VALERIA S3: On Meh Endings, Getting Older, and Saying Goodbye to this Brightly Hued, Women-Centric, Sex Positive, Friendship Forward Universe

I am slightly bereft that there will be no more Valeria after this season. And yes, of course some of that has to do with the Genetically Blessed Faces that have graced its seasons, but most of it is due to the buoyant friendship of the four protagonists. Parts of this season felt a bit rushed or compressed—like they were trying to cram whole relationships into the span of an episode and a half—and I had some notes on the ending, but as a whole it still won me over and left me wishing I could spend more time in this brightly hued, sex positive, women-centric, and friendship forward universe. 

The four friends are on the cusp of entering new phases of their lives. Phases still filled with plenty of steamy sexscapades, but also defined by getting ma’amed (or señora-ed, more accurately), cleaning to the music they used to party to, and generally growing closer to middle age. Valeria is trying out a sort of undefined relationship with Victor where they have a lot of sex and don’t put expectations on each other, and it’s really, clearly not at all working for her, but she’s trying to persevere because that’s what we do when we want something to work so very badly, even when we know it’s doomed.

Not to worry, though, as you may remember at the end of the last season there was the suggestion of another man blowing her way when her agent talks about the author Bruno Aguilar (Federico Aguado) and then we see his boots exit an elevator just as Valeria steps onto a different one—all very mysterious and fate-filled, but also pointedly clear where it’s headed. This season their fates are tied by a blue couch that’s involved in a bridge collapse and major traffic tie up. Meanwhile, her non-relationship-relationship with Victor is undone by a blue bra entangled in a sofa and single post-coital exclamatory word. Bruno is so wholly different from Victor—interested in a long-term monogamous relationship, uninterested in cat and mouse games, forthright about his feelings—that it took my brain some time to adjust to the idea of him, which wasn’t helped by the fact that there just wasn’t much time in the series to get to know him. I ended up feeling kind of wary about his perfectly reasonable overtures toward Valeria simply because he still felt like an unknown quantity. Plus, there wasn’t enough time for Valeria to have space simply for herself. Because of the constraints of the final season—and the way they wanted the narrative to flow—she had to leap from one man to the next with nary space for a heavy sigh betwixt the two. It felt like there should have been more breathing room for her to just be, to exist, to grow with her friends, and to write without interruption.

Carmen, on the other hand, is nalgas deep in planning her wedding, with Nerea hired as the official planner and her fiance Borjas’s mother onboard as the unofficial arbiter of every-fricking-thing, but there seems to be a disconnect between Carmen’s mouth and everyone’s ears when it comes to the communication of what she actually wants. If you yourself have ever tried to plan a wedding that sits outside the traditional box, you might well feel seen. The part where she tries on wedding dresses in front of her friends particularly on point and Paula Malia deserves all the credit for squeezing just enough humor out of ill-suited bridal confections without making it seem slapstick or cheesy. Carmen also has aspirations at work that conflict with the traditional track for a mujer getting married and maybe having a family, and the way show’s creators reconcile that situation feels slightly stilted, but also so deeply gratifying that I didn’t even care. Borja and Carmen epitomize the couple that complete each other’s weird and support each other’s quests and find balance in their roles, both at home and at work. Is it idealized a bit because this is a television series? Sure, but it represents a healthy relationship of two people who have found something that works for them, and I like it.

Nerea is very busy clearly lying to her friends about her living situation and lying to herself about  what she wants in a girlfriend. She’s gotten herself on the apps, as they say, and has her perfect partner all picked out, down to the last itemized detail. But is that really what she actually needs? Oh, most definitely not. We know this because a messy, brash photographer named Georgina (Mima Riera) shows up on the scene who pushes all of Nerea’s buttons, including that button, and there is only so long this woman can deny what’s right in front of her always slightly pinched face. I enjoy that they haven’t let Nerea lose her fussy, pija self over the seasons, but they have also allowed her to grow into a more nuanced and layered character. It’s realistic that she would still struggle to be fully vulnerable with her friends, but would gradually allow them to see more and more of her rougher edges and gooey insides. 

Also struggling with confronting some relationship realities is Lola. She meets a much (MUCH!) younger guy named Rai (José Pastor) who is very interested in her, but not for just sex, which she finds confusing and kind of worrisome. At first, she can’t get past his age, but of course it’s Rai who ends up being more mature than the long line of older men that Lola has fumbled through in the past. She’ll have to decide if she wants to continue living the wild and free lifestyle of days gone by, or perhaps pack it in for a real and true relationship. As opposed to Valeria’s relationships, which feel squashed into too small a timeframe, Lola’s sometimes felt too stretched out and prolonged to make it fit the eight-episode arc. They kind of had to add some extra drama that didn’t feel entirely natural to me, but perhaps I’m being overly picky here. 

Each season there is an episode about a social issue that feels slightly contrived, but it’s also so relevant and earnest that I’m willing to let it slide. This season, before joining the march for International Women’s Day, the four friends spend time recalling how their first sexual adolescent sexual experiences shaped them as adults. What makes these scenes particularly touching is how the adult friends watch them play out, reacting to the events as they unfold, standing close to their teenage selves and the teenage version of their friends, offering comfort and solace. It elevates the scenes from a kind of after-school-special fare to something much more heartfelt, personal, and intimate. The series uses the same technique in other instances when Valeria, for example, is recalling more recent painful memories. The friends pressing their bodies against the wall in her apartment hallway to stay out of the way as the memory of Valeria and Victor race past, tearing each other’s clothes off in a moment of passion. The friends covering Valeria’s crumpled body with theirs as she lays emotionally broken on her bed after Victor has once again left her apartment. It gives a physical, visual, and emotional meaning to saying you feel someone.

In another episode, before they go en masse for their annual pap smears, which is a helluva bonding experience, the four of them discuss what they each do when they reach climax. Each character gets a small vignette showing her dressed in lingerie, surrounded by balloons, as she masturbates. It’s a sort of throw away scene, except that it normalizes women’s sexual pleasure, individuality, and expression, which makes it a pretty vital part of the series. 

Gah! Look, I can’t believe I’ve forgotten this very important and salient point until now, but Nerea’s hair is mostly back to its Season 1 finery and not that total in between mess of Season 2. There is a scene where she has it straightened, but I’ll give it a pass as some flight of fancy gone bad. What isn’t so much a flight of fancy is how they chose to wrap up this series for Valeria. I mean, I have some NOTES, my friends. Can I share them here without spoilers? Obviously not. But I can say that I felt like they didn’t give her the room she might have needed to soar or other people the particular room they needed to grow and change. For a show that has concerned itself so very much with, erm, satisfying finishes, this one was most certainly not. However, I did learn that I would very much like to have a lunch date with Victor’s mother, who doesn’t hold back on telling her son when he’s being an ass. And also that Borja’s mother leaves us with some pretty sage words of advice about what it means to be in love. For a show that has spent a lot of time focused on steamy sex scenes, vibrators, orgasms, and the like, they clearly leave you with the idea someday all that may well will be stripped away—bodies age, they may become disabled in different ways that don’t always leave room for the same kind of physical passion—and the devotion, loyalty, friendship, and care that endures is love. Proof positive for Valeria and her friends that getting older isn’t all downhill after all. 

Overall Rating on the Chronically Streaming Pain Scale: