La que se avecina


La que se avecina, originally titled as Atocha 20, is a Spanish television situation comedy created by Alberto Caballero, Laura Caballero and Daniel Deorador. The show is set in Mirador de Montepinar, a condominium located in the suburbs of Madrid. The show is an indirect successor to the Antena 3 comedy Aquí no hay quien viva. The name is a pun on the verb "avecinarse", which means both "become neighbour to" and "approach", and is used in expression la que se avecina meaning "the trouble that is approaching", so it alludes both to being neighbours and the friction that exists between the characters.
La que se avecina debuted on Telecinco, and was later rerun by the same network as well as cable/satellite channels FDF and Comedy Central España. The series debuted on 22 April 2007, the show began to become much more prominent in its third season, becoming one of the most widely watched shows in Spain. Most characters in the show are stereotypical representations of different groups in Spanish society and occasionally pokes fun at Spanish politics.
, La que se avecina is one of the few Spanish television series to have an openly transgender character.

Series overview

The story takes place in a block of relatively luxurious flats. Common themes in the story are the problems faced by people sharing apartments in Spain, the Spanish property bubble, and the hardships faced by young people trying to find a place to live. The block of flats itself is in the outskirts of the city, around 15 minutes from the centre. There are 3 floors, with a total of 10 flats. The residential area also contains a car park, the caretaker's office, commercial spaces and some communal areas.

Cast and characters

Main characters

Starts with the arrival of the new residents into the new block of flats, Mirador de Montepinar. On the top floor, there are two flats, A and B: In flat A live the brothers Sergio and Joaquín Arias. Sergio is an actor by trade and a playboy by nature, while Joaquín is an unlucky-in-love estate agent, constantly battling to keep his job and sell the show flat on the ground floor. In Flat B live Javi Maroto, president of the community, and his wife Lola Trujillo. As president, Javi is often inundated with petty complaints from the residents, who include his parents, Vicente Maroto and Gregoria Gutiérrez, who live below him in apartment 2B. They share a floor with Amador Rivas, Maité Figueroa Espinosa and their three children ; and Germán Palomares, a defaulter whose identity is completely unknown. In flat 1A live Cristina Aguilera, a woman whose wedding was recently called off by her fiancé, who ran off with another woman, and Silvio Ramírez, a gay man from Cuba who often poses as her boyfriend, and even as her fiancé in the final episode. In flat 1B lives Leo Romaní, vice-president of the community who has an on-off relationship with Cristina. In flat 1C live Antonio Recio, a seafood wholesaler, and his wife Berta Escobar. On the ground floor below there are four spaces: flat A is the building's show flat, which is occupied by Izaskun Sagastume and Mari Tere Valverde, a couple of elderly friends who become squatters in the flat and stay using mischievous, and often legally doubtful, means, but end up purchasing the flat for a token sum of 1 euro. In flat B reside Enrique Pastor, a civil servant, his wife Araceli, her mother Rosario, and his teenage son Francisco. They are joined later in the series by Julián, Enrique's father. The two other spaces on the ground floor are occupied by a hairdresser's shop, owned by Araceli and staffed by Fabio Sabatani, a gay Argentine and friend of Silvio, and Sandra Espinosa, a young insecure hairdresser; and the estate agents' office where Joaquín works alongside Eric Cortés and their boss Raquel Villanueva. Other recurring characters are Máximo Ángulo, the community's doorman and husband of Izaskun, and Coque Calatrava, the ex-convict gardener.

Season 2 (2008)

Most of the main characters from season one stay for the second season, although notable departures are Cristina, who left for unknown reasons, Rosario, whose character left due to the death of the actress playing the part, Emma Penella, and Araceli, who left her husband Enrique, who has to look after Fran all by himself. Eric moves into Sergio and Joaquín's apartment, while Raquel, her cousin Nines, and her friend Blanca, all single ladies looking to start a new stage of their lives, move into Cristina and Silvio's old flat after Silvio is evicted. Nines takes on work as a maid in various flats in the building, and in one episode is about to marry Leo before he leaves her at the altar after claiming he's in love with Raquel. A structural change is that the old hairdresser's shop on the ground floor is converted into a bar, called Max & Henry's and run by Maxi and Enrique. In this season, Maxi is come to be seen as a trusted part of the community, being called to for help by many different members of the community. After Javi leaves the post of president in the beginning of the series, Amador takes over the role with Leo remaining as his vice-president. Amador's wife Maité takes the role of "First Lady" seriously, and becomes obsessed with her image, splashing out on luxury items in order to look good despite her own family's crippling financial troubles. In addition to these problems, Amador finds out about his wife's previous infidelity with Sergio, which ultimately leads to their faltering marriage, and in turn leads to him being overthrown as President. Antonio takes over the role of president, with his nemesis Enrique drafted in as his second in command, imposing strict regimes but taking swift, often extreme and legally-dubious decisions.

