"Física o Química" ("Physics or Chemistry") is a Spanish drama TV series (broadcast by Antena 3 channel) which ran from 2008 to 2011 and dealt with the daily life of the teachers and students from the Zurbarán school. It was awarded as the best series in Spain and has a cult status among many viewers, including the LGBT community due to its realistic portrayal of several homosexual characters.
The show was canceled due to a drop in ratings (Partly as a result of the high rotation of the cast throughout the final three seasons) in 2011. The controversial series showed themes important for all teens: relationships, sex, unwanted pregnancies, racism, homophobia, drugs, alcohol, and relationships with teachers and parents.
Examples:
- Abusive Parents: Cabano's father is the physical type, Paula and David's mothers are the emotional type; Jan's parents too, as they force him to break up with Paula, marry his cousin and move back to China.
- Ambiguously Bi: Heterosexual Life-Partners Berto and Vaquero, as they seemed to develop a romantic and even sexual attraction towards each other when they got in a polyamorous relationship with Verónica.
- Berto is confirmed bisexual in season 8.
- Amicable Exes: Gorka and Ruth, Paula and Cabano, Yoli and Julio, Olimpia and Roque.
- Betty and Veronica: For Miguel it was Blanca as Betty and Irene as Veronica, he chose neither. For Ruth it was Cabano as Betty and Gorka/Roman as Veronica, she ultimately chose Cabano, but they broke up prior to Season 8. For Julio it was Cova as Betty and Violeta/Yoli as Veronica, Cova won. For Daniela it was Salva as Betty and Jon as Veronica, she chose Jon.
- Bilingual Bonus: Whenever the characters speak English in class.
- Irene's one true love Thomas is American and they initially have trouble communicating due to neither being particularly good at speaking each other's language. Hilariouisly, Thomas once told Irene that he wanted to break her neck ("Desnucarte"), when he actually meant to say he wanted her to get naked ("Desnudarte").
- Bittersweet Ending: Fer is tragically killed when he attempts to stop the school shooting but on the other hand most of the characters who were Put on a Bus earlier on return for the finale and show us they've all succeeded in life.
- Season 8 has one too, on one hand Olimpia and Martin are confirmed divorced as well as Paula and Gorka, Berto and Blanca and Cabano and Ruth have also broken up and Alma's marriage to Roque is in the dumps as he is constantly cheating on her; on the other hand David is finally moving on from Fer's death after some divine intervention, Irene and Thomas are still happily married, Cova puts her fear of commitment aside and accepts Julio's marriage proposal, and Yoli is saved from marrying a terrible guy and begins a relationship with Cabano.
- Blatant Lies: Quite a lot even for a drama series, every single character often has several lies going at the same time.
- Alma is particularly guilty of this, fake hysterical crying and everything; right after being introduced she starts creating increasingly ridiculous stories about her past and family life, first she claims that she was born in New York and that her mother is a famous actress, when that lie begins unraveling she then says she is actually in witness protection and that her father was a judge who was murdered by a career criminal; later on when her true past is being slowly uncovered by Paula and Cabano she quickly produces a fictionalized version of Elena's death to downplay her part in it. Later still in season 5 she goes as far as to shamelessly frame Gorka as a rapist, and in season 8 it is revealed she's now an influencer lying to millions of people on Instagram about how perfect her marriage with Roque is.
- Character Development: For nearly every character, makes sense, considering that's the whole point of the series.
- Gorka is a particularly special case; he started out as just a jerk without any redeeming qualities. He did almost everything to make the lives of people around him hell, but in season 3 he became much more humane after the birth of Olimpia's child (Whom he both delivered and later babysat regularly). This experience would prove invaluable later on when he uses this knowledge to help Paula along with the pregnancy, which eventually sells her on the idea of taking him up on his offer to be more than just her baby's father. He also overcomes his grudge against Ruth and Cabano for cheating on him and is one of the biggest supporters of their relationship, and even becomes one of Fer's closest friends after years of bullying him when they bond after their respective friends abandon them; he even becomes Cova's best friend when it is revealed he moved in with her after Paula's mother ran him out of town, a bond that continues on as of season 8, when Cova is seen talking to him about her problems regularly and taking his side in arguments.
