Top 5 Spanish TV Shows on Netflix (to Learn Spanish Without Leaving Your Sofa)

With so many resources available, you can learn any foreign language you want!

And yet, most language learners choose to learn Spanish.

There must be a reason why Spanish is the most wanted language.

You don’t have to be a linguist or a polyglot to answer this.

Spanish is one of the easiest languages to learn for English, non-English, or any other language speakers.

But, when it comes to actual learning, sitting at the table/laptop, practicing, memorizing, and doing exercises for hours, many learners get one step back. In fact, they make excuses to avoid language lessons.

But, watching movies or TV shows, especially on Netflix, is so entertaining that you won’t make excuses anymore.

Don’t give up on Spanish, not yet, because we have something that can help you learn and chill out at the same time.

Spanish TV shows to learn Spanish on your sofa!

You’ve read that right, and it’s not a trap. Learning a language with movies and TV shows became quite popular. No wonder the positive results are apparent.

To help you with fun Spanish learning, we’ve listed the 10 best Spanish TV shows that can help you learn and have fun.

So, let’s dive in.

The 5 Best Spanish TV Shows on Netflix in 2020

Language learning with Netflix is not only fun but it’s useful, especially if you have friends who can enjoy it with you. In case your friends aren’t fond of watching TV shows, you can always turn to Spanish tutors and discuss the series with them. 

In the following lines, we’ve prepared the 5 best Spanish TV shows you can find on Netflix.

La Casa de Papel (Money Heist)

La Casa de Papel is the most-watched Spanish series in the last century!

The story is set in Spain. It’s about a group of criminals led by a man called The Professor, who is planning the biggest bank robbery in history. They plan to break into the Royal Mint of Spain, steal, and escape with around 2 million euros. During their escape, they have to deal with the police and hostages.

The police investigator, who is in charge of the case, is entirely unaware of this brilliant plan.

What makes this TV show different from other similar ones is that the main characters, the criminals, don’t want to harm anyone. It also shows the reality that the country faces, such as a corrupt system with those who have power.

Improving Spanish vocabulary, especially crime and law phrases is one of the biggest takeaways from this show.

Thanks to the eight-main criminal gang, you can hear different accents because each one of them speaks Spanish with a different accent. Spanish slang words from each episode will make you want to learn even more.

Narcos

Even though Pablo Escobar wasn’t a sweet man, willing to help anyone, he is an interesting figure people want to know more about. That’s why watching the TV show called Narcos is ideal for those who want to dig deeper and find out about Pablo Escobar, his origins, early life, and how he became the head of the narco cartel in Colombia.

You can also see how the drug trade works in Latin America, along with corruption and politics.

Action and drama in one. In the first season, you will get to know Colombia at the time of Pablo Escobar. You’ll also learn about society, people. Later, you will get to know Mexico because the story moves to Mexico.

Spanish is mainly used throughout the whole show, but it isn’t only in Spanish. That’s ideal for beginners because they will get used to the language. They should use English subtitles as well, at least until they learn something more than common Spanish greetings.

If you are watching it on Netflix, you can change the audio language and watch it only in Spanish. It is ideal for intermediate and advanced learners.

Las Chicas del Cable (Cable Girls)

This TV show is full of drama and romance, for the moment, comedy and mystery, too.

It is also the first Netflix original series in Spanish.

It’s the 1920s, and in Spain, Madrid, a giant telecommunication company named ‘Telefónica’ has just appeared in the business’ world. A group of women started to work there as phone operators.

In the show, we can see how these women’s lives change and how their work affects them and their families, and how they want to find their place in their professional world.

They all come from different parts of society, such as a peasant girl, a prostitute, and a lady from the upper class.

There are many interesting phrases you can learn with ‘Las chicas del cable.’

As much as the terms such as ‘Los Derechos Humanos (human rights),’ Mujeres independientes (independent women)’ or ‘Libertar (to set free)’ might not seem important to you but these phrases meant a big deal to people living at that period. Along with many new words and expressions, you will learn about the way of life and society from the 1920s until 1939, when the Spanish civil war ended.

And as for the accent, you will enjoy pure Castilian Spanish. Even verb tenses are used perfectly, so here’s one more chance to repeat subjunctive, in case you struggle with it.

Elite (Elite)

Take a look at the promotional poster for this tv show. What do you think the show is about?

A group of teenagers, probably from elite families, don’t know what to do with their lives because they have everything they want.

Well, partly, yes, it’s true.

What you can’t see from the poster is that this isn’t a typical teenage TV show. It is drama, of course, but it’s also a mystery murder TV show.

Three students from the working class get into a private school. What seemed like an innocent fight ended up with murder. Naturally, everyone is a suspect. Every character is investigated about the murder, and each of them tells a different story about what happened that night.

Here’s one little spoiler: you will never guess who the murderer is.

Besides clear Spanish characters and many useful phrases, you can learn the language with the main actors. After finishing the episode, we suggest taking a look at Netflix's Youtube channel and practicing with actors.

Ingobernable

As many people call this TV show the Mexican House of Cards, it is, like its American equivalent, full of politics, corruption, mystery, and drama.

The president’s women, the First Lady of Mexico, want to fight for peace in the country. She strongly believes that Mexico can become one of the countries everyone would dream of, with a perfect system, no corruption, and people living normal lives.

Nothing is perfect in our lives, so nor in hers. Her husband, the president, mysteriously dies, and she can’t prove that she isn’t responsible for his death.

Even though the story is explained through the American voice, most of the show is in Spanish.

In case you’re an intermediate or advanced student, you can see the differences between Mexican and Spanish spoken in Europe. Maybe it’s not much, but it’s surely enough for a language learner to see how different Spanish dialects work.

Although it is a political drama, you can learn some Mexican slang phrases, too. 

Final Thoughts

Now that you’ve got all the necessary resources, the first thing you have to do is choose which TV show you’ll watch first.

It’s difficult to choose from. If you can’t decide, try counting rhyme ‘eeny, meeny, miny, moe.’

And then, make popcorn, pour coffee, tea, or juice, sit on a sofa, set the subtitles if you are a beginner, or not, if you are a more advanced learner, and press ‘play.’

Enjoy!

And don’t forget to note down some catchy phrases and discuss them with your Spanish tutor.