Eva Lasting (Spanish: La primera vez) is a Colombian romantic drama television series created by Dago García.[1] It is produced by Caracol Televisión for Netflix.[2] The series premiered on 15 February 2023.[3] The series stars Emmanuel Restrepo and Francisca Estévez.
On 24 February 2023, the series was renewed for a second season that premiered on 10 July 2024.[4][5] On 30 July 2024, the series was renewed for a third season.[6]
Premise
Set in 1976 in Bogotá, Colombia, complete with period fashion, vehicles, and the city's first bowling alley, Eva Lasting revolves around Eva Samper who is the first girl ever to attend an all-boys high school as a pioneer of co-ed public schooling in the city. She befriends Camilo Granados in particular and a group of awkward friends. Eva is far more knowledgeable about relationships, literature and world affairs than the gang, taking advantage of and having fun with their naïvety.[3]
Cast
Main
Emmanuel Restrepo as Camilo Granados
Francisca Estévez as Eva Samper, the first girl to attend Colegio Distrital José María Root. Eva was brought up by her father and was expelled from her previous school.
Santiago Alarcón as José Granados, Camilo's father who wants him to conform to the male machismo norms of the day.[7]
In 1976, 17-year old Eva Samper, becomes the first female student to attend an all-boys high school in Bogota. She is a pioneer of co-ed public schooling in the city. She befriends Camilo in particular and his awkward group of friends. She is far more knowledgeable about relationships, literature and world affairs, taking advantage of and having fun with their naivety. The gang of boys congregate frequently at 68, a pool hall, to discuss this new development. Meanwhile the central character, Camilo, is taken to a brothel by his macho father, José, impressed by his interest in women, but fails to follow through because of his growing feelings for Eva.
2
2
"The Lady of the Camellias" "La dama de las camelias"
15 February 2023 (2023-02-15)
Eva's presence raises jealousies, with Camilo confessing to his mother that he has feelings for her. The gang decide to investigate her background. In a farcical scene they erroneously decide she must be a prostitute, get taken to her alleged house by her 'driver' allegedly her 'father', where she tricks them into removing their clothes before photographing them. She diffuses their embarrassment by taking them to Bogotá's first bowling alley, adding to the mystery by revealing her bowling skills. She says she may be leaving the school, which is a recurring theme across several episodes. Some of the gang visit a whorehouse.
3
3
"A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" "Retrato del artista adolescente"
15 February 2023 (2023-02-15)
Camilo begins to read more books recommended by Eva, and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, which has father finds suspicious given Camilo's lack of interest in literature. But Eva is introduced to Camilo's parents, who are impressed. The gang decide to sing a song in English at a parent-teacher event for Mother's Day, coached by Eva, who strangely speaks good English. But reverting to Spanish for the performance on stage it becomes clear that Martin, who seemed to show a gift as a composer, had simply copied a song he heard on the radio, and jealousies erupt. The gang starts fighting in front of a packed hall and the parents start insulting each other too across the floor. In the heat of the moment Martin's mother reveals that Mr. Pabón, a parent, is having an affair with Estela, the teacher. This leads to her dismissal from the school, but Eva (taking a feminist stance) and Camilo believe she is innocent.
4
4
"A Room of One's Own" "Una habitación propia"
15 February 2023 (2023-02-15)
Eva and Camilo hatch a risky plan to start a school newspaper, in which they will expose Mr. Pabón for his womanising and taking advantage of Estela. This they do, getting it printed via a contact of Eva's, but both get suspended from school. Gustavo, Pabón's son and one of the group, is devastated by what was printed. Eva reveals a little more of herself to Camilo, including that her mother died by suicide and that as a lonely child with an absent father, she turned to literature. We then learn that teacher Estela shot Pabón in a crime of passion, he narrowly survived, and Estela is in jail.
