Through My Window 2: The Cheesy, Steamy Dud That's Defying The Odds On Netflix

Netflix has become something of a wellspring for a surprising genre over the past few years: the steamy direct-to-streaming foreign language romantic drama. It looks like that success is being repeated with "Through My Window: Across the Sea," a Spanish-language sequel to "Through My Window." While the film is drawing less-than-stellar critical reviews and audience plaudits, it's getting a lot of attention from viewers. It may hold a 31 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, but it's currently among the streamer's most popular film-related offerings.

"Through My Window: Across The Sea" picks things up with Ares (Julio Peña) and Raquel (Clara Galle), two young lovers from different worlds who are trying to keep the flame alive while Ares studies medicine in Sweden. Ares' rich family remains determined to keep Raquel from dating their son, and Ares remains determined to keep seeing Raquel no matter what. Yet it's been months since the couple have laid eyes on one another in person. Their summer break trip to Barcelona should fix things — but Raquel's best friend Yoshi (Guillermo Lasheras) and Ares' brothers Artemis (Eric Masip) and Apolo (Hugo Arbués) soon make their plans for a tranquil holiday anything but a guaranteed thing.

"Through My Window: Across the Sea" also introduces new characters to the film's universe. Specifically, there's Vera (Andrea Chaparro) and Gregory (Ivan Lapadula), who provide romantic alternatives for both of our main characters. 

Unfortunately, it's a ride critics seem unwilling to tail our Spanish Romeo and Juliet through. As of press time, Rotten Tomatoes sports only two reviews for the film, both of them negative, with both Amanda Guarragi of Ready, Set, Cut and Roger Moore of Movie Nation panning the film. Moore is the most forward of the two in his total disdain for the film, stating, "Cheating, bullying, tragedy and 'the long distance romance thing' all play into the absurdly arbitrary and predictable plot."

The "Through My Window" series definitely isn't Netflix's first foray into distributing steamy dramas for streaming. They first dipped their toes into the pool in 2020; the phenomena began with "365 Days," a Polish thriller that did huge numbers for the streamer both domestically and internationally; it became Netflix's first film to be its number one scripted movie-related offering across a spate of two separate sets of days. That resulted in two sequels, "The Next 365 Days" and "365 Days: The Next Day."