Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The House Of Flowers’ On Netflix, A Mexican Family Dramedy That Starts With A Suicide

Telenovelas can be super-dramatic, but they can also be funny. The House of Flowers (La Casa de las Flores), a new Mexican dramedy on Netflix, is in the second category. Can it be funny as well as be melodramatic? 

THE HOUSE OF FLOWERS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: An opening quote from Vincent Van Gogh: “Normalcy is like a paved road; it’s comfortable to walk on it, but flowers will never grow on it.” Then a shot of a woman walking into a flower shot called “La Casa de las Flores”.

The Gist: The woman striding into the flower shop is Roberta (Claudette Maillé), who also speaks in voice over about how the shop is famous, providing the most beautiful flowers to the wealthy and famous for over 50 years. But the de la Mora family, who owns the shop and is pretty famous themselves, isn’t what it seems. Then we see Roberta’s feet dangle, indicating that she hung herself.

Meanwhile, everything is being set up in the adjacent mansion for one of the biggest social events of the year, the birthday party for family patriarch Ernesto (Arturo Ríos). His wife Virginia (Verónica Castro) wants to make sure everything is perfect, which is why she leaves the planning up to their most responsible daughter, Paulina (Cecilia Suárez). Their other two kids will also be in attendance: Julián (Dario Yazbek Bernal), who always seems to be in heat with his girlfriend Lucía (Sheryl Rubio Rojas), and Elena (Aislinn Derbez), who lives in New York and is coming with her very American boyfriend Dominique (Sawandi Wilson) to announce their engagement.

After the family’s longtime house manager Delia (Norma Angélica) finds Roberta’s body hanging in the flower shop, all hell breaks loose. Why? Because Roberta is Ernesto’s mistress, and while Paulina knew about the longtime affair, Virginia and the other two kids did not. Virginia walks in on Ernesto mourning over Roberta’s body and finds out the truth, but she wants the party to keep going as if nothing happened. She also wants to keep up the appearance that the family is still a cohesive unit.

Of course, there’s a bit of a complication: A note from Roberta to her son Claudio (Lucas Velazquez) and daughter Michela (Sofia Checchi) tells them to go to Ernesto’s house. There we learn that the young Michela is Ernesto’s daughter.

Our Take: If you are a fan of telenovelas but haven’t watched ones from Mexico in awhile, you’ll likely be surprised by The House Of Flowers. Just like their brethren in the U.S. (like Jane The Virgin or Devious Maids), some telenovelas have the writing and production values of any Peak TV show, with the fantastic acting to match. But make no mistake: The House Of Flowers is a classic telenovela, and a good one.

How do we know? Well, the presence of Castro, who has been Mexico’s telenovela queen for decades, helps. But it’s also the format: It starts with a dramatic event that’s designed to crack the supposedly shiny veneer of a powerful family. Everyone in the family has secrets to hide, and some are doing a better job than others.

Ernesto has leveraged the family to the hilt; when Paulina tells the family’s financial advisor, Diego (Juan Pablo Medina), that all Lucía is after is the family’s name and money, he replies, “What money?” Diego and Julián are in a relationship that Julián is hiding under the guise of having constant sex with Lucia. Elena knows the family won’t approve of Dominique but doesn’t care.

We’re sure there’s plenty more, as Roberta left notes for everyone in the family that will reveal all of the secrets, and we’ll be hearing Roberta’s narration from beyond the grave a la Desperate Housewives. The first season will likely see tons of twists and turns, and shocking revelations. And the pilot does such a good job of establishing who all the characters are from minute one, we can’t wait to see what those surprises are.

Sex and Skin: Julián and Lucia have sex while waiting for the party to start. Less than five minutes into the show, we’re already seeing Julián’s bare tush.

Parting Shot: After Michaela enters and drops the bomb that Ernesto’s her dad, a mariachi band comes in. “I forgot to cancel the mariachi!” cries Virginia. As we pan away, Roberta’s voice intones, “And you, Virginia, forgot to guard our secrets from the wrong hands.” We see Delia hide the note to Virginia behind her back. “One more thing,” says dead Roberta. “Happy birthday, Ernesto.”

Sleeper Star: Suárez looks a little like Jane Adams, and she has the same sort of strong presence as Paulina, who knows all of the secrets and has done a good job keeping them under wraps… until now.

Most Pilot-y Line: There’s a mysterious photographer from Vanity Fair to shoot the party, but it isn’t anyone Virginia has ever seen. He claims he’s new, but it’s pretty obvious he’s not really there to take portraits.

Our Call: Stream It. It should be a fun ride to find out all of the de la Mora family secrets.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Watch The House of Flowers on Netflix