Season 3 (2009)

This season sees the introduction of several new characters in Mirador de Montepinar. Judith Bécker, an attractive and successful psychologist, moves into the Attic A flat. She becomes part of the circle of friends of the younger group of women in the building, who develop a somewhat fractious relationship with the other, older group of women in the building; and other residents come to Judy for therapy. Another new arrival is Lola's mother, Estela Reynolds, who comes to live with her daughter and son-in-law. Estela is a former actress and her extremely dramatic, loud, crafty, and lustful nature causes plenty of stress both in Javi and Lola's home as well as in the rest of the building. Another new arrival is Antonio and Nina's baby Toñín, who arrives into the world via artificial insemination and a complicated web of blackmail, deceit and lies. Coque, now moonlighting as the doorman after replacing Maxi, starts the series as something of a henchman for the power-mad Antonio before running away with the latter's wife Berta, who after feeling neglected by her husband has an affair with him. Antonio is unaware of this affair as he is too busy in his role as President of the Community, obsessing over tracking down the defaulter Germán Palomares. This obsession gets him and his community into an array of predicaments. Enrique starts the season as Antonio's ally, all the while dreaming of the presidency for himself, which Antonio keeps on promising him, without actually handing it over. Amador, meanwhile, is left without a job after being replaced by a pot plant in his bank, and without money, love and a home as his marriage with Maité remains on the rocks.

Season 4 (2010)

The fourth season starts with a summary of the previous four months, in which Enrique was kidnapped by Germán Palomares, and Coque and Berta lived together in the countryside farming goats. All characters return to Montepinar, and the star-crossed lovers continue their affair. Berta's husband, Antonio, eventually finds out about her affair with Coque when they confess, after months of his investigating and suspecting several other neighbours. At one time he is convinced that Enrique is Berta's lover, and as a result he hires a hitman to kill him, although the hitman ultimately fails. Needless to say, this adds even more tension to the already-frosty relationship between the president and the politician. Enrique starts therapy sessions with Judith in order to get over his memories of the kidnapping and to have someone who listens to him, and the two start a relationship and he proposes to her but she turns him down. Meanwhile, Amador is ordered by the court to pay Maité alimony, and gets a job as a street cleaner, as well as other short-lived jobs, to pay her off and to follow his dream of buying a "pussy magnet" motorbike. Raquel and Judith, meanwhile, spend a lot of the season trying to get Maité, who constantly annoys them, out of their group of friends. Estela continues to stir up trouble, and after a brief affair with Leo and others, is eventually kicked out of the house by her own daughter, Lola. A new character, Rosario Parrales, is introduced in this season. He is an illegal immigrant from South America who agrees to pay Amador, who mistook him for a woman when they met on the internet, €6000 in exchange for his hand in marriage. The sham is easily discovered by the authorities, and the marriage licence isn't granted. Later in the season Rosario is hired to work for Mariscos Recio, and ends the season acting as the president of the community after Antonio is overthrown. In the final episode of the season, Goya is found dead in the kitchen while cooking croquettes, Berta leaves to join a convent, and Antonio, Coque, and Enrique set off on a caravan trip around Spain together.

Season 5 (2011)

After Enrique gets a call from Judith begging him to return. He comes back from his caravan trip with Antonio and Coque to discover that the community is in ruins, with no light and no working lift. Judith, now acting as president, calls on Enrique, her on-off partner, to be her vice-president and get Mirador de Montepinar out of its crisis. She comes to face plenty more crises, most of which are generated by Antonio in his attempt to undermine the presidency. In the other basement flat across the corridor from Enrique, Amador's overbearing mother, Justi, moves into the flat with him and goes to a lot of trouble to get her son's life and marriage back together, while Amador himself tries hard to get rid of her so he can pursue his life as a playboy. Amador now shares joint custody of the children with Maité, who moves into the flat above him to live with Raquel and Nines. Lola, meanwhile, leaves for Miami to shoot a series, leaving Javi to live with his recently bereaved father. Javi feels jealous and lonely and has to wrestle with his fidelity after Raquel, Judith and Berta all take a liking to him. A new resident is Reyes Ballesteros, who moves into 2ºB with her lover, Araceli, who has returned to the community to spend more time with Fran. Her new-found sexuality, mixed with her old feelings with Enrique, her battle for her son, her absent-mindedness, the homophobic views of some of the community, and her ongoing therapy sessions with Judith, make it difficult for them all to get along. The end result is Judith and Enrique's marriage. Parrales, in the meantime, has expanded Mariscos Recio and a new fishmonger's is set up in the commercial area by the flat. Maxi continues being the mastermind of various schemes, and his relationship with his girlfriend, Ana Rosa, a blow-up doll, could be said to be blossoming.

Season 6 (2012–13)

The season begins with the end of Judith's presidency. After a failed round of voting, the occupant of ground floor flat B is randomly selected to succeed Judith. As a result, Araceli, joint owner of the flat with Enrique, takes the helm. Antonio still wants the presidency for himself, and his various attempts to undermine Araceli, including clogging the pipes of the building, are all unsuccessful. Lola is still angry with Raquel due to her supposed infidelity with her husband, Javi and during the first nine episodes the two do not speak amicably to each other. Javier tries to reconcile with Lola, which he eventually manages to do after the two end up having sex again. A few episodes later, they find out that she is pregnant. In order to fix his marriage, Javi calls on Lola's father, Fermín Trujillo, who she has never met. Estela Reynolds, Lola's mother, returns to the series and lives under the same roof as Javi, Lola and Fermín. Amador is still trying to get back with Maité, but that hits a snag when she is arrested and spends a brief time in prison for dealing drugs. To make things worse, she must face another problem: she and her husband will be evicted if they are unable to pay off the €16,800 debt they owe. Naturally, they try to scrape together the money and Amador eventually does so. The bad news for them is that the money arrives a few minutes too late, and his house is put up for auction as a result. He and his family are forced to move out of the downstairs flat, and go back to live in flat 2A where they previously lived. Sergio is another returner to the community; he comes back after having invested all his savings in shady deals and wants to fight for the paternity of his son with Maité, Amador Jr.. Antonio, in the meantime, finds out that he has a long-lost mother. He tries to track her down during the last episodes, and it turns out she was a nun. Violet, his sister, recently released from the mental hospital, comes to live with him and his wife, and is given work in his fishmonger's.

Season 7 (2013–14)

The outgoing president, Araceli, is replaced by her ex-husband, Enrique, who has just returned from Brazil after splitting up with his wife, Judith. Antonio becomes his second-in-command. Judith gives birth to their son Dylan in Chicago, but returns in the middle of the season. Enrique is in the dark about the existence of his son for a long time, but eventually finds out after randomly bumping into his pram in Chicago Airport. This event eventually leads to him being deported back to Spain as a suspected terrorist, and he is soon followed there by Judith and their son, who are refused re-entry into the States due to Enrique's criminal record.
Meanwhile, there is another new baby in the community, as Lola gives birth to Javi's daughter, but they are unable to come up with a suitable name for a long time until they eventually choose Úrsula. Lola suffers from great depression, loses her job in her television series, and has to keep on putting up with her parents, Estela and Fermín, who are back in love and marry. They temporarily move out of Lola's marital home into the ground-floor flat, whose mortgage is being paid for by Javi and Lola.
Antonio and Berta also have new marital problems: the long-suffering Berta finally tries to get a divorce from Antonio, with the help of Rebeca Ortiz, a lawyer friend of Judith who looks after her flat while she is in Chicago. Antonio is aware that Berta is entitled to half of all his assets, as she has been financially dependent on him throughout their marriage. To prevent Berta from getting her hands on his fortune, he gives away his assets and tries to manipulate her into settling for less than she is entitled to. First he gives the flat he is leasing to Nines, the mother of his youngest son, and then he gives his seafood company away to his clinically insane sister Violeta. Berta moves in temporarily with Araceli, and the two have a short-lived lesbian affair.
Amador and Maité continue to have financial woes, losing the flat they were squatting in after it is reclaimed by Edurne, the daughter of recently deceased Izaskun. They are left with no choice but to move into a makeshift house in the garage, shoddily built by them with the help of a few of their neighbours, and their gloom continues. Their children move in too.
In addition, Nines and Coque have an affair, Nines gets a job at Max & Henry's, Fermín and Estela get their own reality TV series, Antonio and Matthew move into Enrique's flat to form the "Happy Singles", Rebeca has to deal with her socially inept gynaecologist ex-husband Santiago, and Vicente starts an affair with Penélope, only to find out she is a mass murderer.

Season 8 (2014–15)

Amador decides to return to civilization after six months in the forest, and will be helped by La Chusa a junkie from the slums. Maité leaves the jail and will have to wear a bracelet on her ankle with which she controls her movements and can not leave 1ºA, which is where she lives with Raquel, Toñín, Nines and Coque, who lives there because she is dating Nines. Amador and La Chusa see Carlota, Nano, Rodrigo and Eyes of Chicken in a car. When they find the house of the owners of the car, they are taken away, but Maité and Rebeca inform her that they are her foster family. Amador leaves La Chusa and goes to live in Coque's caravan. Violeta has been admitted to an asylum again. Berta will insist to Antonio to ask for marriage, but this will have problems with Fina, a very problematic old woman who moves to 2 °C who will not stop making life impossible for her neighbors and who, mysteriously, knows everything that has happened in Montepinar. Estela has left Fermín for a Russian and Fermín will stay with Javi and Úrsula, the daughter of Javi and Lola, trying to sell the Bajo A. Amador and Maité will try to get work and home to recover their children while Amador tries to conquer Patricia, the social worker who takes the case, without success. Enrique will be the right hand of Maria Teresa, the new mayor, who goes to live with him since her husband, the minister, has put the horns. But for the good of the party, Maria Teresa and her husband are back together. Berta gets Antonio to propose and start organizing the wedding, something that Antonio is not thrilled about. Judith falls in love with Javi but Lola returns to Spain as she has managed to escape from the guerrillas. The bad thing is that Amador, Leo, Vicente, Javi and Fermín had gone to Colombia to rescue her, but they manage to return. Javi will be very angry with Lola. Maria Teresa returns with Enrique and they begin a relationship. La Chusa plays the Christmas lottery and rents the Bajo A and begins a relationship with Fermín. Maité writes an erotic novel based on the romances of Mirador de Montepinar. Berta will go to a spa at her bachelorette party with the girls in the building and she will meet Araceli with whom she is about to go to bed when the owner of the spa sees them. Araceli when she breaks up with her, without a house, goes to Bajo B and will make Enrique and Teresa break up. Judith tries to return with Trevor but he already expects a son with another girl. Rebeca throws her out of the house and goes with Dylan to live with Enrique. La Chusa and Fermín break up and she refuses to leave, even though she does not pay the rent. Raquel falls in love with Diego, Fina's son, but Fina intervenes and gets Diego to think that she is crazy. Antonio sees how his son is now: a woman. It happens to be called Álvaro a Alba. Alba starts dating Leo. Antonio and Berta marry. To Maité they publish the book to him and it is reconciled with Amador and buys with him the Under A, where La Chusa de okupa is. Enrique, fed up with Judith, Araceli and Teresa treating him badly, leaves them with a note.

