The House of Flowers season 1 explained

Bgcolour:
  1. 21613C
Image Alt:Five people looking dramatic over a background of green with colorful flowers
Num Episodes:13
Network:Netflix
Next Season:Season 2 (release)
El Funeral (chronology)
Episode List:List of The House of Flowers episodes

The first season of The House of Flowers was released to Netflix in its entirety on August 10, 2018. Following the lives of the members of the upper class Mexican de la Mora family, it starts with the suicide of the father's mistress at his birthday party. Social pretenses are put up as the situation is handled, and its fallout underscores the rest of the season, with the family seeming to part ways at the end. The season was directed by show creator Manolo Caro, and written by Caro, Mara Vargas, Monika Revilla, and Gabriel Nuncio.

The show was first announced in 2016, and began filming in 2017. Its main stars were Verónica Castro, Cecilia Suárez and Aislinn Derbez. The transgender character María José was played by Spanish actor Paco León, with the casting causing some initial controversy before the season was released; León was later nominated for a Best Actor award for the portrayal. The production of the season was described as efficient, though it had to be briefly shut down in the aftermath of the 2017 Puebla earthquake. The season had generally favorable reviews, winning several awards, including two Best Actress awards: one each for Suárez and Castro. Suárez's acting and her character, Paulina de la Mora, were particularly well-received.

Synopsis

At the birthday party of Ernesto de la Mora, husband and father to the pseudo-perfect de la Mora family, his mistress Roberta Navarro commits suicide by hanging. His adult children go inside to escape the party and find her. Only the eldest daughter, control freak Paulina, and her teenage son Bruno know of the affair and the child, Micaéla Sánchez, who is the product of it.

Ernesto, whose name Roberta used to take out loans, is arrested for fraud now that she's dead; the family's accounts get frozen. De la Mora matriarch Virginia tries to maintain the image of her perfect family after Roberta's suicide by keeping Ernesto's arrest a secret and aiming to free him before the anniversary of their successful florist's, 'La Casa de las Flores' ('The House of Flowers'). However, the youngest child, son Julián, comes out as bisexual and the loyal customers who saw Virginia as the bastion of moral purity stop coming. With no money coming in to pay bail, Virginia realizes they will have to go through legal processes and asks Paulina to call her lawyer ex-husband María José Riquelme, who had been banished from the family for coming out as transgender, to represent them.

Paulina becomes increasingly focused on a cabaret of the same name as the florist's, that she and Ernesto had been running with Roberta and her son Claudio. She struggles to hide it from the rest of her family, who eventually find out. Virginia withdraws from Paulina and asks middle child Elena to organize a local bar mitzvah in Paulina's place. Julián uninvites boyfriend Diego from the bar mitzvah at his mother's request, which creates tension between them. Elena, scared of settling down with her American fiancé Dominique, begins a relationship with Claudio and breaks up with Dominique just after their impromptu wedding.

Paulina discovers that Dr. Cohen, her childhood therapist, is her biological father, and starts visiting him and his sock puppet assistant Chuy again. She also starts to fall for María José again; the rest of the family warm to María José, including Virginia, who has started selling homegrown marijuana to help raise money for Ernesto. Julián proposes introducing strippers to the cabaret. The family has finally raised enough money at the end of the season, but the money and Diego go missing, suggesting that he stole it. However, Ernesto is freed in time for the party, with Virginia revealing she sold the florist's to their rivals, the Chiquis, before mysteriously leaving. Paulina runs to stop María José at the airport.

Cast

Main

Recurring

Production

Development and casting

A new Netflix original series to be created by Manolo Caro was announced in October 2016, with the title and the principal cast being revealed in January 2017. This principal cast was made up of Castro, Suárez, and Derbez. Suárez had acted in most of Caro's other works before the show, though a reviewer suggested that she had to "leave her comfort zone" to play Paulina, doing so successfully, while León says that he was offered the role of María José after a brief conversation with Caro, and was immediately enthusiastic. The casting of Verónica Castro, referred to as "Mexican telenovela royalty", was seen by Remezcla's media reviewer Manuel Betancourt to be a real achievement on the part of Caro, who in effect was "getting her out of retirement" to make the show. Castro has said that she did not know her character would be a marijuana smoker when she took the role, and though she disliked some parts of the character, she was encouraged by her children to continue with the show. She has also said that getting back into acting with the show helped her mental health.

There was initially some controversy around the casting of Paco León, a cisgender actor, as a trans woman. León said that the show's intention with his character was to "take this character out of the stereotypical perception, in a sense that would create a healthy dialogue about LGBTQ issues by providing a positive portrayal of a trans woman", adding that it was important to the production and that they hope the character of María José achieved their intentions. He has also said he is not sure why the production did not cast a trans actress, but wanted to honor the role and felt his job as an actor is to be able to interpret any role, without stepping on the toes of trans actresses for whom he thought it would be an opportunity to be heard. When the controversy arose, León said he understood it and didn't want to push back, though he was given a supportive message from trans actress Daniela Vega during this period. Caro has said that he first thought of León for the role because of the actor-director's own work to create more visibility and opportunities for LGBT+ people in entertainment. After the show aired, it was reported that trans people had warmed to the character, and particularly her line: "I had a change of sex, not of heart". Though León's portrayal was accepted, the actor said that he will not accept more trans roles so as to promote more trans actors, but would continue as María José in the show.

Regarding having a transgender character in general, creator Caro said that he is "committed to the issue because it is time to normalize it", and that he thinks media needs to "demystify" real people from LGBT+ stereotypes. In terms of his approach to playing María José, León also affirmed that he "left the comedy behind" from when he had played female characters before in impersonation show , treating the role seriously.

