With the popularization of TV series such as Money Heist and Narcos, TV series content in Spanish has garnered much attention from all over the world in recent years. In fact, South Korea’s remake of the series Money Heist demonstrates its popularity even in countries where Spanish is a foreign language. Similar attention has been received by telenovelas, soap operas in Spanish, which have become more progressive due to social changes, and have created a new form of genre: the millennial telenovela. The House of Flowers (2018) is a Netflix series created by director Manolo Caro that illustrates this modern form of telenovelas.

The House of Flowers, also known as La casa de las flores, is a Mexican TV series in the genres of black comedy and drama that portrays the life of an upper-class Mexican family who owns a flower shop and a cabaret, both of which are named The House of Flowers. With a total of three seasons and a spinoff movie, the story unfolds the secrets of each member of the family, challenging the stability and the position of its members while dealing with racial, religious, social, and class issues. Not only did the plot gain massive attention, but the unique characters have also made the TV series distinct, even creating a social media challenge when it was first released.

The de la Mora Family

The House of Flowers follows the life of the de la Mora family who belongs to a traditional, upper-class society. This family is made up of the father, the mother, and three siblings: Paulina, Elena, and Julián. One of the key elements of the TV series is characterization. Caro successfully creates a juxtaposition between the characters that range from the traditional to the modern, which keeps the audience entertained. The mother demonstrates a stereotypical conservative and religious character who seeks perfection for her family. However, her hopes to make her family be seen as perfect are ruined when the family’s secrets are revealed. With the discovery of the second House of Flowers by the mother upon the death of the cheating father’s mistress, the family members experience challenges in their relationships, complicating the family dynamic. Unlike the mother, the father is portrayed as a more understanding character despite his likewise conservative nature.

In contrast to their parents, the children are less conservative. For instance, Paulina, Elena, and Julián are in constant search for their sexuality as they go through several issues revolving around family reputation, financial issues, relationships, cheating, and much more. Through this journey of self-discovery, they stumble upon issues such as homophobia and racism. Julián, for example, is in constant debate about his homosexuality, which he has no option but to hide due to the fear of becoming an outcast. Julián’s fear of revealing his sexuality, reflects the real challenge that homosexual people face living in a conservative environment. Moreover, Caro attempts to represent the LGBTQ community by portraying homosexual and transexual characters throughout the series.

One of the characters that received the most attention was Paulina, a character played by Cecilia Suárez. Paulina’s character was so popular that there was even a social media challenge inspired by her unique accent called #PaulinaDeLaMoraChallenge where people tried to copy her accent. The popularity even led Netflix to prohibit the actress from using the accent outside of the set. In addition to the attention focused on Paulina, María José Riquelme, a transgender female character in the series, also caught the audiences’ attention. Although there were concerns about the fact that the character was not played by a trans actress, the actor was still successful at portraying the issues that trans women face. In fact, María José was supposed to only appear as a cameo, but her character remained until the very end of the series due to her popularity.

The analyzing of the de la Mora family clearly shows the interesting dynamic of characters whose relationships are fundamental to the understanding and discovery of oneself.  Similar to other telenovelas, the characters’ true self is revealed as more issues emerge and build up on top of one another, until they have no choice but to reveal their deepest secrets.

Central Social Issues

As mentioned, The House of Flowers has elements of a telenovela, which is a TV series usually in Spanish where the conflict is exaggerated to an extent that it not only emphasizes the comedic effect but also stresses the dramatic effect. However, this TV series is not like the classic, old telenovela that has existed for decades, which has been historically targeted for mothers working at home. In contrast to the ones in the past, this modern version of telenovela targets younger people, which is why The House of Flowers explores the different issues that younger people in Mexico face today.

One of the issues that are constantly dealt with are those related to the struggles of sexual minority groups. For instance, María José is constantly judged by her identity as a woman to the point where her skills as a lawyer come into question. Condemnation for racism is another theme that appears in the series. Caro portrays it in a more blatant way by outrightly making older characters exclude Elena’s African American boyfriend due to his skin color. Another issue that appears in the show is that of drugs. Although this is not explored as deeply as sexuality, there are a fair number of problems that emerge in the family due to drugs, showing a modern, more comedic version of drug cartels that audiences might be unfamiliar with. Other than those mentioned the TV series confronts a myriad of other issues such as class disparity, betrayal, social façade, and revenge.

The House of Flowers is a Mexican TV series that includes both traditional and modern aspects of telenovelas, ultimately targeting all kinds of people. The unique characters, storyline, and modern issues dealt with in the series attract the audience, driving them through the journey of each member of the de la Mora family. This TV series signals the beginning of a new era of modern telenovela as a mainstream genre.

Television Series Information

Genre: Millennial telenovela, Black Comedy

Creator: Manolo Caro

Starring: Verónica Castro, Cecilia Suárez, Aislinn Derbez, Dario Yazbek Bernal, Arturo Ríos

Running Time: 27-37 minutes

Streaming Platform: Netflix