Season 9 (2016)

Vicente is named the new president of Mirador de Montepinar. His consort Fermín, moves with him to 2ºB to help him with the mandate since Vicente is not excited. However, the power of these two will be full of ups and downs. Enrique returns to the community because his party has named him mayor after the departure of María Teresa. Enrique will have to learn from Cristóbal, a corrupt politician. After eight seasons, Leo dies when the parachute is not opened in a gift from Alba. Alba overcomes her depression with Teodoro, Amador's brother, with whom she marries. Teodoro refloats his father-in-law Antonio's fishmonger, but his friendship is not earned. Alba will save to do the sex change operation and then will have to wait to be able to "consummate" which is what Theodore is waiting impatiently. After the departure of Rebeca, Judith will not stop giving emotional thrombi. Between his ligues they are: a trainer obsessed with the sport, a homosexual Catholic, a patient with an imaginary friend, Trevor, a millionaire friend of Javi... At the end of the season he goes to Ibiza where he falls in love and leaves the Serie. Maité is again what it was like: a penny with money. With La Chusa as a maid, Maité pays Amador a salary to keep custody of her four children, some spoiled. Start a relationship with Hector, a hipster. Amador rents 2ºA with Teodoro. Then he meets Yolanda "Yoli" a seamstress with a safe and problematic character. Yoli will bring her mother, Menchu, noisy and like her daughter, causing several problems, such as: Causing Teodoro and Alba to leave the 2nd A and leave with Antonio and Berta, not accept that Amador leaves him and try to have children with him, renting Enrique the Low B after the departure of Araceli and settling in Attic A with his mother at the end of the season. Besides, they emphasize their fights with Maité, Alba... The relationship between Nines and Coque will go through problems. Fermin tries to conquer Araceli until she leaves. Fine take it with Javi and Lola, who are still fighting for their love despite their debts. Bruno is a pianist who has just been abandoned by his wife. She becomes a patient of Judith and needs her help so much that she moves to the 1st B, property of the late Leo. Seeing the world of lies and corruption in which he is submerged, Enrique resigns and tries to found his own party.
The building is broken little by little and works are needed. For this, the neighbors will have to go to all kinds of places to make time: A hotel, a makeshift campsite, Villazarcillo, the old house of Bruno... In the end, the building is ready and even has some other novelty.
At the end of the season Amador asks for a divorce to take half of what he has, so Maité hires a hit man. Theodore breaks up with Alba because he did not like it when they made love. The hit man shoots Amador but he covers himself with Theodore without knowing if he lives or dies. Diego returns, the son of Fina. Diego sees at last how his mother really is and it seems that he is going to send her to a nursing home. Besides, a relationship with Raquel begins, with which it seems that he is leaving for China. It is not known if Theodore lives or if Raquel and Fina have left.

Season 10 (2017–18)

Fina escapes from the nursing home where she was interned and returns to live at 2 °C. Berta and Antonio are still married but the latter wants them to live separately and goes to live with Enrique, leaving Berta living at 1 °C along with her daughter Alba, who is now single because she has left him with Teodoro. Both will have to carry with difficulty the business of Mariscos Recios, before the passivity of its owner to 50%, Antonio. Alba will be attracted to Enrique throughout the season and will have several encounters behind Antonio's back. After the departure of Judith, are Yoli and Menchu who buy Attic A, characters that will cause multiple problems in the building. Fermín, who continues his relationship with Menchu, will go live with them. In addition, he will continue to serve as "Richelieu" of the new president, Bruno Quiroga. The latter will try to maintain an asexual relationship with Maité, who will also have meetings with Hector, who has returned to Montepinar. Coque ends his relationship with Nines and takes vacations, leaving the community with the vacant janitor plaza. In addition, he goes to live with Enrique and Antonio at Bajo B. The latter recover the bar from the catastrophic rental contract that Enrique maintained with Fermín Trujillo, baptizing him as Tony and Henry. Nines leaves her job and instead it will be Alba who at first helps her father in the business. Theodore and Amador are again the only tenants of the second. The latter will try to recover Yoli's love, although she passes from him; Meanwhile, he will pretend to be Fina's caregiver in front of Diego, his son, in exchange for a salary and with the objective that Diego stays calm and stops visiting his mother so much. Diego will begin a relationship with Raquel and will take her to China although eventually she returns. Maité will have to share with her assistant La Chusa with Bruno, who also hires her and who also gets pregnant through artificial insemination. During Coque's vacation period, Fermín hired Clara as her fellow, who is Menchu's niece and whom she recommends to minimize an important expense such as the janitor's salary.

Reception

Ratings

International remakes

– Θα γίνει της Πολυκατοικίας

On September 2019, premiered on Skai TV a remake with Greek actors.