Barcelona’s housing crisis and the challenges of single motherhood form the focus in “I Always Sometimes,” an compelling new drama series that launched on Movistar Plus+ on 23 April before premiering internationally at Canneseries on 25 April. Created by writers Marta Bassols and Marta Loza, the six-part half-hour series follows Laura, a woman navigating motherhood whilst working to obtain reasonably priced accommodation in a increasingly gentrified city. Produced by renowned directors Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo—known for “Veneno” and “La Mesías”—the drama presents a touching yet unflinching study of current economic hardship and the emotional turbulence of early adult life, grounding its narrative in the genuine challenges facing single mothers and fathers across present-day Spain.
A Love Story That Begins At the Point Where Blissful Finales Wane
The series begins with a passionate affair that feels destined for success. Laura, a festival organiser from Berlin, encounters Rubén, a Barcelona bar owner, at the city’s renowned Sonar music festival. Their connection is immediate and intoxicating—they spend nights strolling through Barcelona, quoting Rilke to one another, going to raves on Montjuïc, and enjoying intimate moments in stylish locations. When Rubén suggests that Laura move in with him, the outlook seems promising and brimming with potential, the kind of storybook start that audiences recognise from countless romantic narratives.
However, the narrative shifts dramatically and soberly turn in the second episode. Laura finds out she is pregnant just one week after meeting Rubén, a development that fundamentally alters everything. What initially seemed like a romantic partnership quickly unravels when Rubén’s true nature emerges—a man contending with substance abuse and unreliability. Forced to abandon her new life, Laura retreats to her family home, where she finds herself caught between thankfulness for their help and overwhelmed by their involvement. The dream has collapsed, leaving her to face the harsh realities of single parenthood alone.
- Laura encounters Rubén at Sonar music festival in Barcelona
- She falls pregnant a week after their initial encounter
- Rubén proves to be an unreliable, alcohol-dependent partner
- Laura returns to her family home with baby boy Mario
Barcelona’s Gentrification as Character and Crucible
As Laura works to establish a future for herself and Mario, Barcelona itself becomes far more than a simple setting—it functions as a character both alluring and unwelcoming, visually stunning yet fundamentally unwelcoming to those without considerable wealth. The city that previously enchanted her with its artistic charm and creative spirit now shows its genuine nature: a city reshaped by relentless gentrification, where affordable housing has become a privilege beyond reach for typical working-class residents. Every episode title mentions a distinct area where Laura and Mario squat, a ongoing reminder that home stays perpetually beyond reach. The series illustrates the harsh irony of a city brimming with riches and tourism, yet utterly indifferent to the situation of those unable to afford fundamental housing.
The financial circumstances Laura faces are not overstated and entirely typical—they reflect the day-to-day reality of countless lone parents across modern-day Spain and Europe. “Rent here is bloody insane,” she laments to an artist friend. “It’s impossible to find anything.” His hopeful reply—”Nothing’s impossible”—is met with her exhausted, forceful reply: “Flats in Barcelona are.” This exchange encapsulates the series’ unflinching treatment to economic hardship, refusing to soften the blow or offer easy consolation. Barcelona transforms into not a destination of possibility but a gauntlet through which Laura must navigate, balancing her desperate need to generate income with her desire to remain present for her young son.
The City’s Contradictions
Barcelona’s evolution serves as a snapshot of broader European city challenges, where traditional districts are progressively reshaped into playgrounds for wealthy tourists and international investors. The city that once delivered creative vitality and real cultural experience now excludes through cost the residents who create its character and cultural heart. Laura’s plight is positioned within this backdrop of contradiction—living amid wealth yet unable to access it, residing in one of Europe’s most sought-after urban centres whilst facing homelessness. The series declines to idealise this conflict, instead presenting it as the grinding, exhausting reality it actually represents for those caught in gentrification’s wake.
What makes “I Always Sometimes” especially compelling is its foundation within distinctive, familiar Barcelona settings that have themselves turned into emblems of the city’s shifting character. Each scene location—from artistic communes to temporary arrangements with sympathetic friends—maps the geography of desperation, demonstrating the city’s most at-risk residents are driven to its margins and forgotten corners. The juxtaposition of Barcelona’s glittering facade and Laura’s fragile situation underscores the series’ central theme: that contemporary urban centres have grown progressively unwelcoming to common folk, notwithstanding their intelligence, work ethic, or determination.
Developing Episodes As Short Stories
The narrative sophistication of “I Always Sometimes” lies in its approach to serialised narrative, with each of the six episodes functioning as a standalone story whilst developing Laura’s overarching journey. Running between 22 and 35 minutes, the episodes reject conventional TV rhythm in favour of a literary approach, akin to short stories that explore different facets of the challenges of single parenthood and urban instability. This structure allows creators Marta Bassols and Marta Loza to develop scenes between characters with subtlety and complexity, moving beyond the surface-level conclusions that often plague contemporary television dramas. Rather than rushing towards plot mechanics, the series lingers on the emotional weight of Laura’s daily existence.
