Netflix’s If I Hadn’t Met You is a one-season time travel wonder that remains underseen seven years after its release.
Starring Pablo Derqui, Andrea Ros, and Mercedes Sampietro, among others, If I Hadn’t Met You is a Spanish Catalan-language TV series that landed on Netflix in the same era as other acclaimed time travel shows like Dark, The OA, and Travelers. Like its contemporaries, it borrowed several familiar sci-fi tropes but blended them with something incredibly unique and moving.
Originally aired on TV3 network, If I Hadn’t Met You centers on Eduard, a grieving man who finds a way to travel to alternate universes and potentially save his deceased wife and kids from their tragic doom. While changing the future seems harder than he had imagined, his emotional journey leaves him with profound lessons about choices, death, and time.
Netflix’s If I Hadn’t Met You Is An Underrated Time Travel Masterpiece
On the surface, If I Hadn’t Met You is not too different from the vast array of other sci-fi shows that explore parallel universes and the rippling effect of one’s choices. In fact, when it comes to portraying the Many Worlds Interpretation alone, shows like Dark Matter, Counterpart, and Fringe are far better than If I Hadn’t Met You.
However, what makes it an incredible addition to the genre is how it gets viewers completely invested in its characters in only a few episodes. After the show’s pilot episode, I could not help but feel the protagonist’s burning desire to rewind the clocks and somehow bring his family back.
Pablo Derqui’s powerful performance as Eduard also allows one to see how the show draws subtle parallels between time travel and drug addiction. No matter how many times the main character sees his family in different alternate worlds, he cannot help but move on to the next one and explore the high of a new potential possibility.
If I Hadn’t Met You also has an eerily beautiful intro:
Time-travel TV shows often get so lost in their portrayals of complex ideas and story twists that they forget to focus on the one thing that brings an emotional edge to their narratives: character relationships. If I Hadn’t Met You is an exception, though, as it brilliantly allows emotional and human storytelling to be its primary driver.
If You Loved Dark And The OA, You Must Watch If I Hadn’t Met You On Netflix
Although many sci-fi shows have come out on Netflix in recent years, many viewers cannot help but remember how short-lived series like Dark, The OA, and Travelers defined the best era on the genre for the streaming giant. Although relatively obscure, If I Hadn’t Met You was a part of the same era and deserves to be ranked among Netflix’s best sci-fi TV offerings.