TELENOVELA WATCH: 'Avenida Brasil' Ends US Run; New Programs Announced at the Upfronts; Favorites for the Week

AVENIDA BRASIL, which concluded its US run this week on Telemundo, is a telenovela I admire more than love. A genuine international hit from Brazil that, even dubbed into Spanish, was usually the highest rated telenovela on the channel it aired throughout Latin America, it is a bit disappointing we were not allowed to see how it would do in prime time in the US, Telemundo opting instead to air it in the day.

Probably the best looking telenovela ever produced, my enthusiasm is diminished some by the fact it is also probably the most expensive telenovela ever produced, so what actually was achieved that others wouldn’t also achieve if given the same budget with which to work? My strongest aversion to the AVENIDA BRASIL is admittedly a personal one, but I absolutely loathe THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO of which this is at least the sixth or seventh unofficial adaptation I’ve seen in the last three years. My antipathy for revenge plots in general, always a crude, lazy story device, is exacerbated by their exceedingly overabundant presence in our culture. Is there a cop show on US TV where the tortured protagonist doesn’t have a murdered wife/father/fiancé/etc. to avenge?

Rarely has a revenge plot seemed as petty and petulant as on AVENIDA BRASIL, a consequence of the uncharismatic lead performance from Débora Falabella. The telenovela winds up being swallowed by the antagonist played by Adriana Esteves, and it is a spectacular performance that manages to transcend the Spanish dubbing; but even it is undermined by a lame sob story meant to mitigate her wretchedness. The final weeks are a bit sloppy and rushed, but that could be a consequence Globo’s practice of chopping down the international versions of their telenovelas by thirty to fifty episodes.


Another Brazilian telenovela, the 2010 production ESCRITO EN LAS ESTRELLAS (ESCRITO NAS ESTRELAS) will take over the 12 p.m. ET slot on Telemundo, a slightly curious choice in that it isn’t in HD. It is a pretty far-fetched novela dealing with elements like the afterlife and past lives. Ricardo is a successful doctor who runs a fertility clinic. His son Daniel disappoints him by not following in his footsteps, instead treating the destitute. Daniel meets Viviane, a young woman on the run from the police due to a misunderstanding. There is a traffic accident, someone dies, but continues in the story as a spirit. The telenovela stars Nathalia Dill, Humberto Martins, Jayme Matarazzo, Alexandre Nero, and Débora Falabella.




UPFRONTS
Network upfronts were this week where we learned what programs are planned for the upcoming year. Quoted passages below are from the respective networks' press releases.

TELEMUNDO
Undeterred by the mediocre performance this year of CAMELIA LA TEXANA, Telemundo is doubling-down with even more drug themed telenovelas planned for the coming months with three of their six newly announced telenovelas falling under the so-called narco-novela heading, and a fourth seeming to also have a heavy narco-element in its plot. I confess my tolerance for these productions has long worn thin, but who can blame the networks for churning the narcos out if there is an audience for them. The appeal of these productions seems to have tapered off in Colombia where the genre first boomed; it remains to be seen if US audiences will also tire of the continual onslaught of these productions from Telemundo, MundoFox and UniMás.

The biggest announcement by Telemundo is the return of Kate del Castillo to Spanish-language television, the star of their biggest hit LA REINA DEL SUR. She will star in DUEÑOS DEL PARAÍSO as “Anastasia Cardona, the widow of a well-known Mexican drug lord who has become psychologically disturbed by the violence that surrounds her. When she partners with two local cocaine traffickers to take on the Santa Norma cartel, they become the target of the so-called drug wars, transforming the streets of South Florida into a terrifying battlefield.” Aside from the presence of Kate del Castillo, the other hook for this novela is its 1980s setting. It will be written by Pablo Illanes (ALGUIEN TE MIRA).

New addition to Telemundo Blanca Soto (EVA LUNA) stars in SEÑORA ACERO from LA REINA DEL SUR’s adaptor Roberto Stopello. It “tells the story of Sara Aguilar Bermudez...who goes from being a housewife living an ordinary life to being a person capable of shaking the foundation of the Mexican government. After her husband, Vicente Acero, is killed at their wedding, the heroine finds out Vicente was not the man she thought he was and, in fact, lived a double life. Her life becomes a race to evade the authorities and her husband’s enemies and along the way becomes the ‘queen of organized crime.’”

We’ll have to wait and see what is actually produced, but at least from the press release descriptions, is Telemundo really producing two telenovelas about the widows of drug lords becoming drug lords themselves, which was also the plot of their LA REINA DEL SUR. As if the narco-novela wasn’t repetitive enough.

