# One Hundred Years of Solitude (TV series)

One Hundred Years of Solitude (Spanish: Cien años de soledad, Latin American Spanish:) is a Colombian television series based on Gabriel García Márquez's 1967 novel of the same name. The series will run for 16 episodes on Netflix, with the first eight released on December 11, 2024.

## Cast

* Diego Vásquez [es] as José Arcadio Buendía [es]
** Marco Antonio González Ospina as young José Arcadio Buendía
* Marleyda Soto as Úrsula Iguarán [es]
** Susana Morales Cañas as young Úrsula
* Claudio Cataño as Colonel Aureliano Buendía
** Jerónimo Echeverría Monsalve as child Aureliano
** Jerónimo Barón Lyentsova as adolescent Aureliano
** Santi Vásquez as teenage Aureliano
* Loren Sofía as Amaranta
** Luna Ruiz Jiménez as young Amaranta
* Janer Villarreal as Arcadio
** Juan Eduardo Florido as young Arcadio
* Akima as Rebeca
** Nicole Montenegro Sánchez as young Rebeca
* Viña Machado as Pilar Ternera
* Moreno Borja as Melquíades [es]
* Ruggero Pasquarelli as Pietro Crespi
* Édgar Vittorino [es] as José Arcadio
** Thiago Padilla as child José Arcadio
** Andrius Leonardo Soto as teenage José Arcadio
* Helber Sepúlveda Escobar as Prudencio Aguilar
* Jairo Camargo [es] as Apolinar Moscote
* Jacqueline Arenal [es] as Leonor Moscote
* Cristal Aparicio as Remedios Moscote
* Ella Becerra as Petronila
* Salvador del Solar as General Moncada

## Episodes

| No. | Title | Directed by | Original release date |
| 1 | "Macondo [es]" | Alex García López | 11 December 2024 (2024-12-11) |
| Cousins José Arcadio Buendía and Úrsula Iguarán are married against their family's wishes. Úrsula initially refuses to consummate the marriage, fearing that their children will be born with birth defects. After José Arcadio kills Prudencio Aguilar in a duel, he and Úrsula are haunted by Prudencio's ghost, forcing them to leave town and find a new home. As José Arcadio, Úrsula, and several of their friends trek through the wilderness, Úrsula goes into labor and delivers a baby boy named José Arcadio. They eventually establish the small village of Macondo, where they are visited by Melquíades and his band of Gypsies. Under Melquíades's influence, José Arcadio becomes withdrawn, immersing himself in science and exploration. Úrsula gives birth to a second son, Aureliano. ||||
| 2 | "It's Like an Earthquake" (Es como un temblor de tierra) | Alex García López | 11 December 2024 (2024-12-11) |
| Macondo grows into a small town. The Gypsies return, and Melquíades introduces José Arcadio to alchemy, causing him to withdraw further into his obsessions. When the Gypsies return again, they tell José Arcadio that Melquíades is dead. Úrsula gives birth to a third child, a daughter named Amaranta. Meanwhile, their older son, José Arcadio, is introduced to sex by Pilar Ternera and impregnates her. He then falls for a Gypsy girl and runs off with the Gypsies, leaving Pilar and his family heartbroken. Úrsula spends five months searching for him, but returns after discovering civilization on the other side of the swamp. Pilar gives birth to a baby boy, Arcadio, and José Arcadio and Úrsula raise him as their own. ||||
| 3 | "A Daguerreotype of God" (Un daguerrotipo de Dios) | Alex García López | 11 December 2024 (2024-12-11) |
| Following his brother's departure, Aureliano becomes isolated, spending his days in his father's laboratory. Rebeca, a young orphan, arrives at the Buendía home carrying a bag of her parents' bones. She is initially feral, but soon assimilates into the family, making Amaranta jealous. Rebeca then falls ill with the "insomnia plague" and spreads it to the entire town. As the plague worsens, residents begin to experience amnesia, sending the town into chaos, but Melquíades returns from the dead with an antidote that cures everyone. Years later, Melquíades introduces the Buendías to the daguerreotype, and José Arcadio becomes obsessed with using it to capture God's image. Pietro Crespi arrives at the Buendía home to install a pianola, and Rebeca and Amaranta vie for his affections. The Colombian government appoints Apolinar Moscote magistrate of Macondo, angering José Arcadio. ||||
| 4 | "The Chestnut Tree" (El castaño) | Laura Mora | 11 December 2024 (2024-12-11) |
| José Arcadio and his men run Moscote out of town, but he returns with his family and a band of soldiers. Aureliano falls in love with Apolinar's youngest daughter, Remedios, while Rebeca exchanges love letters with Pietro. After a night out with his friends, Aureliano blacks out and loses his virginity to Pilar. Pietro asks for Rebeca's hand in marriage, to the disappointment of Amaranta, who begins to self-harm and threaten suicide. Aureliano asks for Remedios's hand in marriage, but is told he must wait until she comes of age. Melquíades dies, sending Macondo into mourning. To cope with the loss, José Arcadio immerses himself in science and gradually slips into insanity. When he becomes violent and destructive, the men tie him to a chestnut tree in his backyard. ||||
| 5 | "Remedios Moscote" | Laura Mora | 11 December 2024 (2024-12-11) |
| Aureliano and Remedios are married, while Rebeca's wedding to Pietro is postponed. As a daughter-in-law, Remedios brings sweetness and joy to the Buendía household, even tending to José Arcadio, who remains tied to the tree and speaks only in Latin. Pilar bears Aureliano's son, Aureliano José, and he and Remedios raise him as their own. Despite Macondo's secular history, the Moscotes fund the construction of a church. Apolinar persuades Arcadio to oversee Macondo's school, which gives him purpose. Not knowing his parentage, he tries to rape Pilar, but she thwarts him by arranging for Santa Sofía de la Piedad, a young virgin, to have sex with him instead. Remedios falls pregnant with twins, but dies of a blood infection. The Buendías enter a mourning period that is cut short by the return of the oldest son, José Arcadio. ||||
| 6 | "Colonel Aureliano Buendía" (El coronel Aureliano Buendía) | Laura Mora | 11 December 2024 (2024-12-11) |
| Apolinar Moscote announces Macondo's first election. With the help of Alirio Noguera, José Arcadio forms a liberal resistance party, however, Moscote sabotages the election results in favor of the conservatives. Rebeca and José Arcadio Jr. have an affair and decide to marry, which causes Úrsula to kick them out of the house. Apolinar declares a state of emergency, and the conservative army occupies Macondo. Aureliano joins the liberal rebellion in retaking the town, and he earns the title of colonel. He leaves Macondo with his band of soldiers to fight in the national civil war. ||||
| 7 | "Arcadio and the Liberal Paradise" (Arcadio y el paraíso liberal) | Alex García López | 11 December 2024 (2024-12-11) |
| 8 | "So Many Flowers Fell From the Sky" (Tantas flores cayeron del cielo) | Alex García López | 11 December 2024 (2024-12-11) |

