The series, created and written by Hector Lozano and directed by Eduard Cortés, premiered on 14 September 2015 in prime time and reached a share of 17.7% with 566,000 viewers.

Each episode includes the approaches of a great thinker or school, such as the Peripatetics, Nietzsche or Schopenhauer, linking their teachings with fictional events and characters.

The first season was dubbed into Castilian Spanish by the company Atresmedia and broadcast on the television channel La Sexta from April to June 2016.

The main character of the series is Merlí Bergeron, an unemployed philosophy teacher who after being evicted from his apartment is forced to live with his mother.

There, with his unpredictable and unorthodox methods, Merlí will make the students think and express their opinions, and also will help them with their problems, even in a censurable way.

Although Eugeni is waiting for him and wishing to quarrel, both find a common adversary, Coralina, the new History teacher and Head of Studies.

The philosophers featured in this season include Hannah Arendt, Kierkegaard, Albert Camus, Karl Marx and Augustine of Hippo.

A spin-off series titled Merlí: Sapere Aude, centering on Carlos Cuevas' character Pol Rubio attending university, premiered on Movistar+ on 5 December 2019.