- Book Dumb: Gorka and David are outright oafish, Yoli, Paula and Ruth are also shown to not do very good at school.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Gorka towards Ruth, plays a part in his Character Development later on when he lets go of his grudges and creates a much healthier relationship with Paula. Also Fer towards David, particularly in season 7.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Paula towards Gorka, but only when they're NOT together; she relapses into this in Season 8 after their divorce, despite the fact that she herself is sleeping with Jan.
- Cure your gays: Played both for comedy and drama; on the comical side Fer has a one night stand with Yoli while they're both drunk which prompts him to question his sexuality for about five minutes while Yoli becomes strangely smitten with him; on the dramatic side, David's mother is so hateful that she tries to pull him out of the school and forces him to speak to a homophobic psychologist.
- Daddy DNA Test: For Olimpia since she didn't know if Dario was Felix's or Roque's, turns out it's Felix's.
- Dark secret: Alma hid her involvement in the death of a childhood friend and her attraction to females. Miguel hid the fact that he was partly responsible for a bus crash that injured various students. Marina hid the fact that she was HIV positive. Cabano didn't want anyone to know that his father physically abused him and later on also forced Ruth to keep his cancer a secret.
- Oriol, Yoli's fiancee in season 8, whom we're told is essentially Gorka without any of his character development, he even goes as far as to threaten Irene to keep it secret.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Many characters have some sort of troubled past, but Alma certainly has the darkest one, runner ups would be Marina, Miguel and Alberto.
- Deus Angst Machina: Most characters are this, but the most prominent example is Ruth, with her life being basically an endless string of tragedies.
- Driven to Suicide: Rubén couldn't stand the pressure caused by his involvement in the death of his friend. David tried to commit suicide as well but was stopped by Jorge. Ruth had a failed attempted suicide as well.
- Irene commited suicide in the original ending for Season 4 after Blanca leaves Spain for good and Thomas rejects her marriage proposal, this ending was later rendered non-canon, and Irene is still alive as of Season 8.
- Dysfunctional Family: Cabano, Ruth, Román, Gorka and Julio all have some kind of dysfunctional families.
- Dysfunction Junction
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Gorka.
- Fidelity Test
- The Fundamentalist: Quino.
- Fer accuses Marina of this due to her conservative beliefs but is swiftly proven wrong.
- Gayngst: Fer and David.
- Granola Girl: Cova, Julio's on-and-off girlfriend, is an extreme example of this initially, down to refusing to have a cellphone and stealing and destroying lots of expensive shoes just to make a point about corporate greed, but it gets toned down later on as her personal drama begins to supersede her moral crusades.
- Killed Off for Real: Rubén, Isaac and Fer.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: Alma and Alvaro.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Blanca and Irene, Gorka and Cabano, and Julio with Fer and David. Also, Berto and Vaquero, although there is some question as to the nature
of their relationship.- Berto is later confirmed bisexual.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Gorka. See Character Development above.
- Love Hurts: In Season 8 we find out Yoli and Cabano had an affair while he was with Ruth which strained their relationships for several years; after Yoli cancels the wedding Cabano reveals Ruth has since forgiven them.
- Love Martyr: Ruth for Cabano during his cancer and Gorka for Paula when he had to put up with her emotionally abusive mother.
- Love Triangle: The show is fond of this trope. Some examples are: Gorka/Ruth/Cabano, Cabano/Ruth/Román, Cabano/Paula/Jan, David/Fer/Borja, Olimpia/Martín/Blanca/Berto, Irene/Isaac/Yoli, Miguel/Blanca/Irene, Jon/Daniela/Salva, Irene/Miguel/Blanca etc.
- Berto, Verónica and Vaquero seemed to head this way but ended up in a polyamorous relationship instead. Likewise with Cabano/Paula/Alma, although it ended quickly.
- Season 8 has Cabano/Yoli/Oriol.
- Make Up or Break Up / Break-Up/Make-Up Scenario: Happens a lot of times throughout the series.
- Manchild: Vaquero, getting over this is his main character arc.
