What to Watch: “Mal de Amores,” a Story of Freedom, Secrets and Family Desires

“Mal de Amores” begins with the familiar ingredients of a period romance, but its heroine wants more than a love story. Emilia Sauri wants to study medicine, live independently and decide her own future in a Mexico where women did not enjoy those choices.

Raised in Puebla by a liberal, open-minded family during the Mexican Revolution, Emilia pursues an ambition that was unusual for women of her time: becoming a doctor. Her path is complicated by two men who represent very different lives.

One is Daniel Cuenca, her first love, who becomes a revolutionary. The other is Antonio Zavalza, a doctor who seeks peace. But the central question is not simply which man Emilia will choose. It is what she must do to become the person she wants to be.

That focus keeps the series from settling into a conventional period romance. Love remains central, but it shares the story with ambition, independence and the decisions of a woman determined not to leave her fate in someone else’s hands.

The series adapts Ángeles Mastretta’s novel. Catalina Mastretta, the author’s daughter, read the book at age 12 and imagined bringing it to the screen. Decades later, she adapted and produced the series and shares directing duties with Humberto Hinojosa. “Mal de Amores” is available on Netflix.