Filming and release

Principal photography began on July 24, 2017 in Mexico City, with the main sets in San Andrés Totoltepec. According to Derbez, who was pregnant during filming, accommodations were made specifically to hide her baby bump in the show. She also said that it was one of the fastest shoots she had done, explaining that Caro is a calm and efficient director.

Filming was halted for several weeks in September and October 2017 after the 2017 Puebla earthquake as the filming location needed to be stabilized before production could continue. Suárez was also injured in the earthquake and could not return to set for a month after production resumed. The show was filming in Condesa as the quake happened, with the cast commending Caro for helping rescue extras and being the last to evacuate the site.

Suárez has said that her character's distinctive voice came through a process of improvisation while filming, starting on the fourth shoot day during the scene where Paulina and Bruno are covering up Roberta's wake at the funeral home, by trying out variations and being pushed by Caro to keep exaggerating it further after he approved of it. She explained that some of the early scenes had to be re-recorded to keep Paulina's speech consistent. Another scene also had to be re-shot; when the characters of Julián and Diego kiss in a sports store, it was first to be recorded in a Martí outlet. When the owners learned that the scene involved a gay kiss they shut down filming, because they did not want the brand to be associated with this, and the scene was later shot at Innovasport.

Caro has discussed the impromptu planning for some scenes. He said that during filming of the mariachi scene, he asked cinematographer Pedro Gómez Millán if they could get the shot to move away into the air. Gómez Millán advised Caro that they could not use a crane, the traditional route for such a shot, because they were filming in a real indoor location; he instead suggested the use of a drone. This produced so much wind that costumes and props had to be pinned down. Caro also explained that he, Darío Yazbek Bernal, and the art department had planned Julián's fantasy coming-out musical sequence, keeping it a secret from the rest of the cast until filming. They also only managed one take, as when Yazbek Bernal ripped off his shirt during the dance, he tore it. This scene then led the way for more musical numbers on the show.

Filming concluded on November 22, 2017. The full 13-episode first season was released on Netflix on August 10, 2018. Before the first season was released, a trailer debuted on June 12, 2018. By November 2018, it was one of the most-watched current series around the world, marking it as a part of the Mexican boom of new media and a Netflix success. The season's release coincided with the northern hemisphere's summer season; some reviews have described the show as perfect for the summer, though Katherine Plumhoff for Ozy wrote that it was ideal to binge-watch with family over the northern winter holiday season.

Episodes

Critical reception

Reviewing the first season's style, Refinery29's Ariana Romero highlights the fantasy song coming-out moment set to "¿A quién le importa?" where "Julián writhes around on the dinner table, kicking his feet and eventually tearing his shirt off" as a moment that "[e]very single person deserves to see", saying that this charm makes it accessible to viewers who enjoyed American telenovela-style shows like Jane the Virgin. Wheeler also complemented the style, though gave a mixed review. He suggested that the show does not live up to its comedic aspirations, but plays out the drama well, and that while the acting can be overly melodramatic, the use of color and artistic design enhance the show in a "perfect example" of such visual potential. He thought that the show may not become particularly memorable, but is overall entertaining.

Pavel Gaona, for Vice, however, saw the colorful and musical selections as "stumbles"; in the rest of his review, Gaona wrote that everything from Caro's style and form, to the plotlines, to the casting and performance of actors were all "lacking" and "pretentious", with the exception of Cecilia Suárez and her character Paulina, whom he gave high praise. Though the character of Paulina has been particularly praised, some critics have mixed views on her idiosyncratic speech. Vinícius Nader of Correio Braziliense found that her speech is "very forced and [has an] artificial rhythm", while Betancourt called it "deliciously languid" and a positive starring feature of her character.

Plumhoff wrote that Suárez "shines" as Paulina and commended her voice for "[making] her one-liners […] feel like TED talks." Plumhoff opined that the characters were the best part of the show, though felt it was let down by discarding the interracial relationship; Esther Vargas criticized some characters in her review, noting that Aislinn Derbez's performance was particularly forgettable, but praised the performance of Luis de la Rosa as Bruno, saying that "in his discreet performance, the silences and looks of this talented young actor open several readings", noting that Bruno is not affected by his queer parents, a commentary on how "this hyperconnected generation knows no closets".

Accolades

The first season received several nominations and three awards. At the 2019 Platino Awards, Cecilia Suárez won the Best Actress award in the television category, while the show was nominated in the Best Miniseries or Television Series category. At the, Paco León was nominated in the Best Actor in an International Production category for The House of Flowers. For the 2018/19 PRODU Awards, the show was nominated in five categories, winning two, with Verónica Castro as Best Actress and Caro as Best Director.

YearAwardCategoryNominee(s)Result
2019Spanish Actors Union AwardsBest Actor in an International ProductionPaco León
Platino AwardsBest Ibero-American Miniseries or TV seriesThe House of Flowers
Best Actress in a Miniseries or TV seriesCecilia Suárez
South by SouthwestExcellence in Title DesignMaribel Martinez Galindo
PRODU AwardsBest Actress in a Series, Long Series, or TelenovelaVerónica Castro
Best Director of a Series, Long Series, or TelenovelaManolo Caro
Best Showrunner of a Series, Long Series, or TelenovelaManolo Caro
Best Writing for a Series, Long Series, or TelenovelaMonika Revilla, Mara Vargas, Gabriel Nuncio and Manolo Caro
Best Cinematography in a Series, Long Series, or TelenovelaPedro Gómez Millán

Notes

Translated quotations

Some quotations in this article were originally in languages other than English, and have been user-translated.

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