Last Updated on December 4, 2024 by Stephinie Heitman
Breathless (Spanish: Respira) is a 2024 TV series Created by Carlos Montero. The film stars Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Najwa Nimri, and Manu Ríos with a total of 8 Episodes and a rum time of 50M and was released on August 30, 2024.
What is the Netflix series “Breathless” about?
‘Breathless’ starts with a dramatic sequence set in the operating room of Joaquin Sorolla Hospital. Actual doctors are operating and are performing the delicate task of surgery involving the removal of a tumor from a patient. The main character, a young resident doctor named Biel de Felipe, receives information from his friend Quique that the surgery has been moved to an earlier time. Finally, at the most critical stage of the surgery, it is midnight and a nurse comes by holding a card with ‘strike’ written on it to remind them of the time. The employees that are striking are the hospital workers, the doctors, and the nurses who are protesting against the unfair treatment they receive. The doctors inside the operating room must make a tough choice: choose to leave the operating room to protest or carry on with the surgery of the patient. The story then moves back, two months before this crucial scene when the atmosphere in the hospital itself was not as tense. Biel had joined Joaquin Sorolla Hospital as a resident doctor recently and was working under the guidance of an experienced surgeon and cancer specialist, Dr. Nestor Moa. On the day Biel works his shift, he is assigned to examine a patient who was brought into the ER after an automobile accident. This patient is later revealed to be Patricia Segura, the President of the Valencian Government. Though she seems shaken from the accident and possibly under the influence of alcohol or drugs, Biel notices something more concerning: lumps in her breast which was considered suspicious. He, therefore, sends her to Dr. Moa for further diagnostics.
Another plot involves a young man who suffers from a drug overdose that leads him to a hospital on a stretcher. This subjugated young man is the son of Mrs. Pilar Amaro, one of the elder and most experienced specialists in the hospital. In a bid to take vengeance on the friend who had consumed drugs with her son, she does not know that the friend is Quique who is a resident doctor in the hospital. On the other hand, Dr. Jesica feels overwhelmed with work, only to let her young, inexperienced brother Rodri, who is also a resident doctor, take care of a young girl with breathing difficulties. Rodri wrongly identifies the problem the girl is suffering from and pays a dear price for it.
These various storylines weave together as the doctors at this public hospital face increasing challenges over the coming months.
Why are the doctors protesting?
Right at the beginning of ‘Breathless,’ Dr. Nestor Moa protests against gross maladministration at the hospital and the government’s part in putting the doctors and other workers on the rack. However, making doctors work harder and working under difficult circumstances, is not rare all over the world and this series exemplifies this aspect in Valencia, Spain. The funding has been decreased yearly and the government, with its right-wing political ideologies, has been reducing its expenditure in the healthcare sector. They have also brought in illogical and absurd measures in public hospitals endeavoring to transform them into commercial ventures. These budget reductions reduce the number of doctors and employees while admitting more patients, which creates enormous pressure on those working in the hospital. As for the issues with these conditions, Dr. Nestor is at the head of the protest to improve the situation, while Pilar Amaro, another senior doctor, disagrees with him. The hospital’s administration, led by Lluis Blasco, does not want that, too, but the situation evolves into a strike. Young man Rodri, who only pretended to be a doctor because of his father’s insistence, is surprised when his sister Jesica hands him a difficult case to solve. In another episode, he gets a chest infection of a young girl wrong by thinking it is just an anxiety and nutrition-related problem. When the girl’s condition becomes severe, she requires an operation, but her mother is nowhere to be found. A teenage brother tactfully agrees to impersonate the mother’s approval of the surgery by forging her signature. Seeing no other way out, Rodri decides to go through with the plan.
Jesica was supposed to perform the surgery but as a result of an emergency complication in another case involving one of Pilar’s sons, Oscar she has to leave Rodri to go ahead with the surgery on the girl. Rodri’s negligence causes an untimely death of a young patient under his watch. This fills Rodri with guilt and fear of the legal repercussions since the consent was fake. While the hospital lets him keep working, guilt eats at him until the grieving mother of the girl he failed to save comes face to face with him, which pushes Rodri to dramatically leap off the hospital’s roof. He is shot in the movie but somehow survives before dying from the gunshot. The other doctors and hospital workers are enraged at the death of Rodri. They think that if more qualified staff had been employed, Rodri, a resident doctor, would not be allowed to perform such a crucial surgery. This fuels the planned protest, much to the chagrin of Dr. Nestor, who spearheads the protest. If their demands are not met, they stage a strike whereby doctors and staff will not report to work on the next shift for five minutes at midnight placing increased pressure on the characters.
Does Nestor cure Patricia’s terminal illness?
