5 Must-Watch Foreign Language Shows on Netflix

With many of us being forced into quarantine during the COVID-19 outbreak, Netflix is expected to be a popular tool for people to pass the time. I’ve written this listicle based on my recommendations on 5 non-English language shows on the platform you ought to take a look at.

La Reina del Sur — The Queen of The South (Telemundo, 2011 — present)

Spanish

La Reina del Sur has been adapted for an English remake, but season 1 from 2011 and season 2 from 2019 of the original are available on Netflix.

Produced by American Telemundo, Spanish Atena 3 and Colombian RTI, the show tells the story of Mexican Teresa Mendoza (Kate del Castillo) whose boyfriend, a pilot for drug cartels is murdered.

Fearing for her life, she reaches Cadiz, gaining employment in a bar run by Dris Larbi(Nacho Fresneda), but the international drug trade follows her.

Season 1 is all about Teresa, now nicknamed El Mexicana, trying to integrate into Southern Spain and rebuild her life. The show provides a gripping adventure of scandal and intrigue as the show’s star deals with her grief and manoeuvres around what clearly is a rather shady environment.

Not long after arriving in Spain, Teresa finds herself in trouble with the police and her route out of deportation back to Mexico where her life might under threat is simply heart-breaking.

As the show progresses, Teresa makes a massive decision, which brings evens even more problems for her.

Season 2 is set eight years after the end of the first season, Teresa is now in Italy with a daughter, but again the underworld of drug trafficking will not leave her alone.

A remarkable story of one woman’s battles in a situation that seemingly has no way truly out.

Fauda-Chaos (Yes Oh, 2015-present)

Hebrew, Arabic

Fauda is touted by several users as the best show on the whole of Netflix.

I must admit, I have only seen a few episodes but have stuck it in as I was one short due to an exciting Turkish drama being no longer available on the platform.

Devon (Lior Raz) rejoins the Israeli Defence Forces, after learning the high-level Hamas terrorist Abu Ahmad (Hisham Sulliman) who he believed he had killed 18 months earlier is still alive.

Abu Ahmad is planning something big for most of season 1 and when he reemerges Devon goes undercover to apprehend him.

A gripping saga, with twists and turns and more than one love triangle, Fauda ticks several boxes.

Club de Cuervos — The Club of Crows (Netflix Original, 2015–2019)

Spanish

Set in the fictional Mexican town of Nuevo Toldeo, the show tells the story of Cuervos FC, the local football team, whose owner dies.

His son, Salvador “Chava” Iglesias Junior (Luis Gerardo Mendez) is chosen to take over the team, almost purely because of the male-dominated culture the show exists in. His sister, Isabel (Mariana Trevino) is the better choice and is clearly resentful.

Isabel is too much of a roundhead, Chava is too cavalier and their fight to take control of the team whilst at the same time running it and making it successful is basically what the show is about.

Chava’s ex-girlfriend Mary Luz (Stephanie Cayo) turns up claiming to be pregnant with the former’s child which would entitle her to control a third of the club.

Vice-Chairman Felix Domingo (Daniel Gimenez Cacho) spends most of his team getting headaches about the battle raging for the control of the club, while there is still a need to administer it effectively to protect the club from relegation or going bust.

The players are split, the captain Moises Suarez (Ianis Guerrero) is a close friend of Chava, and is an excellent player but his form is affected by personal issues.

Goalkeeper Rafael Reina (Antonio de la Vega) is Isabel's husband and a close confidant of her battles with her brother.

The show is hilarious as the Iglesias siblings deal with trying to be manipulated by other club owners and businesses, often at the detriment of the Cuervos.

One of the underrated stars is Hugo Sanchez (Jesus Zavala), Chava’s PA, an awkward but likeable chap, who spends most of his time cleaning up his boss’s mess. He gets his own spin-off in which his character development is superb, leading the team on a tournament with both the siblings unavailable.

The story is hilarious and full of drama without getting stereotypical of Mexican television and telenovelas. Definitely a must-watch for football fans. and everyone else for that matter too.

Au Service De La France — A Very Secret Service (Arte, 2015–2018)

French

This show has not been renewed for a third season yet, nor has it been formally cancelled. But it really should carry for as long as possible. It’s 1960 in France, a time of monumental change in both France and the world.

Andre Merlaux (Hugo Becker) is recruited for a reason that would become clear in the crescendo ending of season 2, to the French Secret Service.

His superiors are Colonel Maurice Mercaillon (Wilfred Beniache), the stiff upper lip head of the service and operations director Moise (Christophe Kourotchkine), a serious but sweet man.

His colleagues have to show him the ropes, but you get the feeling they’d rather be at clubs. Roger Moulinier (Bruno Paviot), a grumpier agent is in charge of African affairs, a more eccentric agent Jacky Jaquard (Karim Barris) is in charge of Algeria. All the agents insist Algeria is France. The last of Andre’s mentors is Jean-René Calot (Jean-Édouard Bodziak) who is in charge of looking after the eastern bloc. Jean-Rene is one of those characters, where you cannot work out of they’re a genius or just downright barmy.

A show that takes you back to 1960s France and is downright hilarious, sometimes satirising the rapid changes society is undertaking. The service appears to be heavily bureaucratic, with Calot, Jacquard and Moulinier appearing to show it a bit of an old boy’s club. But not in a way you dislike them and think they ought to be sacked, in a loveable rogue sort of way.

Merlaux remains determined, a hard worker, but some of the things he has to learn will turn his life upside down.

OCTB (Youku, 2017–2018)

Cantonese

OCTB is set in the late 1990s in the last few years of British rule in Hong Kong. The thirty episode first season, so far the only one, though a spin-off is in the works, introduces us to Phoenix Chan (Jordan Chan), deep undercover in a triad gang, whilst a member of the Hong Kong Police Force’s Organised Crime and Triad Bureau (OCTB).

Chan’s cover is broken and he returns to OCTB working under Danny Cheung (Danny Chan).

But the members of the gang he put away before he returned have not forgotten him — and one Cocky (Justin Cheung) is no longer a timid young boy but now a psychopath.

There also appears to something afoot with Special Branch.

Chan has to deal with re-adjusting to life back in the police, the fact that people want to see him pay for his role and there’s bent coppers in the Special Branch vying to see him fail.

A thrilling, exciting show with twists and turns. It really ought to come back for a second season.

I begun watching this at Hong Kong’s immigration building on my phone whilst waiting to arrange for my HKID card and it was so good, a part of me was tempted to sack the appointment off so I could continue to watch it.