Barcelona’s housing shortage 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 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 balancing motherhood whilst striving to find budget-friendly housing in a increasingly gentrified city. Produced by celebrated filmmakers Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo—known for “Veneno” and “La Mesías”—the drama offers a touching yet unflinching exploration of modern economic hardship and the emotional upheaval of early adulthood, rooting its narrative in the authentic challenges facing single mothers and fathers across modern Spain.
A Love Story That Begins At the Point Where Happy Endings Fade
The series begins with a whirlwind romance that feels destined for success. Laura, a events coordinator from Berlin, meets Rubén, a Barcelona bar proprietor, at the city’s renowned Sonar music festival. Their connection is immediate and intoxicating—they pass evenings wandering Barcelona’s streets, quoting Rilke to one another, going to raves on Montjuïc, and sharing intimate experiences in stylish locations. When Rubén proposes that Laura relocate to live with him, the outlook seems promising and brimming with potential, the kind of storybook start that audiences recognise from numerous love stories.
However, the narrative undergoes a dramatic and troubling turn in the second episode. Laura discovers 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 collapsed, leaving her to face the harsh realities of single parenthood alone.
- Laura meets Rubén at Sonar festival in Barcelona
- She falls pregnant one week after their first meeting
- Rubén proves to be an unreliable, alcohol-dependent partner
- Laura returns to her parents’ home with infant son Mario
Barcelona’s Gentrification as Setting and Test Case
As Laura struggles to build a life for herself and Mario, Barcelona itself transforms into far more than a mere backdrop—it develops into a character both alluring and unwelcoming, beautiful yet fundamentally hostile to those without substantial means. The city that once captivated her with its bohemian charm and artistic energy now exposes its reality: a city reshaped by aggressive gentrification, where affordable housing has become a privilege beyond reach for regular working people. Every episode title mentions a separate neighbourhood where Laura and Mario reside, a persistent reminder that home remains perpetually out of grasp. The series captures the cruel irony of a city flooded with wealth and tourism, yet wholly unconcerned with the plight of those struggling to afford basic shelter.
The economic realities Laura faces are not overstated and entirely typical—they reflect the lived experience of countless single parents across contemporary Spain and Europe. “Rent here is absolutely ridiculous,” she laments to an artist friend. “It’s impossible to locate anything suitable.” His hopeful reply—”Nothing’s impossible”—is met with her weary, vehement reply: “Flats in Barcelona are.” This conversation captures 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 navigate, juggling her urgent requirement to generate income with her wish to remain present for her small child.
The Urban Area’s Contrasts
Barcelona’s evolution serves as a reflection of larger-scale European metropolitan problems, where historic neighbourhoods are deliberately converted into destinations for high-spending travellers and global capital. The city that once delivered creative vitality and genuine community life now prices out the individuals who define its identity and soul. Laura’s struggle is framed by this setting of conflict—immersed in wealth yet locked out of it, based in one of Europe’s most coveted metropolises whilst experiencing homelessness. The series resists sentimentalising this tension, instead presenting it as the relentless, draining truth it truly is for individuals affected by gentrification’s wake.
What makes “I Always Sometimes” especially compelling is its foundation within particular, identifiable Barcelona locations that have themselves turned into emblems of the city’s evolving nature. Each episode setting—from creative collectives to makeshift solutions with supportive companions—maps the landscape of hardship, showing how the city’s most disadvantaged people are forced towards its edges and hidden areas. The contrast between Barcelona’s polished surface and Laura’s fragile situation underscores the series’ main message: that present-day cities have become increasingly inhospitable to ordinary people, regardless of their intelligence, work ethic, or determination.
Developing Episodes As Short Stories
The structural brilliance of “I Always Sometimes” resides in its method of handling serialised narrative, with each of the six instalments serving as a standalone story whilst developing Laura’s broader arc. Running between 22 and 35 minutes, the episodes reject traditional television pacing in preference for a literary approach, resembling short stories that examine various aspects of the challenges of single parenthood and urban instability. This format allows creators Marta Bassols and Marta Loza to craft character moments with subtlety and complexity, transcending 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 everyday life.
