General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Valeria (2020 TV series)

Valeria is a Spanish comedy-drama television series produced by Plano a Plano for Netflix, based on the four-novel saga that begins with En los zapatos de Valeria (2013) by the Valencian writer Elísabet Benavent. It premiered worldwide on May 8, 2020, and ran for four seasons, ending with a final season released on February 14, 2025.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Premiere	May 8, 2020, worldwide on Netflix¹
Based on	The Valeria novel saga by Elísabet Benavent (Penguin Random House), which had sold nearly a million copies at the time of adaptation; Benavent served as creative consultant¹
Created by	María López Castaño, with Aurora Gracià, Almudena Ocaña, and Fernanda Eguiarte; directed by Inma Torrente and Nely Reguera¹
Main cast	Diana Gómez (Valeria), Silma López (Lola), Paula Malia (Carmen), Teresa Riott (Nerea), Ibrahim Al Shami (Adrián), Maxi Iglesias (Víctor)¹
Season 1	8 episodes of about 50 minutes, rated +18 in Spain³
Run	Four seasons, 2020 to 2025; the fourth and final season has 6 episodes and premiered February 14, 2025²
Setting	Madrid, filmed largely in the city center, including Malasaña, Gran Vía, Chueca, the Templo de Debod, and the Palacio Real³

Spoilers

Premise

The series follows Valeria, a 28-year-old aspiring writer in Madrid who is working on her first novel while suffering writer's block and impostor syndrome. Her creative crisis is compounded by emotional distance from her husband Adrián, a photographer, and the couple faces financial as well as emotional strain. She takes refuge with her three best friends, Lola, Carmen, and Nerea, who are each navigating their own questions of love, work, infidelity, and ambition.¹^•⁴ A mysterious new man, Víctor, complicates Valeria's marriage.¹

Netflix's synopsis frames the show as the story of a writer in creative and romantic crises who finds support from three friends who are also finding themselves.⁵ As the seasons progress, the four friends move into their thirties, and the final season centers Valeria's choice between Víctor and Bruno (Federico Aguado), Carmen's entry into motherhood with Borja (Juanlu González), Nerea's balance between freelance work and her relationship with Georgina (Mima Riera), and Lola's crisis over turning 30 while her partner Rai (José Pastor) is at a different stage of life.²

Origin and production

Elísabet Benavent self-published her first book, En los zapatos de Valeria, on Amazon in 2013, and it became a sales success that led to three sequels completing the saga.⁶^•⁷ By the time of the adaptation, the novels published by Penguin Random House had sold nearly a million copies, and Benavent participated in the first season as a creative consultant.¹ She later became an executive producer on the final season.⁸ In a later interview she said that Valeria was the first series Netflix made from her novels and that the project opened the doors of both the publishing market and Netflix for her.⁹

The first season was written by María López Castaño, Aurora Gracià, Almudena Ocaña, and Fernanda Eguiarte, with Inma Torrente directing five episodes and Nely Reguera three, and César Benítez and López Castaño as executive producers.³^•⁴ The fourth season was written by Marina Pérez and Montaña Marchena, directed by Laura M. Campos and Marina Pérez, and executive produced by Pérez, Ángel Armada, and Benavent.²

Casting. Maxi Iglesias, who plays Víctor, said in 2025 that he was not the first choice for the role. He offered himself for the part in 2018 after followers on Instagram told him they pictured him as Víctor when reading the books; he was initially rejected, and, according to the actor, scenes of the first season were recorded with another performer before his incorporation.¹⁰

Release and seasons

The first season premiered globally on Netflix on May 8, 2020, with eight episodes.¹ The second season arrived on August 13, 2021.¹¹ Netflix announced in March 2024 that shooting had begun on a fourth and final season, and the six-episode season premiered on February 14, 2025, Valentine's Day.⁸^•² The Netflix listing carries a TV-MA rating and classifies the series under drama, romance, and comedy.⁵

Madrid as a setting

The series is filmed mainly in Madrid, and an academic study by María José Higueras Ruiz of the University of Salamanca analyzed how the show's images of the city transmit Spanish cultural identity to a global audience through Netflix's international distribution. The study found that exteriors and architecture, venues of economic activity, and identity symbols articulate the characters' personal and professional plots, and concluded that the series offers cultural proximity for local audiences and a tourist image of Madrid.¹² Documented filming locations include central Madrid neighborhoods and landmarks such as Malasaña, Gran Vía, Callao, Chueca, the Templo de Debod, Plaza de Oriente, the Teatro Real, the Palacio Real, and La Latina.³

Reception

Critical response to the first season was mixed. Cineuropa's review by Davide Abbatescianni called it a cheerful and entertaining comedy-drama that is not especially original, noting telenovela-like moments and characters that might deter some viewers.⁴ Several Spanish outlets compared the show to Sex and the City: La Vanguardia wrote that beyond Benavent's novels the reference point is Sex and the City, while Espinof described it as a kind of Spanish version of the American series that did not fully convince.¹³^•¹⁴ FormulaTV praised it as a fresh and fun ode to friendship, sex, and Madrid.¹⁵ Despite the divided reviews, the series topped Netflix's viewing rankings in Spain when it premiered in 2020, and Diana Gómez has said that critics often treated it as a guilty pleasure.¹⁶

The show's endurance is measurable in Benavent's career: after Valeria, Netflix adapted three more of her works, the miniseries Un cuento perfecto, the film Fuimos canciones, and the miniseries Toda la verdad de mis mentiras, making the Valeria adaptation the first of four.⁹^•⁶

References

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