General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

The Mess You Leave Behind

The Mess You Leave Behind (El desorden que dejas) is a Spanish psychological thriller limited series created by Carlos Montero for Netflix, adapted from his own 2016 novel of the same name, and released worldwide on December 11, 2020.¹^•² It consists of eight episodes in a single season and was produced by Vaca Films.³ The story follows Raquel, a young literature teacher who takes a substitute post at a high school in the fictional Galician village of Novariz, weeks after the suspicious death of her predecessor Viruca, and begins receiving threats as she investigates.⁴

Key fact	Detail
Original title	El desorden que dejas; English title The Mess You Leave Behind¹
Creator and source	Created, written, and co-directed by Carlos Montero, adapting his novel that won the Premio Primavera (Spring Novel Award) 2016²^•⁵
Format	Limited series, 1 season, 8 episodes, premiered December 11, 2020 on Netflix³
Main cast	Inma Cuesta (Raquel), Bárbara Lennie (Viruca), Tamar Novas (Germán), Arón Piper (Iago), Roberto Enríquez (Mauro)²
Setting and filming	Fictional Novariz in Galicia; shot largely at the IES de Celanova high school and locations in A Coruña, Ourense, and Lugo⁶^•⁷
Production note	Netflix's first series made entirely in Galicia, with roughly 80 to 85 percent of the crew from the region⁸^•⁷
Audience rating	6.8/10 on IMDb from about 12,000 users⁹
Rating	TV-MA (18 certificate in Spain)³

Spoilers

Premise and structure

Raquel (Inma Cuesta) moves with her husband Germán (Tamar Novas) to his childhood home in Galicia after the deaths of her mother and his father, hoping to salvage their marriage, and accepts a substitute teaching position at the local institute.⁴ On her first day she finds a threatening note in her bag reading, in the series' own words, "And you, how long will it take you to die?"² She was not told that the teacher she replaces, Viruca (Bárbara Lennie), died three weeks earlier in circumstances officially treated as suicide; when Viruca's husband Mauro (Roberto Enríquez), a fellow teacher, insists she was killed, Raquel begins her own investigation.⁴^•¹⁰

The story runs on two parallel timelines, weeks apart: the present following Raquel, and flashbacks following Viruca in the period before her death.¹⁰ Netflix's synopsis describes the two timelines as intertwining the stories of the two protagonists, and the parallelism is deliberate, with Raquel's experience of hostile students and mounting threats mirroring Viruca's.¹¹^•¹² Among the students who target Raquel are the wannabe-gangster Iago (Arón Piper), Roi (Roque Ruíz), and Nerea (Isabel Garrido).⁴

Origin as a novel

Carlos Montero, the Galician screenwriter and co-creator of the teen thriller Élite, published the novel El desorden que dejas in 2016, and it won the Premio Primavera de Novela that year.¹³^•⁵ The publisher states the novel had reached more than 100,000 readers by the time the series premiered.⁵ Montero said a film adaptation was first considered, but the arrival of Netflix led to the miniseries format, which let him develop material he had not fully explored in the book; he wrote the adaptation and made his directorial debut on the series.¹³^•¹⁴ He has said that when writing the novel, teachers told him of genuine harassment they experienced, and that bullying of teachers, including cyberbullying, is one of the series' themes.¹³

Galician setting and production

The series was produced by Vaca Films for Netflix and was the platform's first series made entirely in Galicia.²^•¹⁴ Producer Emma Lustres of Vaca Films said about 80 percent of the team were Galician professionals, while a Guardian report on the emerging "Galician noir" genre puts the Galician share of the creative and technical crew at 85 percent.⁷^•⁸

Filming locations. The fictional village of Novariz was inspired by Celanova, Montero's home town in the province of Ourense, and the series' high school is the real IES de Celanova, the public school where the creator studied; some school scenes, such as the teachers' room, were shot at a language school in A Coruña.¹³^•⁶ Shooting also took place at the thermal baths of Ourense, the Cañóns do Sil, Lugo, and a building in central A Coruña used for the final episodes, with production concluding in March 2020.⁷ Montero has said the region's constant rain and fog give the thriller an atmosphere comparable to Swedish or English noir.¹³ The artist Xoel López composed the music for the series' opening.²

Cast

The two leads are actresses with established careers in Spanish film and television: Inma Cuesta (Criminal, Arde Madrid, La novia) as Raquel, and the Goya-winning Bárbara Lennie (Magical Girl, El Reino) as Viruca.¹¹ The supporting cast includes Arón Piper, known from Élite, Roberto Enríquez (Vis a vis, El Embarcadero), and Tamar Novas (Alta Mar, Fariña), alongside Federico Pérez, Susana Dans, Alfonso Agra, Xosé Antonio Touriñán, and the young debutants Roque Ruíz and Isabel Garrido.² Direction is credited to Roger Gual, Sílvia Quer, and Carlos Montero.¹⁵

Reception

On IMDb the series holds a 6.8/10 rating weighted from about 12,000 user ratings, with per-episode scores rising from 6.7 for the premiere to 7.2 for the finale.⁹ The Movie Database lists it at 6.9.¹ Critics were mixed: a Ready Steady Cut review rated it 3 out of 5, calling the mystery decently twisty but criticizing the slow pace, unlikable characters, and the dual-timeline structure, and suggesting eight episodes was a couple too many.¹⁶ Common Sense Media described it as an engaging, slow-paced whodunit that keeps viewers guessing until the end, while flagging strong sexual content, frequent Spanish-language profanity, and depictions of students bullying a teacher; it recommends the series for ages 17 and up.⁴ The series is part of the wave of Galician-set Spanish dramas, alongside Bitter Daisies and La unidad, that streaming platforms have distributed internationally.⁸

Limited-series status

The series was conceived and released as a limited series and did not return for a second season.³^•¹⁷ Montero confirmed in an interview that it was designed to last one season, saying the story had to be closed as the novel was, and contrasting it with Élite, which he wanted to run for many seasons.¹⁷ Rotten Tomatoes lists the show as running two seasons from 2020 to present, which conflicts with the single-season, eight-episode format reported by Netflix listings, IMDb, and the production company.¹⁵^•³

References

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