Barcelona’s housing shortage and the struggles of single motherhood form the focus in “I Always Sometimes,” an ambitious new drama series that launched on Movistar Plus+ on 23 April before making its international debut at Canneseries on 25 April. Created by writers Marta Bassols and Marta Loza, the six-episode half-hour series follows Laura, a woman managing motherhood whilst working to obtain budget-friendly housing in a gentrified city. Produced by celebrated filmmakers Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo—known for “Veneno” and “La Mesías”—the drama offers a poignant yet candid exploration of modern economic hardship and the emotional upheaval of young adulthood, grounding its narrative in the authentic challenges facing single mothers and fathers across contemporary Spain.
A Romance That Starts At the Point Where Blissful Finales Diminish
The series begins with a passionate affair that feels destined for success. Laura, a events coordinator from Berlin, encounters Rubén, a Barcelona bar proprietor, at the city’s prestigious Sonar music festival. Their connection is immediate and intoxicating—they spend nights wandering Barcelona’s streets, quoting Rilke to one another, going to raves on Montjuïc, and enjoying intimate moments in chic venues. When Rubén proposes that Laura relocate to live with him, the future appears promising and brimming with potential, the kind of storybook start that viewers 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 struggling with alcohol addiction and unreliability. Forced to abandon her new life, Laura retreats to her parents’ house, where she finds herself caught between thankfulness for their help and overwhelmed by their involvement. The dream has collapsed, leaving her to grapple with the stark realities of single parenthood alone.
- Laura meets Rubén at Sonar festival in Barcelona
- She falls pregnant one week after their initial encounter
- Rubén turns out to be an unreliable and alcohol-dependent partner
- Laura goes back to her family home with infant son Mario
Barcelona’s Gentrification as Character and Crucible
As Laura works to establish a existence for both herself and Mario, Barcelona itself becomes far more than a simple setting—it functions as a character both seductive and hostile, beautiful yet fundamentally hostile to those without considerable wealth. The city that previously enchanted her with its bohemian character and creative vitality now reveals its true face: a city reshaped by unrelenting gentrification, where affordable housing has become a commodity out of reach for regular working people. Every episode title references a separate neighbourhood where Laura and Mario squat, a persistent reminder that home stays perpetually beyond reach. The series captures the cruel irony of a city brimming with wealth and tourism, yet wholly unconcerned with the situation of those unable to afford essential accommodation.
The economic realities Laura encounters are not overstated and entirely typical—they represent the day-to-day reality of countless lone parents across contemporary Spain and Europe. “Rent here is absolutely ridiculous,” she laments to an creative acquaintance. “It’s impossible to locate anything suitable.” His optimistic response—”Nothing’s impossible”—is met with her weary, vehement reply: “Flats in Barcelona are.” This exchange encapsulates the series’ unflinching approach to financial difficulty, declining to soften the blow or provide quick reassurance. Barcelona becomes 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 small child.
The Urban Area’s Paradoxes
Barcelona’s metamorphosis serves as a reflection of wider European metropolitan problems, where historic neighbourhoods are systematically transformed into havens for affluent visitors and global capital. The city that once delivered creative vitality and authentic living now excludes through cost the individuals who define its identity and soul. Laura’s situation is framed by this backdrop of contradiction—living amid wealth yet excluded from it, living in one of Europe’s most desirable cities whilst experiencing homelessness. The series declines to idealise this contradiction, instead showing it as the harsh, demanding reality it truly is for people experiencing gentrification’s aftermath.
What makes “I Always Sometimes” particularly resonant is its foundation within distinctive, familiar Barcelona places that have themselves turned into emblems of the city’s shifting character. Each episode setting—from artistic communes to makeshift solutions with sympathetic friends—maps the terrain of struggle, showing how the city’s most disadvantaged people are driven to its margins and forgotten corners. The juxtaposition of Barcelona’s polished surface and Laura’s fragile situation highlights the series’ main message: that modern cities have turned more hostile to common folk, regardless of their capability, dedication, or resolve.
Creating Episodes As Short Stories
The structural brilliance of “I Always Sometimes” lies in its method of handling serialised narrative, with each of the six instalments functioning as a standalone story whilst developing Laura’s broader arc. Spanning 22 and 35 minutes, the episodes reject traditional television pacing in favour of a literary approach, resembling short stories that examine various aspects of single motherhood and urban precarity. This format allows creators Marta Bassols and Marta Loza to craft scenes between characters with subtlety and complexity, moving beyond the surface-level conclusions that frequently affect contemporary television dramas. Rather than hurrying along narrative devices, the series dwells upon the emotional weight of Laura’s everyday life.