Each episode’s title alludes to a different place where Laura and Mario temporarily reside, converting geography into narrative form. This geographical mapping becomes a compelling narrative tool, tracing Laura’s economic decline through Barcelona’s landscape whilst simultaneously revealing the unseen connections of solidarity and desperation that maintain those on the margins of society. The close focus of these episodes—neither wide-ranging nor hurried—permits authentic examination of how financial stress permeates every facet of daily living, from romantic relationships to maternal instinct. Bassols and Loza’s writing debut exhibits a developed comprehension of how form and content can intertwine to produce something genuinely affecting.
- Episodes named for Laura’s temporary homes document her unstable living circumstances
- Running times vary between 22 and 35 minutes for adaptable storytelling rhythm
- Episodic format enables more profound character exploration and emotional impact
- Geographic locations become representations of economic displacement and social invisibility
- Series combines intimate moments with wider commentary of modern city living
Visual Storytelling Across Six Worlds
The visual language of “I Always Sometimes” grounds its narrative in the distinct character of Barcelona’s overlooked spaces. Rather than highlighting the city’s postcard vistas, cinematography focuses on tight apartments, artist squats, and the ordinary neighbourhoods where necessity prevails over sightseeing. This intentional visual strategy transforms Barcelona from holiday hotspot into a character itself—one that is at once beautiful and hostile, welcoming and exclusionary. The cinematography conveys the sense of confinement of shared living arrangements and the exhaustion etched into Laura’s face as she navigates motherhood without adequate support systems. Every shot reinforces the core conflict between the urban potential and its refusal to deliver.
Shot across various Barcelona settings, the series employs its visual language to chronicle Laura’s emotional and financial situation. Brighter, more open spaces intermittently break up shadowy, restricted spaces, reflecting moments of hope amidst prevailing despair. The visual construction carefully builds each transient living space, creating the impression of realistic and worn rather than merely functional sets. This attention to visual detail encompasses costume and styling, where Laura’s visual presentation evolves to capture her shifting circumstances—a modest yet significant creative choice that speaks to how material hardship transforms identity. The series demonstrates that personal narratives about ordinary struggles can attain visual sophistication without sacrificing emotional authenticity.
Reshaping Motherhood on Screen
“I Sometimes Always” comes at a point when broadcast depictions about motherhood have become cleaned up and romanticised. The show strips away such sentimental ideas, portraying single parenthood as a grinding economic reality rather than a cause for uplifting inspiration. Laura’s arc rejects the traditional narrative of struggle-to-triumph, instead offering a raw, unflinching portrait of what it entails to care for a child whilst struggling to pay for housing or food. The drama accepts that love for one’s child coexists with authentic anger towards the systems that render parenthood so precarious. By focusing on Laura’s weariness and exasperation combined with her tenderness, the drama models a more honest representation of maternal experience—one that audiences rarely encounter in conventional TV.
The creative partnership between Bassols and Loza brings particular authenticity to this depiction. Both creators understand the specificity of Barcelona’s contemporary struggles, having operated within the city’s cultural landscape. Their writing avoids the traps of patronising depictions of poverty, instead allowing Laura agency and complexity within limited conditions. The series respects its lead character’s intellect and resilience without demanding she display appreciation for basic survival. This layered treatment extends to secondary figures, who emerge as fully realised individuals rather than simple hindrances or helpers. By approaching single motherhood as worthy of serious dramatic attention, “I Always Sometimes” challenges the power structures that have long privileged certain stories over others in European television.
Cost and Legitimacy
The dialogue sparkles with specificity when Laura examines Barcelona’s housing market, converting economic frustration into gripping character moments. Her sharp remark—”Nothing’s impossible. Flats in Barcelona are”—embodies the series’ resistance to false hope or empty reassurance. Rather than treating poverty abstractly, the writing grounds it in concrete details: the exact figure of rent demanded, the landlords who exploit desperation, the precarious gig work that barely covers childcare costs. This commitment to economic realism distinguishes “I Always Sometimes” from accounts that frame hardship as symbolic or morally uplifting. The series grasps that financial precarity influences every choice in Laura’s day.
Authenticity extends beyond dialogue into the series’ structural choices. By titling remaining episodes after the places where Laura temporarily squats, the creators prioritise housing as the primary concern of her life. This structural choice transforms geography into storytelling form, making displacement apparent and inescapable. The episode titles function as a countdown of sorts—each new location representing another provisional arrangement, another close call, another indication of systemic failure. This approach distinguishes the series from conventional drama, which typically subordinates economic concerns to emotional or romantic plotlines. “I Always Sometimes” insists that survival itself constitutes the dramatic core, that the hunt for affordable housing is as compelling as any traditional narrative conflict.
- Episode titles capture Laura’s transient housing situations throughout Barcelona
- Rental costs and economic barriers form the central dramatic tension of character progression
- Writing prioritises tangible lived experience over emotional accounts about motherhood