Review: Las Chicas del Cable

Set in the 1920s, this is the story of four women from different backgrounds newly hired as operators for a phone company.

-- Imdb.com description --

Las Chicas del Cable or Cable Girls is a Spanish TV show on Netflix. The series follows four women working as phone operators in Madrid in the 1920s. The main protagonist, Lidia, is forced to impersonate one of these operators in order to steal money of the firm. If she fails to do this, she will be accused of a murder she didn't commit and quite possible get the death sentence. She's a skilled thief but she may like to stay in the company as she quickly makes friends with three other female operators. 

The show focusses on Lidia's trials and the romantic relationships of the Lidia, Ángeles, Carlota and Marga. Four very different relationships are explored, some you will be rooting for and others will make you scream at the screen for it to end.

Lidia is torn between two men, one from her past and one from her present. Carlota is torn between a male and female lover, Ángeles is married to a cheating brute. Marga, the shy one, was robbed but a friendly young man was able to retrieve her bag. She connects his calls during the day but doesn't want to admit who she is and invents another name out of shyness.

The show has a lot of strengths and weakness, so let's start with the reasons why you should check out this show.

I really enjoyed the dramatic storyline, romance and plot twists. The show could be described as a telenovela without much trouble. To me, it feels like a comfort show, like Lark Rise to Candleford and Jane the Virgen are as well.

I absolutely loved that the series was actually in Spanish. As I am a English and Spanish linguistics and literature student, I really enjoyed the language aspect of this show and I would definitely consider the Spanish language a huge plus.

The actors are doing a great job keeping me on my toes and showing some real chemistry. I have a couple of ships I hope will survive the second season.

As the last episode ended on a cliff hanger, I'm very excited about the second season, which has already been ordered by Netflix. This might very well become one of my most anticipated Netflix seasons, although I already need more Sense8 episodes in my life.

I also really appreciated the setting. This period is one of my favourite ones to read about or seeing on screen. Since I love shows like Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, it didn't take much for me to really enjoy Las Chicas del Cable. The costumes are not as spectacular as the former show, but are still worth a mention.

Finally, I would like to mention that there are some great feminist moments and you can actually feel the friendship between these four women. It's refreshing to see a group of women as true friends instead of rivals.

Now on to the things I didn't like as much. One of the things that really annoyed me to no end is the music. You would expect a period drama to feature music of that time. Cable Girls, however, only uses modern music, like for example So Cold by Ben Cocks. I believe this is a missed opportunity because I would have liked it so much better if the show included Spanish music of the 1920s. 

It would have made the series a lot more authentic and it would have benefitted the setting and language immensely. In fact, I was annoyed by the music so often it really dragged me out of the story and I had to concentrate on watching the show a lot more.


I really hope Netflix will consider using authentic music in the second season, but I assume it will be hopeless.

A final thing I want to say, it that this first season, of 8 episode, very much feels like half a season. A lot of things have not been explained, a lot of questions have been raised in the last couple of episodes and I have encountered a couple of plot holes too. I think the last episode should probably be considered as a mid-season finale.

All in all, I recommend this show to people who like stories that focus on romance and intrigue. All the women have potential love interests (or multiple ones), which I didn't mind. I really enjoyed this show and I hope you will too!


Have you watched Las Chicas del Cable or are you planning to? Leave your thoughts down below!