Each episode’s title draws from a different setting where Laura and Mario stay for a time, transforming geography into storytelling framework. This locational structure becomes a powerful storytelling device, mapping Laura’s downward mobility through Barcelona’s urban terrain whilst concurrently revealing the concealed systems of mutual aid and hardship that maintain those on the margins of society. The personal scope of these episodes—neither expansive nor pressured—enables authentic examination of how economic anxiety seeps into every aspect of existence, from intimate partnerships to maternal instinct. Bassols and Loza’s first written work exhibits a developed comprehension of how form and content can interconnect to generate something deeply resonant.
- Episodes titled after 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 metaphors for financial instability and social marginalisation
- Series combines personal scenes with broader critiques of contemporary urban life
Narrative Through Visuals Across Six Different Worlds
The aesthetic approach of “I Always Sometimes” grounds its narrative in the specific textures of Barcelona’s overlooked spaces. Rather than highlighting the city’s postcard vistas, cinematography captures tight apartments, artist squats, and the unglamorous streets where necessity prevails over sightseeing. This deliberate aesthetic choice reimagines Barcelona from tourist destination into a character itself—one that is simultaneously beautiful and hostile, inviting yet rejecting. The cinematography captures the sense of confinement of shared living arrangements and the weariness visible in Laura’s face as she navigates motherhood lacking proper assistance. Every shot reinforces the core conflict between the city’s promise and its failure to fulfil.
Shot across multiple Barcelona venues, the series leverages its visual style to trace Laura’s psychological and material conditions. Brighter, more open spaces intermittently break up shadowy, restricted spaces, reflecting moments of possibility amid persistent despair. The visual construction meticulously constructs each temporary home, making them feel genuine and inhabited rather than basic utilitarian designs. This focus on visual elements extends to costume and styling, where Laura’s look gradually changes to capture her shifting circumstances—a modest yet significant creative choice that speaks to how material hardship transforms identity. The series proves that personal narratives about everyday hardships can achieve cinematic richness without sacrificing emotional authenticity.
Reshaping Motherhood on Screen
“I Sometimes Always” emerges at a moment when television narratives about motherhood are increasingly cleaned up and romanticised. The series strips away such sentimental ideas, presenting single parenthood as a relentless economic hardship rather than a cause for uplifting inspiration. Laura’s story eschews the traditional narrative of struggle-to-triumph, instead providing a honest, unsparing depiction of what it entails to bring up a child whilst barely able to afford housing or food. The drama accepts that parental love coexists with genuine resentment towards the institutions that leave parenting so uncertain. By centring Laura’s weariness and exasperation combined with her compassion, the series offers a more authentic portrayal of the maternal experience—one that audiences seldom see in standard broadcast programming.
The collaborative effort between Bassols and Loza brings particular authenticity to this depiction. Both creators grasp the particular nuances of Barcelona’s current challenges, having operated within the city’s cultural landscape. Their storytelling avoids the pitfalls of patronising depictions of poverty, rather granting Laura agency and complexity within constrained circumstances. The series respects its protagonist’s intelligence and determination without requiring she perform gratitude for basic survival. This nuanced approach extends to secondary figures, who emerge as complete, developed people rather than mere obstacles or helpers. By treating single motherhood as worthy of serious artistic focus, “I Always Sometimes” questions the power structures that have historically favoured certain stories over others in European television.
Economics and Authenticity
The dialogue brims with specificity when Laura discusses Barcelona’s housing market, turning economic frustration into compelling character moments. Her sharp remark—”Nothing’s impossible. Flats in Barcelona are”—encapsulates the series’ resistance to false hope or hollow encouragement. Rather than abstracting poverty, the writing grounds it in concrete details: the exact figure of rent demanded, the landlords who exploit desperation, the unstable casual employment that barely covers childcare costs. This focus on economic realism separates “I Always Sometimes” from accounts that frame 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’ narrative framework. By titling remaining episodes after the places where Laura temporarily squats, the creators prioritise housing as the central preoccupation of her life. This structural choice transforms geography into storytelling form, making displacement visible and inescapable. The episode titles serve as a countdown of sorts—each new location representing another temporary solution, another near-miss, another reminder of systemic failure. This approach distinguishes 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 across Barcelona
- Rental costs and economic barriers create the dramatic backbone of character progression
- Writing emphasises tangible lived experience over emotional accounts about motherhood