5
5
"The Scarlet Letter" "La letra escarlata"
15 February 2023 (2023-02-15)
Eva and Camilo investigate the case of Estela and Mr. Pabón further, finding that Pabón has a dubious and violent past and Estela probably shot him in self-defence. Others are unconvinced. Gustavo confirms he had been violent towards the family. They confront Pabón in hospital and faced with their knowledge of his violence and illegal activities, he agrees to drop the case against Estela, who is released from prison and not seen again. Eva and Camilo's school suspension is reversed. With that saga over, Eva is suddenly kidnapped by two gunmen, and is driven off at speed. Camilo, who was in the hijacked taxi with her, is devastated and anxious.
6
6
"Siddhartha" "Siddharta"
15 February 2023 (2023-02-15)
Camilo and his father José rush to the police station to report Eva's kidnapping, but an aggressive and opinionated José loses his temper with police indifference, and ends up spending 24 hours in jail himself. Meanwhile Eva shows up at Camilo's house, lying that the kidnappers had got the wrong person. At school Eva's poor grades threaten her future, so she stops sitting with Camilo and moves to Guzmán's desk (someone much disliked and bullied by the gang), also studying with him and falling for him in the process. The gang is incredulous, and jealous.
7
7
"Tess of the d'Urbervilles" "Tess d'Urbervilles"
15 February 2023 (2023-02-15)
Eva is dumped by Guzmán, who was using her to study for his own benefit, and he leaves the school on a scholarship to Germany. Eva is devastated, and gets drunk at 68. Many of the mysteries of Eva's life are revealed. The boys shadow her movements and discover her real home, a large Bogotá mansion, where she reveals her father is actually a rich industrialist, not the driver of one. She was using her driver's home, where the boys had been invited in previous episodes, as a decoy. The kidnap attempt was a real one given the wealth of the family, but the police had been trailing the assailants for weeks, so quickly arrested them. But her mother did indeed commit suicide and Eva had been expelled from several schools: if she did not do well with this, her last chance in a public school, she would have been sent to a Catholic religious boarding school run by nuns, in France. Martin's sister Luisa becomes the second girl at the school, unsettling friendship and gender dynamics (and annoying Martin since she is placed in the same class).
8
8
"The Sorrows of Young Werther" "Las penas de amor del joven Werther"
15 February 2023 (2023-02-15)
The friends see Casanova at the cinema, on Eva's suggestion, provoking more jealousies. Camilo's love for Eva, simmering in previous episodes, is going nowhere. He flirts with Luisa and writes her letters, but Eva, his real target, does not seem jealous. There is growing unrest in the city, with rising inflation and street protests resulting from the beginnings of neoliberalism and attacks on unions, in which Camilo's father is implicated as an organiser.[8] Martial law is declared. The boys are forced to ask Eva for loans to help their households, as the only rich person they know. The loans were not forthcoming, and the issue adds to conflict. Eva engineers some time for Camilo to see Luisa away from her protective brother, not knowing that Camilo is not really interested in Luisa. Nietzsche's writings prove incomprehensible to the students in English class who must write an essential essay on his work.
9
9
"Thus Spoke Zarathustra" "Así habló Zaratustra"
15 February 2023 (2023-02-15)
Camilo, confused, accidentally expresses his love for Luisa, taking advantage of her in Eva's house. Martin arrives and strongly suspects Camilo is there. Camilo, realising his efforts to make Eva jealous have failed, tries to back out of the relationship with Luisa. Eva thinks he is a coward, and cruel, making his situation worse in several awkward scenes, anchored by Martin's furious protection of his sister.
10
10
"The Teachings of Don Juan" "Las enseñanzas de Don Juan"
15 February 2023 (2023-02-15)
Eva saves Camilo from Martin's anger, but tragically, Luisa is shipped off to Popayan by her mother to attend a Catholic boarding school. After a fragile order is restored, Eva holds a party, and girls from her previous schools come, with whom the gang are initially awkward. Álvaro Castro gets drunk and causes a scene, the girls leave, and Eva rolls Punta Rojo joints for the gang. Camilo confesses his love for Eva, but she breaks off to take a call that distresses her. On leaving, Camilo is shocked to see Gustavo giving Martin a blowjob. This, accidentally revealed, combined with the situation between Eva and Camilo, creates huge awkwardness back at school.
