Television Shows and Movies for Immersion

[MultilingualHopefull]

What are some good Spanish TV shows and movies I could watch online to improve my Spanish skills through immersion?  I've been watching Metastasis (Colombian remake of Breaking Bad) on Netflix right now but I'd like to find other things to watch as well.  I've also watched Pan's Labyrinth and really enjoyed that. I have a subscription to Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Instant Video.

[flo]

Definitely check out Gran Hotel if you're into telenovelas. It's on Netflix and Hulu and it's actually super interesting (if a bit dramatic). The actors talk a bit too fast for my rusty Spanish skills, but I can understand about 90% of the content with subtitles.

Unfortunately, the only other shows that I know of are cheesy beginner-type series that we were shown in high school. I'd love to hear others' suggestions, too.

 

[petesede]

It depends on your current skill level.  My preferred method of learning is to watch movies that I know very well in english, but watch them in Spanish, that way I am hearing the spanish but already know what they are trying to say.   Telenovolas are good also because they do close ups of the faces, which helps you see the movement of the mouth which can help you distinguish words.  In my own case, my telephone skills are much worse than when I talk to someone in person for this reason.

[Danili]

I love cheesy, over the top telenovelas. Have you heard of La Reina del Sur? It's quite good. 

One thing though, try to get the full episodes. Spanish shows tend to cut bits out to make "compact" versions, can be hard to find the full uncut episodes online. I watched a telenovela recently when I didn't know they did that, and got confused when things happened too fast, or things were left unexplained or seemed unconnected. 

[Ct17]

I have been watching El Internado on Netflix. Greatly reviewed show from Spain. El Internado means boarding school. The show follows students at the school after strange things start happening. I can't wait to start the next episode every time I finish one.

 

I also used subs2srs to make an anki deck for the first few episodes which you can find online. Definitely helped me with me auditory recognition. 

[Mary84]

I'm not much into telenovelas but I remember as a kid I used to watch this old spanish show, "Un Paso Adelante" and I remember I liked it. It was a show about boys and girls who attended the most important acting and dancing school of Madrid. I didn't watch it in spanish because at the time I wasn't very interested in learning other languages. Maybe I should give it a try now, although I'm not 100% sure I will like it, my tastes changed a lot growing up.

 

[Trellum]

Watch any kind of ''Telenovela'' you will get lots of laughs from that    Any Mexican will do (those are hilarious).   Plus I love the fact that out of all the Latin american countries... Mexican telenovelas and Mexican TV in general... flaunts and incredibly neutral accent. That is done on purpose.  You can't find that in any other Latin american country. Hence most of the dubbing for the rest of Latin america is done in Mexico.   If you want to listen to a very neutral ''Latin'' Spanish, then check Mexican TV.  I recommend you children TV shows and cartoons.   You can tune most Mexican TV  channels online. 

[fcuco]

You could also grab any DVD movies that you have around your house and see if they have a Spanish audio track and watch the movie like that. Most DVDs sold in the USA usually come with a Spanish track and you probably have a lot of movies like that lying around and chances are that you know the plot and have seen the movie in English so this will help you understand the words.

It is better to watch natives speak directly though, so simply go to YouTube and search for Spanish content, you will probably find a lot of old Telenovelas and YouTubers doing sketches and whatnot. The problem with vlogin is that it is usually a person talking directly to the camera with no context like the one you get for watching a sitcom and seeing the people and the situations that they are in, so that's a little more complicated

[Baburra]

I think it's good to watch some telenovelas because I learned a lot of Spanish phrases that way. Most likely because they do tend to use certain phrases over and over and most telenovelas will tend to use them so eventually you'll find yourself being familiar with certain phrases and even knowing the context on which you can use them in. Aside from that maybe some Spanish movies can also be helpful as long as you have access to subtitles. 

[AgentD22]

That's a really good question. I would recommend researching movies that have won the "best foreign picture" category at the Oscars, like "The Secret in their eyes" Also, i've heard a lot on social media about this Netflix show called "Narcos" and i'm pretty sure you'd like it since you seem to like Breaking Bad, not 100% sure that this show is in spanish but i'm remember hearing about them casting all actors from South America, so i'm pretty sure it is in spanish. Good luck!

[lingvo]

Nobody has suggested "El Chavo del Ocho" :O, how dare you my fellows spanish natives to not recommend this worldwide popular mexican t.v sitcom!. Seriously tho, I actually find difficult to suggest quality content made in actual native spanish other than El Chavo del Ocho.  "Mafalda" animated short clips are also a good.

[aviendha]

Do you all personally find it better to watch with or without subtitles, or a combination of watching one way first and then repeating the process? 

[rz3300]

9 hours ago, aviendha said:

Do you all personally find it better to watch with or without subtitles, or a combination of watching one way first and then repeating the process? 

Well that is certainly an interesting question, and it makes me think that you could really use it as an advantage if you really tried, and maybe use it as quick way to test yourself.  That said, though, it would have to mean that the subtitles are pretty accurate, and that has certainly not always been the case in the shows that I have seen.  I am not really sure if that is something that is improving though, but I bet that it is.  Anyways, it is a good idea to explore, and thanks for sharing.

[17emilyhalko]

The answer will depend on how fluent you are. I don't really know of that many Spanish programs, but if you're newer to the language, I would suggest watching Destinos. Episodes of Destinos are free online on PBS I believe. Destinos teaches you vocabulary, and then exposes you to the Spanish language and culture. The Spanish gets harder as the episodes go along, so that your Spanish gradually improves as you learn.

[aviendha]

Just now, rz3300 said:

Well that is certainly an interesting question, and it makes me think that you could really use it as an advantage if you really tried, and maybe use it as quick way to test yourself.  That said, though, it would have to mean that the subtitles are pretty accurate, and that has certainly not always been the case in the shows that I have seen.  I am not really sure if that is something that is improving though, but I bet that it is.  Anyways, it is a good idea to explore, and thanks for sharing.

When I took Japanese in high school I really enjoyed catching the errors in translation on Anime. It never occurred to me to use it as a learning tool on the way up, though, it just became something that was accessible once I understood more of the language. I think I might experiment with it and see if it helps. 

[OddVisions]

On 4/27/2016 at 3:00 PM, Ct17 said:

I have been watching El Internado on Netflix. 

This actually seems pretty interesting. Is it like a mystery? I love myster novels as well as movies and would greatly enjoy trying to comprehend a spanish telenovela that works as a mystery story. 

[Swetnao91]

Netflix has plethora of shows and movies. I was very happy the day I made an account here. I have been watching shows by Andy Yeatman since then. I got to know that he isn’t working with Netflix anymore, which means that his content is no longer going to be on Netflix. That makes me very sad.