Love You To Death Is A Charming, Bittersweet Rom-com

There is a case to be made that rom-coms might just be the hardest genre to get right. Romance is incredibly subjective, after all. And comedy? Well, to quote Carrie Fisher’s character in When Harry Met Sally: “Everyone thinks they have good taste and a sense of humor, but they couldn’t possibly all have good taste.”   

As such, rom-coms tend to fall into one of three distinct categories: the sugary, the unapologetically brash, and—perhaps the rarest of all—the charming and bittersweet numbers that tend to fly under the radar. Love You To Death, Apple’s new Spanish-language series from creators Dani de la Orden, Oriol Capel, and Natalia Durán, happily falls into the latter camp.

The plot is simple enough (and familiar, thanks to more than a few Hollywood titles): A cautious and emotionally reserved man meets a free-spirited woman, finds himself yanked well out of his comfort zone, and falls head over heels in love. It’s a classic tale of opposites attract, essentially, albeit with an extra sting in the tale. Raúl (Joan Amargós) has just been diagnosed with heart cancer, and Marta (Verónica Echegui) is newly pregnant and debating whether or not she wants to stay that way—even if, as her doctor grimly points out, she’s 38, and it might be her “last chance”  to have a baby.

So far, so deliciously morbid—and the series revels in this, staging the couple’s meet-cute at a funeral home. On paper, it shouldn’t work: Raúl is still reeling after being unceremoniously dumped by his girlfriend over—wait for it—a ficus plant, and Marta has two weeks to decide if she’s ready for motherhood. Neither is in the right place for a new romance. Neither is looking for love. When they come into one another’s orbit, though, they have incredible chemistry—and, just like that, their destinies become intertwined in a very big way. 

Although it’s just seven episodes long, Love You To Death is one of those shows that gets under your skin, basking in the quiet magic that comes hand-in-hand with a new romance without ever losing its sense of comic realism. The scripts are witty, the setup is just unique enough to keep us guessing, and the story manages to pull off some movingly painful moments. 

Of course, a lot of the show’s success comes down to its two main characters. Marta is an irresistible comic heroine, offering up the sort of hot mess who makes bad decisions and cracks jokes whenever she feels defensive (case in point: her riff on sexual predators when an overzealous mom clocks her smiling at some kids in a local park). All of that brittle charisma, though, belies a softness and vulnerability that will have you rooting for this commitment-phobe throughout the course of the series (and, perhaps, mulling over whether a shaggy pixie cut would look any good on you).

She’s a great foil to Raúl, and Amargós was seemingly born to play this perennial people-pleaser. He’s the kind of guy who goes with the flow (even when it’s detrimental to his own happiness), derails a very public breakup due to his unfailing politeness, sits through Squid Game (“It was boring!”) just so he can fit in with everyone at work, and would rather tell his girlfriend that he’s watching porn than admit he’s got a tumor in his heart. 

It’s not a flawless series. From the uptight ex to the loyal best friend, many of the characters who orbit our leads feel like two-dimensional rom-com archetypes. Some may feel, too, that Marta runs the risk of falling into Manic Pixie Dream Girl territory at times. (“She’s not like other girls, guys!”) Without sharing any spoilers, it’s safe to assume that the final episode will likely prove divisive among viewers. And sometimes the show stretches the realms of believability just a bit too far—like when a hungover Marta stumbles late into work, informs her boss she’s not staying, and keeps him from firing her by coming up with a “perfect” advertising slogan in all of 90 seconds. 

Those weak spots aside, though, Love You To Death is a compelling twist on the classic boy-meets-girl formula, not to mention the sort of rom-com that truly gets to grips with the demands of its genre. It’s consistently funny. It’s occasionally swoony. And it’s poignant and aching too. Consider it your televisual antidote to these heavy times (and be sure to stock up on tissues for the finale). 

Love You To Death premieres February 5 on Apple TV+