## Production
### Development

Netflix acquired the rights to One Hundred Years of Solitude in March 2019. Before his death in 2014, author Gabriel García Márquez had refused to sell the rights to the novel as he did not believe the time constraints of a feature film were sufficient for a proper adaptation. The series was filmed with the support of García Márquez's family, who requested that it be shot in Colombia, in Spanish, and with Colombian actors. The producers scouted several locations for filming, including Cali, Villavicencio, Girardot, Palomino, Santa Marta, and Barranquilla.
   As a filmmaker, as a Colombian, it has been an honor and an enormous challenge to work on a project of the complexity and responsibility of One Hundred Years of Solitude, always trying to understand the difference between literary and audiovisual language, to be able to construct images that contain something of the beauty, poetry and depth of a work that has impacted the entire world. We have done it with love and respect for the novel, with the help of an exceptional technical and human team.

### Casting

The cast was chosen through an open casting call in 2022. The casting team saw over 10,000 candidates for the 25 main roles. Only 30% of the cast comprises professional actors. In addition to the main cast, 20,000 extras were selected. The cast was partially leaked on 26 April 2023.

### Filming

Principal photography on the first part of the series took place from May to December 2023. The series was filmed entirely in Colombia, in La Guajira, Magdalena, Cesar, Cundinamarca, and Tolima. The fictional town of Macondo was built near Alvarado, and required the labor of 1,100 workers. Four versions of the town were built to depict the passage of time. The producers purchased furniture from local antique stores and had fabrics and artifacts made by local artisans for the sets. Filming required a crew of nearly 600 people, all from Colombia. Netflix reported that series' production generated 225 billion COP ($51.8 million USD) for Colombia's economy.
Production on the second part of the series began in February 2025.

