One Hundred Years of Solitude (TV series)

One Hundred Years of Solitude (Spanish: Cien años de soledad, Latin American Spanish: [sjen ˈaɲos ðe soleˈðað]) 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.
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.
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 are professional actors. In addition to the main cast, 20,000 extras were selected. The cast was partially leaked on 26 April 2023.
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 by 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.
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 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.
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 said the series struggled to translate magic realism to the screen.