In addition to these new novelas, Telemundo also announced a third series of EL SEÑOR DE LOS CIELOS, days before the second series is to begin airing. So that’s at least 120 more episodes of EL SEÑOR following its first 74 episode series, and two female led narco-novelas with the same plot as the recently rerun LA REINA DEL SUR, all following CAMELIA LA TEXANA, a narco-novela that flopped; Telemundo certainly seems determined to ride that genre until the wheels fall off.

Also announced by Telemundo is LOS MISERABLES, an adaptation of Victor Hugo’s novel with a modern-day setting. Aracely Arámbula (LA PATRONA) stars as “Lucia Duran, an innocent woman wanted by the law who has to...hide...until she is able to prove her innocence to her pursuer, Daniel Ponce, the harsh chief detective of the narcotics unit, a man whom she will love as she has never loved anyone else before.” Everything about this novela seems preposterous and hopelessly wrongheaded - its changing the sex of the protagonist, an apparent love story between the book’s principal protagonist/antagonist, the modern day setting using drug traffickers as villains (how does that jell with a tyrannical state and student revolutionnaires) – so of course I can’t wait to see it. Valentina Párraga (LA PATRONA) is its writer.

TIERRA DE REYES is a new adaptation of Telemundo’s 2003 novela PASIÓN DE GAVILANES. It “tells the story of the Gallardo brothers as they search for truth and justice after tragically and mysteriously losing their sister. On their journey, each falls in love with the daughters of the man suspected to be responsible for their sister’s death.”

EL JARDINERO “tells the story of Carlos Martinez, an illegal immigrant living in Los Angeles. Carlos is an honest, hard-working man who aspires to offer his two sons a better future so they can enjoy the opportunities he never had. In their quest for the American dream, father and sons will face the hatred and dangers within a city where the glamour of Hollywood often contrasts with the difficult life of millions of undocumented Hispanics in the area.”


UNIVISION
Univision’s upfronts are always less interesting for telenovela watchers as we already know their upcoming lineup from what is being produced by Televisa.

Coming up on Univision are:

A new version of LA GATA from the producer of CORAZÓN INDOMABLE, which is basically the same story – “Esmeralda, a young woman who lives...in abject poverty...is exploited by the person raising her...becomes friends with a young man from a good family...they fall in love,” but that love “has to remain hidden from the young man’s family.” It stars CORAZÓN INDOMABLE’s Daniel Arenas and Maite Perroni (TRIUNFO DEL AMOR) and features Laura Zapata (MARÍA MERCEDES), Erika Buenfil (AMORES VERDADEROS) and Manuel Ojeda (LA TEMPESTAD).

A telenovela adaptation of LA MALQUERIDA produced by José Alberto Castro (LA QUE NO PODÍA AMAR). I find it hilarious how the Mexican promo for this upcoming production highlights its literary source from Nobel Prize winning dramatist Jacinto Benavente while Univision’s promo for US advertisers gets right down to the nitty-gritty: Christian Meier (ZORRO) without a shirt lusted after by mother and daughter played by Victoria Ruffo (CORONA DE LÁGRIMAS) and Ariadne Díaz (LA MUJER DEL VENDAVAL). Its cast also features Mane de la Parra (CORONA DE LÁGRIMAS), Brandon Peniche (UN REFUGIO PARA EL AMOR) and Sabine Moussier (ABISMO DE PASIÓN).

HASTA EL FIN DEL MUNDO is an adaptation of the 2012/13 Argentine telenovela DULCE AMOR. “Sofía, the oldest of three sisters, takes the helm of her family’s chocolate factory after her father’s death. Engaged to an ambitious man using her as a stepping stone, she feels an immediate and mutual attraction for Salvador, a race-car driver who, due to some unfortunate circumstances, is working as her chauffeur.” The telenovela is produced by Nicandro Díaz (AMORES VERDADEROS; SOY TU DUEÑA) and stars Marjorie de Sousa (AMORES VERDADEROS), Pedro Fernández (HASTA QUE EL DINERO NOS SEPARE), Julián Gil (LA QUE NO PODÍA AMAR), Claudia Álvarez (PORQUE EL AMOR MANDA), and Jade Fraser (POR SIEMPRE MI AMOR). The pseudo parodic pornographic promo for US advertisers featuring Marjorie de Sousa making chocolate is fairly amusing.



