Women in Blue (Spanish: Las Azules) is a Mexican crime drama television series created by Fernando Rovzar and Pablo Aramendi. Set in Mexico City in the early 1970s, the series follows four women who join the country's first female police corps while a serial killer stalks the capital. It stars Bárbara Mori, Ximena Sariñana, Amorita Rasgado and Natalia Téllez, with Miguel Rodarte and Leonardo Sbaraglia in supporting roles.
Produced by Lemon Studios, the series was Apple TV's first Spanish-language original series. The ten-episode first season premiered on July 31, 2024, and concluded on September 25, 2024. A second season of eight episodes began streaming on August 12, 2026.
The first season drew generally favourable reviews, with critics praising the period production design and the performances of the four leads while noting the conventionality of the mystery plotting.
Contents
Premise
Season 1
In 1971, the government of Mexico City creates a female police corps, publicly presented as a modernizing reform but conceived largely as a public relations exercise intended to distract from the authorities' failure to capture a serial killer known as the Tlalpan Undresser (el Encuerador de Tlalpan). Four recruits from very different backgrounds — a housewife, her younger sister, the daughter of a police officer, and a highly analytical loner — enter the corps and, denied any real investigative role, begin pursuing the case themselves.
Season 2
The second season opens the day after the Corpus Christi massacre of June 1971, in which the paramilitary group Los Halcones attacked a student demonstration in Mexico City. María, now promoted to lieutenant, leads the Azules into the investigation of the death of a student activist. The inquiry implicates the police force itself and reaches back to the Tlatelolco massacre of 1968, in which soldiers fired on student protesters shortly before Mexico hosted the Olympic Games.
Cast and characters
Main
Bárbara Mori as María de la Torre
Ximena Sariñana as Ángeles Cruz
Amorita Rasgado as Gabina Herrera
Natalia Téllez as Valentina Camacho
Miguel Rodarte as Octavio Romandía
Leonardo Sbaraglia as Alejandro de la Torre
Recurring
Christian Tappan as Escobedo
Horacio García Rojas as Gerardo
Bruno Bichir as Goyo Cárdenas
Albi De Abreu as Jacobo Zabludovsky
Alejandro de la Madrid as Luis Echeverría
Rosa María Bianchi as Luz
Mario Zaragoza as Comandante Herrera
Alejandro Guerrero as the Tlalpan Undresser
Episodes
Season 1 (2024)
Each episode of the first season is named for a female character.
Production
Development
The series was created by Fernando Rovzar and Pablo Aramendi and produced by Lemon Studios for Apple TV+. Rovzar, an International Emmy Award winner for Monarca, serves as showrunner and director of some episodes. Executive producers alongside Rovzar include Wendy Riss, Alejandro Lozano, Erica Sánchez Su and Billy Rovzar.
Rovzar has described the intention as a gritty crime story inflected with traditional Mexican melodrama, aimed at exposing wrongdoing within the establishment. He said extensive research underpinned the depiction of the historical events, which the production sought to portray "with honesty, responsibility and respect".
Historical basis
The series is a fictionalization rather than a documentary account. Its premise draws on the creation of Mexico City's first female police corps in 1971, while the serial killer of the first season is invented. Several real figures appear as characters, including the journalist Jacobo Zabludovsky and the convicted murderer Goyo Cárdenas. The second season is built around two documented episodes of state repression: the Tlatelolco massacre of 1968 and the Corpus Christi massacre of June 1971.
Speaking about the second season, Mori said the investigation would "delve deeply into the subject, not just the institution of the police force itself, but also the 1971 student massacre", drawing a line to continuing killings and disappearances in Mexico.
Filming
Filming took place in Mexico, with production design reconstructing Mexico City of the early 1970s. Reviewers singled out the period recreation, cinematography and costuming as among the series' strengths.
Release
Women in Blue premiered on Apple TV+ on July 31, 2024 with its first two episodes, followed by one episode weekly until the season finale on September 25, 2024.
In March 2026, the series was renewed for a second season. A trailer was released on July 21, 2026. The eight-episode second season began streaming globally on August 12, 2026 on Apple TV, with weekly episodes scheduled through September 30, 2026.
Reception
On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the first season holds an approval rating of 100% based on 15 critic reviews. The website's consensus reads: "As a group of four women in 1970s Mexico battle sexism and a serial killer, this by-the-book crime drama delivers plenty of soapy twists to keep the thrills going." On Metacritic, the season has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100 based on six critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
Reviewing the series for Variety, Aramide Tinubu wrote that it "succeeds not only because of its distinct characters and truly intriguing mystery, but also because it showcases how patriarchal ideals and misogyny harm not just women but society as a whole". Cristina Escobar of RogerEbert.com called it "a thrilling and satisfying ride, combining predictable genre elements with surprising turns", while faulting uneven direction and writing and observing that a series about women had been created, directed and largely written by men.
Writing in The Guardian, Rachel Aroesti was more reserved, finding the protagonists' transformation and the corruption of the police department "entertaining and thought-provoking" but lacking inherent dramatic tension, with the narrative drive resting instead on the killer's concealed identity. Dan Einav of the Financial Times awarded three stars out of five, judging that the series "largely plays out as you expect" but is "enriched by polished execution and fine lead performances".