- Man Hug: Fer gives Julio one as he slips him some Viagra in front of Cova.
- Manipulative Bastard: Alma, she pretends to be Paula and Cabano's friend in order to groom them both into a polyamorous relationship, forces herself on Roque to the point of getting him to quit his job and then tosses him aside, and then gets Quino to turn on his friends by convincing him that they see him as a doormat.
- May–December Romance: Irene and Isaac, doesn't work out; Roque and Alma, works out eventually, at least until Season 8.
- Moral Guardian: Quino. He started out as The Fundamentalist, but after getting some Character Development, he became more complicated and open to new ideas.
- Mr. Fanservice: Cabano, David, Isaac, Jonathan, Vaquero and Berto.
- Ms. Fanservice: Ruth, Yoli, Irene and Verónica.
- Nice Guy: Jan, Quino and Salva.
- Oriol initially seems to be this, but the facade breaks when he publically demeans the Zurbaran gang, calling them "lowlifes", during the wedding.
- Odd Friendship: Between Fer and Gorka.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Fernando "Fer", Yolanda "Yoli", Joaquín "Quino", Alberto "Berto", Salvador "Salva", etc.
- Parental Abandonment: Julio's father, Gorka's father, Quino's father, Ruth's parents, Román's parents, etc.
- Parental Neglect: Julio's mother, David's parents.
- Parents Walk Inatthe Worst Time
- Platonic Life-Partners: Fer and Yoli.
- Polyamorous: Berto, Verónica and Vaquero, throughout Season 5 and early Season 6, were in a polyamorous relationship.
- Really Gets Around: Yoli; over the course of the series she dated Isaac, Oliver, Quino, Julio, Fer, Roman, Salva, Oriol and Cabano, on top of several one-episode characters and Julio's father who blackmailed her; the only guys in the main cast other than teachers she didn't date at some point were Ruben, Gorka and Jon, tough early on she implied she and Gorka had been intimate enough for her to know that he had a piercing.
- Irene and Verónica are the other two most prominent examples, Irene dated Isaac, Mario, Miguel and Thomas, while Verónica found it impossible to simply be part of a couple and kept trying to find substitutes for Berto after he left, much to Vaquero's chagrin.
- David tries to be this shortly after coming out, much to Fer's dismay but he gets over it, then relapses after their breakup.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Several throughout the series, but they're most often directed to Gorka, Olimpia, Roque and Martin.
- Slice of Life: Sometimes, other times the drama escalates to absurd situations like an arson attempt and a school shooting.
- Straight Gay: David and Borja. Fer starts out as this but becomes increasingly flamboyant in later seasons as he breaks out of his shell.
- Talking Down the Suicidal: Jorge talks David down from jumping off a bridge.
- Teacher/Student Romance: Irene and Isaac, Alma and Roque, and David and Jorge (Mostly one-sided).
- Subverted with Ruth and Vaquero when everyone thinks they're dating but in reality he's just helping her sort out her feelings about Cabano's cancer.
- There's also some comedic teasing with Olimpia/Clara and Gorka of all people; after basically delivering her baby and then becoming his regular babysitter, Olimpia's opinion on Gorka shifts dramatically and she can be seen staring fondly at him often, meanwhile Clara's first insemination attempt, which turns out was very likely carried out using Gorka's sperm sample, leaves them both dismaying over the implications of having a child together for the entire episode.
- Too many, actually. The writers seem to be fond of this trope.
- The Bus Came Back: Both Cova and Gorka return twice after leaving; most of the cast that had left previously, including Irene, Thomas, Blanca, Berto, Roque, Ruth, Cabano, Paula, Gorka, Julio and Cova, return for the final episode.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Gorka, in later seasons.
- True Companions: The main gang of Fer, Julio, David, Cova, Yoli, Paula, Ruth, Cabano and Gorka.
- Irene and Blanca, whose friendship remains strong despite their constant romantic misadventures.
- Yellow Peril: This is why Gorka and Cabano don't like Jan.
- Later somewhat justified when Jan cheats on Paula with his cousin and then brags about it publically, breaking her heart just in time for Isaac's death to destroy her emotionally.
