Barcelona’s housing crisis and the challenges of single motherhood take centre stage 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-part half-hour series follows Laura, a woman balancing motherhood whilst striving to find affordable housing in a increasingly gentrified city. Produced by acclaimed filmmakers Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo—known for “Veneno” and “La Mesías”—the drama delivers a tender yet honest examination of contemporary financial struggle and the emotional turmoil of young adulthood, anchoring its story in the very real challenges facing lone parents across modern Spain.
A Love Story That Begins Where Joyful Conclusions Diminish
The series begins with a whirlwind romance that feels destined for success. Laura, a festival organiser from Berlin, encounters Rubén, a Barcelona bar proprietor, at the city’s prestigious Sonar music festival. Their bond is instant and captivating—they spend nights wandering Barcelona’s streets, quoting Rilke to one another, going to raves on Montjuïc, and sharing intimate experiences in stylish locations. When Rubén suggests that Laura relocate to live with him, the outlook seems promising and brimming with potential, the kind of fairy-tale beginning 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 deteriorates when Rubén’s true nature emerges—a man contending with substance abuse and unreliability. Forced to relinquish her new beginning, Laura retreats to her family home, where she finds herself caught between appreciation for their backing and stifled by their closeness. The dream has fallen apart, leaving her to face the harsh realities of single parenthood alone.
- Laura meets Rubén at Sonar festival in Barcelona
- She becomes pregnant one week after their initial encounter
- Rubén proves to be an unreliable, alcohol-dependent partner
- Laura goes back to her parents’ home with infant son Mario
Barcelona’s Gentrification as Setting and Test Case
As Laura struggles to build a future for herself and Mario, Barcelona itself becomes far more than a mere backdrop—it emerges as a character both captivating and antagonistic, visually stunning yet fundamentally unwelcoming to those lacking significant financial resources. The city that previously enchanted her with its artistic charm and creative spirit now exposes its reality: a city reshaped by relentless gentrification, where reasonably priced housing has become a commodity out of reach for regular working people. Every episode title mentions a different location where Laura and Mario occupy, a constant reminder that home remains perpetually out of grasp. The series portrays the bitter irony of a city brimming with wealth and tourism, yet utterly indifferent to the situation of those unable to afford essential accommodation.
The financial circumstances Laura encounters are not overstated and entirely typical—they reflect the lived experience of countless lone parents across contemporary Spain and Europe. “Rent here is absolutely ridiculous,” she complains to an artist friend. “It’s impossible to locate anything suitable.” His hopeful reply—”Nothing’s impossible”—is greeted by her weary, vehement reply: “Flats in Barcelona are.” This conversation encapsulates the series’ unflinching approach to economic hardship, declining to soften the blow or offer easy consolation. Barcelona transforms into not a place of opportunity but a gauntlet through which Laura must contend, balancing her desperate need to earn money with her desire to stay involved for her young son.
The Urban Area’s Contradictions
Barcelona’s evolution serves as a snapshot of wider European metropolitan problems, where traditional districts are systematically transformed into playgrounds for wealthy tourists and global capital. The city that once promised creative vitality and authentic living now displaces financially the individuals who create its character and spirit. Laura’s plight is set against this context of paradox—living amid prosperity yet excluded from it, based in one of Europe’s most desirable cities whilst confronting housing insecurity. The series refuses to romanticise this tension, instead showing it as the grinding, exhausting reality it actually represents for those caught in the aftermath of gentrification.
What makes “I Always Sometimes” particularly resonant is its rooting in distinctive, familiar Barcelona places that have themselves turned into emblems of the city’s evolving nature. Each episode setting—from creative collectives to temporary arrangements with sympathetic friends—maps the geography of desperation, showing how the city’s most disadvantaged people are pushed to its margins and forgotten corners. The juxtaposition of Barcelona’s sparkling exterior and Laura’s precarious existence underscores the series’ central theme: that modern cities have grown progressively unwelcoming to ordinary people, notwithstanding their intelligence, work ethic, or determination.
Writing Episodes Like Short Stories
The narrative sophistication of “I Always Sometimes” lies in its approach to serialised narrative, with each of the six instalments serving as a self-contained narrative whilst advancing Laura’s overarching journey. Running between 22 and 35 minutes, the episodes eschew traditional television pacing in preference for a literary approach, akin to short stories that explore different facets of single motherhood and urban precarity. This format allows filmmakers Marta Bassols and Marta Loza to craft scenes between characters with subtlety and complexity, moving beyond the surface-level conclusions that frequently affect modern TV drama. Rather than hurrying along plot mechanics, the series lingers on the emotional texture of Laura’s everyday life.