Each episode’s title alludes to a different location where Laura and Mario live briefly, turning geography into narrative form. This geographical mapping becomes a effective narrative technique, charting Laura’s economic decline through Barcelona’s urban terrain whilst simultaneously revealing the hidden networks of collective support and struggle that sustain those on the margins of society. The intimate scale of these episodes—neither wide-ranging nor rushed—enables genuine exploration of how monetary concerns permeates every dimension of life, from romantic relationships to parental impulse. Bassols and Loza’s inaugural screenplay exhibits a developed comprehension of how structure and substance can intertwine to create something genuinely affecting.
- Episodes titled after Laura’s transient residences chart 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 function as representations of financial instability and social invisibility
- Series combines personal scenes with broader critiques of modern city living
Visual Storytelling Throughout Six Different Worlds
The aesthetic approach of “I Always Sometimes” grounds its narrative in the distinct character of Barcelona’s overlooked spaces. Rather than showcasing the city’s postcard vistas, cinematography captures cramped flats, artist squats, and the unglamorous streets where necessity prevails over sightseeing. This deliberate aesthetic choice transforms Barcelona from holiday hotspot into a character itself—one that is at once beautiful and hostile, welcoming and exclusionary. The camera work captures the sense of confinement of shared living arrangements and the weariness visible in Laura’s face as she navigates motherhood without adequate support systems. Every shot underscores the series’ central tension between the urban potential and its failure to fulfil.
Shot across diverse Barcelona locations, the series employs its visual language to chronicle Laura’s psychological and material conditions. Lighter, more expansive environments intermittently break up darker, confined interiors, capturing moments of hope amidst prevailing despair. The visual construction carefully builds each makeshift residence, creating the impression of realistic and worn rather than simple functional spaces. This attention to visual detail extends to costume and styling, where Laura’s look gradually changes to mirror her altered situation—a understated but powerful creative choice that speaks to how financial struggle reshapes identity. The series demonstrates that intimate dramas about ordinary struggles can reach cinematic depth without sacrificing emotional authenticity.
Redefining Motherhood on Screen
“I Always Sometimes” arrives at a point when TV stories about motherhood have grown sanitised and sentimentalised. The show discards such idealistic portrayals, presenting single parenthood as a harsh financial struggle rather than a cause for uplifting inspiration. Laura’s story refuses the conventional arc of hardship-to-success, instead delivering a raw, unflinching portrait of what it involves to raise a child whilst struggling to pay for housing or food. The series acknowledges that affection for one’s child coexists with real frustration towards the structures that render parenthood so precarious. By centring Laura’s weariness and exasperation alongside her tenderness, the series presents a more honest representation of motherhood—one that audiences seldom see in mainstream television.
The collaborative effort between Bassols and Loza brings distinctive authenticity to this portrayal. Both creators understand the specificity of Barcelona’s contemporary struggles, having worked within the city’s creative environment. Their storytelling steers clear of the traps of condescending portrayals of poverty, rather granting Laura depth and autonomy within limited conditions. The series respects its protagonist’s intelligence and resilience without requiring she perform gratitude for basic survival. This layered treatment extends to secondary figures, who stand as complete, developed people rather than mere obstacles or helpers. By approaching single motherhood as worthy of serious artistic focus, “I Always Sometimes” questions the hierarchies that have long privileged certain stories over others in television across Europe.
Financial Considerations and Genuine Value
The dialogue brims with specificity when Laura discusses Barcelona’s lettings sector, transforming economic frustration into powerful character moments. Her cutting comment—”Nothing’s impossible. Flats in Barcelona are”—captures the series’ rejection of false hope or hollow encouragement. Rather than abstracting poverty, the writing roots it in concrete details: the exact figure of rent demanded, the landlords who prey on vulnerability, the precarious gig work that hardly pays for childcare costs. This focus on economic realism sets apart “I Always Sometimes” from narratives that treat hardship as metaphorical or spiritually enriching. The series grasps that financial precarity shapes every decision in Laura’s day.
Authenticity extends beyond dialogue into the series’ narrative framework. By titling remaining episodes after the locations where Laura temporarily squats, the creators foreground housing as the primary concern of her life. This structural choice transforms geography into narrative structure, making displacement apparent and inescapable. The episode titles serve as a countdown of sorts—each new location representing another provisional arrangement, another near-miss, another reminder of systemic failure. This approach sets apart the series from traditional television 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 illustrate Laura’s temporary accommodation circumstances throughout Barcelona
- Housing expenses and financial obstacles form the central dramatic tension of character development
- Writing emphasises material reality over sentimental narratives about motherhood