11
11
"De Profundis" "De profundis"
15 February 2023 (2023-02-15)
An episode about sexualities in the 1970s. Camilo has to report to the school authorities what he saw at Eva's party, since Quiñones exposed the incident to the whole school. He lies, saving Martin but 'burying' Gustavo Pabón, accusing him of sexual harassment or worse. Gustavo is suspended. Eva reads a fragment of Wilde's De profundis to class and also defends Gustavo. A parent meeting is called with the school principal, at which Ana, Camilo's mother, speaks up in Gustavo's defence, and for respect an tolerance, causing a family rift with 'backward' macho José. The school meeting results in Gustavo being sent for counselling rather than expelled. Camilo can't handle his guilt, makes up with his father, tells the truth about the sexual encounter he witnessed, but Gustavo and his mother leave the school and the city.
12
12
"The Asphalt Jungle" "Jungla de asfalto"
15 February 2023 (2023-02-15)
Eva catches the Acuña twins trying to steal expensive items from her house and sell them on the black market. Rather than calling the police, she enlists them to assist herself and Camilo to steal the grade list from the school principal's office, to alter any failing grades for everybody. There are repercussions the next day, but overshadowed by Eva reciprocating Camilo's kiss. He is then confined to his room by his parents for admitting the theft of grades. Meanwhile Eva's father is arrested in Spain for money laundering, and jailed in Colombia, just as Colombia's marijuana trade begins to make international news. Camilo finds Eva hiding at her driver's after encountering the drug squad at her real house. they return to school, visit her father in jail, which does not go well. Eva also has to go and live with her aunt in the US, since she is not yet 18 and her father is in jail.
13
13
"The Catcher in the Rye" "El guardián entre el centeno"
15 February 2023 (2023-02-15)
Rather than endure separation, Eva and Camilo run away together, taking the bus out of Bogotá to a family house of hers by Neusa Reservoir, 60 km away. Things go well between them, and Eva also rids herself of a gun. But the couple are discovered by the police, and flee, cycling back to Bogotá at night and dropping in at Rodrigo's house where Eva hides, then and at other friend's houses. Camilo's parents consider divorce given their manifest differences, but Camilo returns to them and they help him lie to the police that he does not know where Eva is. Meanwhile he convinces his parents to use a legal statute he found in the school library to take in a minor who is in family distress and who lacks relatives. Eva is captured, the adoption fails because Eva's father is not in favour, and Eva is flown to the US. Eva sends a devastated Camilo Cien Sonetos de Amor by Pablo Neruda, with a photo of herself. The gang agree to try and find the money for Camilo to fly to the US. However, Camilo's plans are interrupted when he receives a phone call from Luisa, saying that she is pregnant with his child.
Season 2 (2024)
No. overall
No. in season
Title
Original release date
14
1
"Letters to a Young Poet" "Cartas a un joven poeta"
10 July 2024 (2024-07-10)
15
2
"The Second Sex" "El segundo sexo"
10 July 2024 (2024-07-10)
16
3
"Letters to a Child Never Born" "Cartas a un niño que nunca nació"
10 July 2024 (2024-07-10)
17
4
"Gulliver's Travels" "Los viajes de Gulliver"
10 July 2024 (2024-07-10)
18
5
"When God Was a Woman" "Cuando Dios era mujer"
10 July 2024 (2024-07-10)
19
6
"The Sexual Revolution" "La revolución sexual"
10 July 2024 (2024-07-10)
20
7
"Doña Flor and Her Two Husbands" "Doña flor y sus dos maridos"
10 July 2024 (2024-07-10)
21
8
"LIVEFOREVER" "¡Que viva la música!"
10 July 2024 (2024-07-10)
22
9
"The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State" "El orígen de la familia, la propiedad privada y el estado"