Each episode’s title references a different location where Laura and Mario stay for a time, turning geography into narrative form. This geographical mapping becomes a compelling narrative tool, charting Laura’s downward mobility through the Barcelona landscape whilst concurrently revealing the hidden networks of collective support and struggle that support those on society’s margins. The intimate scale of these episodes—neither wide-ranging nor pressured—permits genuine exploration of how economic anxiety seeps into every dimension of life, from romantic relationships to maternal instinct. Bassols and Loza’s inaugural screenplay reveals a mature understanding of how structure and substance can intertwine to generate something truly moving.
- Episodes named for Laura’s transient residences document her unstable living circumstances
- Running times vary between 22 and 35 minutes for adaptable storytelling rhythm
- Episodic format allows deeper character development and emotional resonance
- Geographic locations become metaphors for economic displacement and social invisibility
- Series balances personal scenes with broader critiques of modern city living
Narrative Through Visuals 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 iconic landmarks, cinematography captures tight apartments, creative communes, and the ordinary neighbourhoods where necessity prevails over sightseeing. This intentional visual strategy reimagines Barcelona from holiday hotspot into a protagonist—one that is simultaneously alluring yet unwelcoming, inviting yet rejecting. The camera work conveys the claustrophobia of communal spaces and the exhaustion etched into Laura’s face as she navigates motherhood lacking proper assistance. Every shot reinforces the core conflict between the urban potential and its failure to fulfil.
Shot across various Barcelona settings, the series employs its visual language to document Laura’s emotional and material circumstances. Lighter, more expansive environments periodically interrupt darker, confined interiors, capturing moments of optimism within overwhelming sadness. The set design precisely crafts each makeshift residence, rendering them realistic and worn rather than merely functional sets. This focus on visual elements applies to costume and styling, where Laura’s visual presentation evolves to capture her shifting circumstances—a modest yet significant narrative decision that speaks to how material hardship reshapes identity. The series demonstrates that personal narratives about everyday hardships can achieve cinematic richness without compromising emotional truth.
Reshaping Motherhood on Screen
“I Always Sometimes” emerges at a time when television narratives about motherhood have become cleaned up and romanticised. The series removes such idealistic portrayals, presenting single parenthood as a grinding economic reality rather than a wellspring of motivational triumph. Laura’s arc refuses the standard trajectory of hardship-to-success, instead offering a candid, unvarnished picture of what it means to care for a child whilst struggling to pay for housing or food. The show recognises that parental love exists alongside real frustration towards the systems that leave parenting so uncertain. By focusing on Laura’s fatigue and irritation alongside her compassion, the show models a more honest representation of the maternal experience—one that viewers rarely encounter in conventional TV.
The collaborative effort between Bassols and Loza brings particular authenticity to this depiction. Both creators grasp the specificity of Barcelona’s current challenges, having worked within the city’s creative environment. Their storytelling steers clear of the pitfalls of patronising depictions of poverty, rather granting Laura depth and autonomy within constrained circumstances. The series honours its protagonist’s intelligence and determination without demanding she display appreciation for basic survival. This nuanced approach extends to supporting characters, who stand as fully realised individuals rather than simple hindrances or helpers. By approaching single motherhood as worthy of serious artistic focus, “I Always Sometimes” questions the hierarchies that have historically favoured certain stories over others in European television.
Financial Considerations and Genuine Value
The dialogue crackles with specificity when Laura examines Barcelona’s lettings sector, transforming economic frustration into compelling character moments. Her cutting comment—”Nothing’s impossible. Flats in Barcelona are”—embodies the series’ refusal to offer false hope or hollow encouragement. Rather than treating poverty abstractly, the writing roots it in concrete details: the exact figure of rent demanded, the landlords who exploit desperation, the fragile freelance labour that hardly pays for childcare costs. This attention to economic realism sets apart “I Always Sometimes” from narratives that treat hardship as figurative or transcendent. The series recognises 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 locations where Laura briefly resides, the creators foreground housing as the primary concern of her life. This formal decision 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 reminder of systemic failure. This approach distinguishes the series from traditional television drama, which typically relegates 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 conventional dramatic tension.
- Episode titles capture Laura’s temporary accommodation circumstances throughout Barcelona
- Rental costs and economic barriers form the dramatic backbone of character development
- Writing privileges material reality over emotional accounts about motherhood