MI CORAZÓN ES TUYO is a telenovela adapted from ANA Y LOS 7, a TV series produced in Spain starting in 2002. It is the story of a stripper who accidentally gets a job as a nanny in the mansion of a wealthy widower with seven children. The telenovela is produced by Juan Osorio (PORQUE EL AMOR MANDA) and stars Silvia Navarro (AMOR BRAVÍO), Jorge Salinas (LA QUE NO PODÍA AMAR), Mayrín Villanueva (MENTIR PARA VIVIR), Pablo Montero (QUÉ BONITO AMOR) and Paulina Goto (NIÑA DE MI CORAZÓN).


UNIMÁS
Coming off the success of LA VIUDA NEGRA, Univision’s sister network UniMás predictably is opting for more narco-novelas in the future.

SEÑORITA PÓLVORA from Sony and Televisa is about “Valentina Cardenas...whose comfortable, sheltered life is turned upside down with her father’s death. Valentina must become a strong woman to confront her father’s double life and finds herself caught in the dilemma of loving two very different men: a righteous news reporter and a dangerous, intense head of a drug cartel.” It will star Camila Sodi and Iván Sánchez.

EL VARÓN DE LA DROGA is based on the life of notorious drug trafficker “El Chapo” Guzmán.

EN LA BOCA DEL LOBO from Sony and Colombia’s Teleset is the story of Ricardo Salgado, “an engineer and soldier who rises to become head of security for the godfather of the Cali cartel and is later driven to mastermind its undoing.” The series stars Luis Fernando Hoyos and Carolina Acevedo.

Non-narco series announced for UniMás include:

DEMENTE CRIMINAL, a Miami produced thriller “inspired by the life of Edmundo Chirinos, a Venezuelan psychiatrist who abused his patients with mind games that led to sexual abuse.” When his “dark side is discovered by a female patient, he kills her. The story then focuses on the victim’s mother and her quest to expose her daughter’s killer.” It stars Sebastián Ligarde (PECADOS AJENOS), Lorena Rojas (EL CUERPO DEL DESEO), Gabriel Valenzuela (LA CASA DE AL LADO), María Fernanda Yépez (LA TENIENTE) and Marcela Mar (PURA SANGRE).

LA FIESTA DEL CHIVO, “based on the novel by Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa and set in the 1950s, this is the real story of the Dominican Republic’s dictator Rafael Trujillo.” It is produced by RTI and stars Julio Bracho, Eileen Moreno (LA VIUDA NEGRA) and Diana Hoyos (ESCOBAR: EL PATRÓN DEL MAR).


MUNDOFOX
MundoFox announced:
LOS MILAGROS DE JESUS, the latest Bible inspired mini-series from Brazil’s Record. These productions are probably the most popular to air on the fledgling US network, but create an identity problem when paired with the crime and narco-novelas that dominate the network’s prime time.

EL MARIACHI is a series based on the 1992 movie of a mariachi caught up in a conflict between warring drug cartels. It is from Sony and produced in Colombia by Teleset and stars Iván Arana, Martha Higareda, Julio Bracho.

EL CAPITÁN, starring Humberto Zurita, based on the life of Captain Carlos Camacho - war veteran, radio host, balloonist, and founder of a zoo.

A new version of LA MADRASTRA called ¿QUIÉN MATÓ A PATRICIA SOLER?, made in Colombia by RTI and starring Itatí Cantoral (HASTA QUE EL DINERO NOS SEPARE) and Miguel de Miguel (LA REINA DEL SUR), it “is the story of a woman betrayed by those closest to her who returns 20 years later to seek vengeance and make things right.”


FAVORITES FOR WEEK OF MAY 9-15

Favorite telenovela: AVENIDA BRASIL

Favorite performer: Adriana Esteves

Favorite scene: from LO QUE LA VIDA ME ROBÓ, Thursday’s whole wedding episode had the urgency and verve comparable to a season finale, but my favorite scene, slipped in amongst the big drama, was a lovely human moment between Montserrat (Angelique Boyer) and her mother-in-law Rosario (Ana Bertha Espín) where they expressed their daughter/mother love for each other, while Rosario remained emotionally conflicted at seeing her daughter-in-law marry again seven years after the presumed death of Rosario’s son/Montserrat’s husband.

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- TELENOVELA WATCH: 'Por Siempre Mi Amor' Finale Tonight; 'Dr. Mata' Premiere; 'Lo Que La Vida Me Robó' Product Placement; Favorites of the Week


R.G. Morin writes a regular column for We Love Soaps, "Telenovela Watch: A weekly look at the world of telenovelas for non-Spanish speakers." For feedback or questions, you can email R.G. Morin at [email protected].