coben's 2005 novel of the same name. It follows Mateo, an ex-convict who accidentally killed a man while breaking up a fight, whose rebuilt life collapses when a mysterious phone call reaches his wife Olivia's phone.¹ The eight-episode series premiered on Netflix on April 30, 2021.²

Key fact	Detail
Format	Eight-episode Spanish-language miniseries, average runtime 58 minutes, TV-MA rating³^•⁴
Premiere	April 30, 2021, worldwide on Netflix²
Source	Adaptation of Harlan Coben's 2005 novel El inocente; the setting moved from Newark to Barcelona⁵
Creator	Oriol Paulo (Barcelona, 1975), director of Contratiempo (2016), El Cuerpo (2012), and Durante la tormenta (2018)⁶
Lead cast	Mario Casas as Mateo, Aura Garrido as Olivia, Alexandra Jiménez as Lorena, José Coronado as Teo Aguilar⁷
Production	Sospecha Films and Think Studio; filming began November 22, 2019⁶
Reception	100% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (7 reviews); 7.8/10 on IMDb from about 45,000 users²^•⁸

Spoilers

Premise

Nine years before the story begins, Mateo tried to mediate a fight and unintentionally became a homicide perpetrator, serving a four-year prison sentence.¹^•⁹ After his release he rebuilds his life with Olivia, his wife, who is pregnant, and the couple is close to buying their dream house.⁶ A shocking, inexplicable call from Olivia's phone while she is on a business trip destroys his life a second time and sends him on a frantic search for the truth.¹ His innocence is questioned again, this time by Lorena, a police inspector investigating a suicide case.¹

The plot threads of the kidnapping of Olivia and the death of the nun María Luján (Juana Acosta) drive both Mateo's search outside legal channels and a police investigation marked by a jurisdictional rivalry between detective Lorena Ortiz and Teo Aguilar, head of a special crimes unit.¹⁰

Cast and characters

Mario Casas, a Feroz Award winner and Goya nominee for No matarás, plays Mateo, and Aura Garrido plays Olivia.⁷ The supporting cast includes Alexandra Jiménez as Lorena, José Coronado as Aguilar, Martina Gusmán as Kimmy Dale, Juana Acosta as Emma, Gonzalo de Castro as Jaime, Ana Wagner as Sonia, Miki Esparbé as Aníbal, Xavi Sáez as Sáez, Anna Alarcón as Zoe, and Susi Sánchez in a special collaboration as Sister Irene.⁷

Production and adaptation

Netflix announced the series on November 22, 2019, the day filming began, as a coproduction of Sospecha and Think Studio with scripts by Oriol Paulo, Jordi Vallejo, and Guillem Clúa.⁶ Executive producers are Oriol Paulo, Sandra Hermida, Jesús de la Vega, Eneko Lizarraga, Belén Atienza, Laura Rubirola, and Harlan Coben.⁷

The series belongs to Coben's 2018 five-year agreement with Netflix, under which fourteen of his novels would become films or series; El inocente was the fourth such production, after Safe (2018, United Kingdom), The Stranger (2020, United Kingdom), and The Woods (2020, Poland).¹⁰ Coben said in a 2021 interview that the worst adaptations are the ones that are too faithful, and the series relocates the novel's action from Newark to Barcelona.⁵

Filming locations

The series was shot around Barcelona and nearby towns including Sabadell, Terrassa, Granollers, and Manresa; the fatal university party sequence was filmed at the Pavelló Municipal d'Esports in Granollers, and a scene in chapter 3 uses the Sabadell Aeroclub.¹¹^•¹² Other locations include the Hyatt Regency Barcelona Tower hotel, the Costa Brava towns of Lloret de Mar (including the Bumpers nightclub) and Sant Pol de Mar, the beach at Playa del Masnou near Mataró where Mateo and Olivia first meet, and Barcelona's El Prat airport.¹¹^•¹³ Producer Sandra Hermida said the locations give each character a socioeconomic and cultural dimension, from legal districts to conflictive police zones to an aspirational residential area in Sant Cugat del Vallès.¹²

Reception

The series holds a 100% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes from seven reviews, with an audience Popcornmeter score of 78%.² On IMDb it rates 7.8/10 from about 45,000 users.⁸ Critics highlighted its structure: each chapter approaches the story like a film, focusing on a different character and adding a piece to the puzzle, in the words of María Juesas of Fotogramas.² A Cinema Express review gave it 4 out of 5, calling it an intricate maze of overlapping events in which every principal character's dark past is revealed through voiceover.⁹ Common Sense Media found the story dense and sophisticated but noted that the series goes on too long and requires close attention to follow its many details.⁴ A review in Espinof, published while the series led Netflix's Spanish viewing charts, praised its constant narrative surprises and technical polish while criticizing the emotional distance of its characters.¹⁴ A 2026 ranking by Tom's Guide placed The Innocent first among all Harlan Coben adaptations on Netflix and Prime Video, citing its 100% Rotten Tomatoes score.¹⁵

Other works titled The Innocent

The title has also been used for other works. The Innocent is a Cold War novel by Ian McEwan; a 2022 study by Ian Tan of the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, analyzed the novel's treatment of trauma and narrative reconstruction.¹⁶ The Innocent (El inocente) is also a 2023 French film directed by Louis Garrel, a caper comedy about an ex-prisoner, his theater-teacher wife, her widowed son, and the son's best friend; it was nominated for eleven César Awards and won for best screenplay and best supporting actress (Noémie Merlant).¹⁷

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Drama and prestige series (individual series) › Crime and thriller series › Psychological and domestic thrillers

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

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