The Mess You Leave Behind
historical drama television series
The Mess You Leave Behind (Spanish: El desorden que dejas) is a Spanish thriller drama television limited series created by Carlos Montero for Netflix, based on his novel of the same name. The series, starring Inma Cuesta and Bárbara Lennie, tracks a literature teacher who takes a substitute teaching position in a small fictional town in rural Galicia (Novariz) and learns that her predecessor died mysteriously.
The series premiered on 11 December 2020 on Netflix.
Main cast
Inma Cuesta as Raquel Valero, a new literature teacher
Bárbara Lennie as Elvira Ferreiro Martínez "Viruca", the old literature teacher who died under mysterious circumstances
Tamar Novas as Germán Araujo, Raquel's drug-addicted husband
Arón Piper as Iago Nogueira, a hotheaded student with a close relationship with Viruca
Roberto Enríquez as Mauro Muñiz, Viruca's ex-husband
Roque Ruiz as Roi Fernández, a friend of Iago's with a secret crush
Isabel Garrido as Nerea Casado, another friend of Iago with a polarised relationship with Viruca
Fede Pérez as Demetrio Araujo, Germán's brother
Alfonso Agra as Tomás Nogueira, Iago's abusive father with criminal connections
Susana Dans as Marga, the school principal
Xavier Estévez as Ramón, another teacher at the school
Eduardo Rosa as Simòn, a friend of Germán with whom Raquel had a three-month affair.
Xosé Touriñán as Gabriel Acevedo, a friend of Germán
Maria Tasende as Iria, the school's English teacher
María Costas as Claudia, Germán's mother
Abril Zamora as Tere, Raquel's old friend
Ana Santos as Concha, a bartender
Production
The Mess You Leave Behind was filmed in locations in Galicia including Celanova, Ourense, whose public high school (the one in which the creator studied) was used to recreate the high school where characters Raquel and Viruca teach.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Mess You Leave Behind” is historical drama television series. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Mess, Leave and Behind, not as a finished interpretation.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q85867753. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2020.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Mess You Leave Behind” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.