‘Shared Custody' Is a Prickly Spanish Divorce Drama

New York Times

20-03-2025

'Shared Custody' is a light divorce drama, though it is perhaps better seen as a cellphone drama: the buzzing, the ringing, the texting, the 'just one second,' the deleted messages, the accidental photo uploads, the app notifications. Is everyone disconnected, or is everyone too connected?
The show, on Hulu (in Spanish, with subtitles, or dubbed), follows Cris (Lorena López) and Diego (Ricard Farré) through the early stages of their divorce. They each tell their parents that they're going to do things amicably, without lawyers, and that figuring out custody of their little girl won't be that big of a headache.
'You can't do that,' Diego's father grumbles. 'And if you had gone to law school, you'd know that.'
Episodes themselves have a sort of split custody. We see Cris at work, where she is told to keep her child and her separation a secret, lest she be pushed aside. Diego's client, on the other hand, declares that fathers are inherently trustworthy and that she is impressed by his family life.
We see each parent on a too-boozy night with friends and how each set of abuelos is both the cause of and solution to some of the issues at hand. Cris is too rigid and selfish — or wait, Diego is too lazy and has mooched off his family and wife forever. ('I've taken two degrees worth of digital marketing courses!' he brags to a friend.)
As with many shows that cattily dissect the bougie, 'Custody' includes a party held at the richest friend's ostentatiously artsy house, where all the kids are screaming and running around, and all the grow-ups are forming hostile cliques. Things boil over! As with many European shows, this one features interesting sweaters and fabulous bathroom tiles. And as with many contemporary domestic dramas, it captures the misery of being around other people's poorly behaved children.
'Custody' is not dark or brutalizing, but neither does it shy away from how quickly Cris and Diego can take a whisper of disagreement and turn it into an opera of 'you are in fact just like your parents, specifically in the ways you most fear and resent.' You know what, maybe we should get lawyers after all.