## Release

A teaser trailer for the first season was released on 17 April 2024. Promotional stills were released on 18 October.
The first two episodes premiered at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid on 22 November 2024. The series' first episode was screened at the Biblioteca Vasconcelos in Mexico City on 28 November 2024. Its first two episodes were screened at the Havana Film Festival on 6 December 2024.
The first season, comprising eight episodes, was released in its entirety on Netflix on 11 December 2024. A second season, also comprising eight episodes, is planned.

## Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 83% of 30 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "One Hundred Years of Solitude faithfully realizes Gabriel García Márquez's seminal novel with sumptuous polish, making for an adaptation that is nothing short of magical." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 80 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
Keith Watson of The Telegraph rated the series five stars out of five, calling it a "faithful but not overly reverent take on Márquez". He commended the cast's performances, specifically those of Marleyda Soto and Claudio Cataño. Helen Coffey of The Independent called the series "pretty much perfect" and "nothing short of miraculous". She commended the series' creators for staying faithful to the source material while creating "a piece of visually gorgeous storytelling". She also commended the casting, script, cinematography, and music. Julio Ricardo Varela of MSNBC wrote that the series provides "countless moments of brilliance that prove creating art from other works of art is still possible." He commended the performances of the entire cast, especially Soto, Cataño, and Marco Antonio González, and noted the care that seemed to have gone into the series' production. Judy Berman of Time wrote, "Considering the difficulty of the assignment, it's remarkable how close Netflix's splendid One Hundred Years of Solitude . . . comes to recreating not just the substance, but also the kinetic spirit of the book." She wrote that the series successfully conveyed the story of the novel without oversimplifying its major themes, including the "ugly but symbolically meaningful aspects of the story, from self-harm to incest". She commended the series' production value, direction, and cinematography.
Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter called the series a "gorgeous, ambitious adaptation" of the novel that is "honorable and beautiful, if not without flaws." He noted that much of the series' content was taken verbatim from the novel, which "doesn't always work" on screen, and that "everything plays better when the show is at its most figurative and least literal." He commended García López and Mora's direction, calling the series "breathlessly beautiful at times, lyrical and alive and brimming with visual and intellectual ideas." He concluded, "One Hundred Years of Solitude may not be as good as Underground Railroad or even Station Eleven, but it's a worthy and admirable capper for a year of often exceptional prestige adaptations." Aramide Tinubu of Variety called the series "exquisitely detailed and layered in intricate symbolism" and "one of the most faithful page-to-screen adaptations in recent years." She called the performances "exceptional", but said that certain sequences felt dense. Although she found the pacing "too lackadaisical at times", she wrote, "the beauty of One Hundred Years of Solitude allows the viewer to absorb every intricately curated frame and moment." Carly Lane of Collider called the series "a masterpiece in its own right" and wrote, "Not only does the Spanish-language series breathe new life into Márquez's supposedly unfilmable novel, but it also succeeds as a triumph of filmmaking thanks to stunning cinematography and an epic story that spans across multiple generations of the ill-fated Buendía family." She commended the visuals of Paulo Pérez and María Sarasvati, the production design of Eugenio Caballero and Bárbara Enríquez [pt], and the ensemble's performance.
Jack Seale of The Guardian rated the series three stars out of five, writing that it "might struggle with the novel's problematic sexual politics, but it's a big, gorgeous adaptation". Ed Potton of The Times rated the series two stars out of five, calling it "gorgeous but lethargic" and writing that it "lacks the vibrancy and energy of the novel". He commended the production design of Caballero and Enríquez, but noted that the series struggled to translate magic realism to the screen.

## Awards and nominations

| Award | Year | Category | Nominee | Result |
| Platino Awards | 2025 | Best Ibero-American Miniseries or TV series | One Hundred Years of Solitude | Pending |
| Platino Awards | 2025 | Best Series Creator | José Rivera and Natalia Santa | Pending |
| Platino Awards | 2025 | Best Actor in a Miniseries or TV series | Claudio Cataño | Pending |
| Platino Awards | 2025 | Best Actress in a Miniseries or TV series | Marleyda Soto | Pending |
| Platino Awards | 2025 | Best Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or TV series | Jairo Camargo [es] | Pending |
| Platino Awards | 2025 | Best Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or TV series | Janer Villareal | Pending |
| Platino Awards | 2025 | Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or TV series | Loren Sofía | Pending |
| Platino Awards | 2025 | Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or TV series | Viña Machado | Pending |