Parents' Guide to Cable Girls

Though this show is a well-done period piece, it isn't slavishly focused on getting every aesthetic detail right; of particular note is the use of modern music, which helps draw the viewer in and make the show more relatable. That being said, the costumes and styling are really fun to behold, and help strengthen our sense of each character's personality: Magda in her mousy dresses and hats, Carlota with her sexy headbands and vampy lipstick. The cast is full of vibrant, magnetic actresses who have a real chemistry, which keeps you rooting for their characters from one episode to the next.

Cable Girls does a decent job showing the way women were treated in suffragette times, with female characters being forced into jobs, situations, and even marriages they don't want simply because the law did not grant them the autonomy to choose otherwise. This reality means there are characters who hit their wives, women who can't take money out of a joint bank account without the permission of their spouse, and some who feel their only route to independence is through criminal means. This sociopolitical edge helps differentiate the show from other melodramas, and helps to ground the "soapier" elements, though of course the murder plots and will-they-won't-they love affairs are part of what will keep viewers addicted, too. It's advisable to watch the show with the original Spanish dialogue and English subtitles (the acting almost always comes across better in the cast's native tongue), though Netflix does offer a dubbed version if you prefer.