The Map Of Longing, a new Netflix series from Spain, is about a woman mourning her recently-deceased older sister who gets to find herself with the help of series of challenges her sister devised before she died. Helping the woman is a mysterious friend of her sister’s, and sparks fly from the second they meet each other.

Opening Shot: As we see a microscopic image of a sperm being injected into an egg, a voice says, “Most people don’t know how they came into the world. I do.”

The Gist: Greta Álvarez (Alícia Falcó) was “genetically selected” to be a bone marrow donor to her older sister Lucy (Georgina Amorós), who was battling leukemia at just 18 months old. While the bone marrow transplant worked for awhile, allowing the two of them to grow up together and become as close as sisters do, eventually Lucy’s body rejected the cells. Lucy made it to 26, but recently passed away.

While Greta is in mourning, she keeps soldering on, which includes dealing with her depressed mother and workaholic father. Because Lucy’s illness sucked up so much of her parents’ time and energy, Greta always felt somewhat neglected, relying on her grandfather for support.

On Lucy’s birthday, Greta goes to her sister’s favorite burger joint, and she’s approached by a stranger named Will Tucker (Pablo Álvarez). He’s holding a box that Lucy instructed him to give her on the first birthday after her death. Of course, Greta is skeptical, given that she never met Will before. Inside the box is a wooden book-shaped game with the words “The Map of Longing” on the front. Inside is numbered cubbies that detail challenges Lucy constructed for Greta, and Will is supposed to make sure she does those challenges.

At first Greta doesn’t even want to read the letter that Lucy wrote to explain the game. Will refuses to give her the game until she agrees to play. But after some lonely drinking at home, she eventually decides to find Will at the bar where he works and ask for the game back. The two of them are feisty together, but there is certainly a spark between them, especially after Will sits with her while she sleeps off her binge drinking on a bench outside the bar.

While Will continues to be a mystery to Greta, she agrees to play. The first challenge is to go to a support group for people who lost family members, which Lucy scouted out before she died. In the meantime, Greta continues to draw information out of Will: He was born in Wales, which explains his Anglo name, and his family had money but there is a reason why he has been in Spain most of his life and works as a bartender.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Map Of Longing, based on the novel by Alice Kellen, has a similar tone to shows like This Is Us.

Our Take: The idea behind The Map Of Longing is that Lucy left this map as a way for Greta to deal with grief and help her figure out who she is, especially now that Lucy isn’t around anymore. Greta was very close to Lucy but also felt like she was in her older sister’s shadow. We don’t know yet how Lucy knows Will, but it seems like she put the two of them together because of an instinct she had that they’d be able to be each other’s support system.

It’s a heady premise for a series, but it’s also a strong structure to build an emotional drama around. As Greta and Will complete the map and go on Lucy’s challenges, they’ll get to know each other better while Greta gets to know herself. We already see the sparks flying between them, and that romantic attraction will also be explored. Will’s past will also likely come up, and perhaps throw in that needed romantic conflict between the two of them that will allow for a satisfying conclusion to the story.

The show rides on the chemistry between Falcó and Álvarez, and their banter crackles from their first scene together. Neither character realizes the extent of the journey they’re both going on, but it seems certain that they were brought together for a reason. Even Will, who refuses to reveal much about himself, finds Greta intriguing, even as he feigns annoyance at her feistiness.

The rest of the characters around Greta and Will — except for perhaps Lucy, whom Greta sees in visions and flashbacks — gets more of a broad brush treatment by Isa Sánchez, who adapted the novel. There is some potential to get a little deeper with Greta’s parents or grandfather, but it does seem that, at least for now, they’re nothing more than people Greta has to interact with while going through the game Lucy created.

Performance Worth Watching: Alícia Falcó is very watchable as Greta, because she conveys the comple emotions Greta has over her relationship with Lucy and how Lucy’s illness affected her life.

Sex And Skin: We do see Greta having sex with someone she’s in a situationship with, but we get the feeling we won’t be seeing much of that guy going forward.

Parting Shot: As Greta and Will are having fun getting to know each other at the bar where Will works, Lucy’s favorite song comes on the sound system. Greta is sad, but loves the memories it invokes as she imagines Lucy singing the song at the end of the bar. Will gives her an empathetic hug.

Sleeper Star: It’s not easy playing a memory, but Georgina Amorós does a good job of it as Lucy.

Most Pilot-y Line: When Greta proposes to Will that they have a staring contest to see if she will play Lucy’s game or not, she says the first one who smiles loses. “I haven’t smiled in two years,” he replies.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Map Of Longing strikes the right emotional notes with its story, which is helped along by some amazing chemistry between its two stars.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.