If you’re struggling with the lengthy wait for the upcoming medical drama series Pulse, we have another Netflix show that you need to watch in the meantime. Respira (or Breathless in English) is Netflix’s first hospital drama in Spain, and since its debut on August 30, it’s been flying up the streamer’s top 10 non-English TV shows chart.
Created by Carlos Montero, who was also behind Netflix’s long-running teen drama series Elite, Breathless is a medical drama that follows the doctors and residents at fictional Joaquin Sorolla Public Hospital as they deal with the arrival of a high-profile patient.
“Joaquín Sorolla is much more than a public hospital in Valencia where lives are saved on a daily basis,” reads Netflix’s synopsis of the Spanish series. “Doctors and residents work hard in the frenetic pace of the emergency room, where tensions, emotions and even desire accelerate the hearts of a staff who live increasingly on the edge.”
Najwa Nimri (La casa de papel, Sagrada Familia), Aitana Sánchez Gijón (Madres paralelas, La Regenta), Blanca Suárez (Las chicas del cable, Jaguar), Manu Ríos (Élite, El silencio), Alfonso Bassave (Stockholm), and Borja Luna (Cristo y Rey, Sin huellas) star in the series.
It’s unclear whether or not there will be any more seasons of the show, but the early returns are looking good. That said, reviews are fairly mixed. Decider says that while there is nothing wrong with the show, “it’s nothing we haven’t seen dozens of times before.” You probably shouldn’t go in expecting Breathless to reinvent the wheel.
Then again, there were some rave reviews for the show on social media:
You can now stream all eight episodes of Breathless on Netflix.