The main plot in “Breathless” is that the leading character Patricia Segura, a politician, has an extramarital affair with Dr. Nestor Moa. Nestor supports workers’ rights, while Patricia is a member of a right-wing political party that slashes the healthcare budget and hires fewer nurses. Patricia, a woman who has an ailment that Nestor can treat rejects his service at first but relents due to his skill in handling patients. It shows how their doctor-patient relationship experiences some highs and lows. During one surgery, for instance, Nestor walked out Only Pilar and Biel were left to deal with her who was on the operating table striking. This surgery is not fully effective, and Patricia is still struggling with the cancer, which has spread to her bones. In the next scenes of the series, Patricia decides to enroll herself in a new, experimental chemotherapy treatment offered by Dr. Jaume, the director of a private hospital. In return for offering her this treatment, he assures her that she will become a focal figure in the integration of public and private healthcare. At long last, out of utter desperation, Patricia decides to seek treatment at the private clinic, leaving Nestor behind.
What happens to Leo’s son?
Another side story revolves around a young lady by the name of Joana who reports to the hospital after alleging that she was raped. Leo, the senior gynecologist, decides to forge Joana’s report to get justice for her but this turns out to be a wrong move after Joana can point out her attacker as Hugo, Leo’s son. Leo is shocked after she realizes that her son is the one who carried out the assault. Lluis Blasco, the head of the hospital and Hugo’s father, wants his son to avoid any consequences hence proposing Leo should take the blame for doctoring the report to exonerate Hugo. However, Hugo dares not to let his mother pay for his misdeed, he decides to accept the consequences himself.
Quique, a resident doctor, starts to have a romantic interest in Pilar’s son, Oscar. They first encounter at a party, with Oscar subsequently taking an overdose of drugs. Quique takes Oscar to the hospital, and they start a relationship even though Quique is much older than Oscar and Pilar did not approve of him. However, Oscar does not change his behavior and gets into another overdose. Quique, worried for Oscar, plans on telling Pilar the truth to get Oscar the help that he needs.
Lluis has a partner called Jesica who cheats on him by having an affair with Biel. Her sexual relationship with Lluis is no longer mutually fulfilling, so she turns to Biel for solace. In the final episodes, Lluis plans to propose to Jesica and she agrees to marry him but later tells him that she has been cheating on him. Lluis provokes Biel and says that he will post the story that will bring his career to an end, but Biel is driven by his feelings towards Jesica.
The last episode leaves viewers on a cliffhanger when Jesica, following her instincts, risks her life for a patient, finally getting stabbed by the very man she is trying to rescue. Biel is critically wounded at the finish line, and the viewers are left in suspense about her alive or dead, not to mention the future of Biel and Jesica’s love. The show leaves certain questions open at the end and suggests a second season where these questions need to be answered.
Breathless 2024 Parents Guide Age Rating
Breathless is not rated because it has not undergone the official rating process by the Motion Picture Rating (MPA).
Violence: There are medical and especially surgical scenes that may be sensitive to the graphic eye of the viewer. Some of the scenes are shot at the operation theatre and could be a little disturbing to some viewers who are sensitive to the sight of blood or practice instruments. It also has cases of physical aggression, for instance, a character who is attacked with a knife by a patient. This scene is probably shiny and can be quite scary. This series also features a character who tried to commit suicide by shooting himself in the head by jumping off the roof of a hospital building. The consequences of the action are depicted, including the main character’s wounds and his death in the end. This could be particularly concerning to viewers, especially for those who are vulnerable to themes such as suicide and self-harm.
Sexual Content: As for the series, it presents a subplot of a sexual assault. Although actual scenes of the sexual assault are not depicted within the movie, the plot of the film does involve discussions of the event. This section reveals how a character lies to help the victim and the implications of such an act are felt emotionally and legally. There are several instances of sexual relationships outlined in the show; these are an extramarital affair between two protagonists and homosexuality between two male characters. Some scenes of intimacy are depicted but not in detail and an explicit manner. The series contains episodes related to adult parties with implied drug use and sexual intercourse without excessive emphasis on it.
Substance Use: The series depicts drug use as a serious component of the plot. People including young adults are depicted using drugs and as a result, are seen to develop complications such as an overdose. These scenes are realistic to depict the consequences of the situation and the negative effects of drug use. They depict characters taking alcohol occasionally and this leads to loss of proper judgment like in the case of the politician who was driving when involved in an accident.
Language: It can be assumed that the series uses censorship and contains obscene words and scenes that are not for children. This language is heard during tense situations such as intense working hours at the hospital or during a raised voice that depicts conflict between characters.
Overall Suitability: ”Breathless” is a TV series for grown-ups that addresses significant and sometimes rather dark topics. It is probably better suited for mature audiences, particularly young adults and older, aged 16 and up, because of its strong, emotionally charged storyline, highly developed themes, and examples of violence, drugs, and sexual content. Parents and guardians should ensure that they restrict the viewing of this series strongly to young children based on their maturity. It is also very useful for raising the ethical dilemmas within the health care system, the effects of political actions, or lack thereof, on interpersonal services, and the necessity of mental health and support for those in high-demand vocations, including frontline workers.
Considering the plot summary content described above, the suggested rating for Breathless is most likely TV-MA: Mature Audiences.
