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

The finale of Por Siempre Mi Amor airs tonight on Univision.

Tonight is the finale of Por Siempre Mi Amor at 8 p.m. ET on Univision. The telenovela has been exceedingly efficient at resolving its many subplots in the weeks leading up to this final episode. It is astounding how many telenovelas put off the resolutions of their subplots, if they bother to resolve them at all, until the last two episodes which invariably gives the payoffs short shrift and makes for a haphazard mess of cursory scenes. With the subplots neatly tied up, the final episode of POR SIEMPRE MI AMOR can focus entirely on the main characters. The lead up to tonight’s final episode finds all the central players: the protagonists Arturo (Guy Ecker) and Isabel (Susana González), their daughter Aranza (Thelma Madrigal), and the two female antagonists Sonia (Dominika Paleta) and Marcela (Lola Merino) all locked up in barred cells and at the mercy of the telenovela’s slimeball villain Fernando (Héctor Suárez Gomís).

No new telenovela has been announced to replace Por Siempre Mi Amor. For now, Univision will be running back-to-back episodes of De Que Te Quiero, Te Quiero, which will help move things along – the US run is only on episode 45 of the telenovela’s 187 episodes. As Univision is not currently airing any first-run telenovelas in the afternoons, there is a backlog forming leaving US audiences to wonder when (or if) Libre Para Amarte (completed last year), Quiero Amarte (ending its run in Mexico in June) and El Color de la Pasión (nearing episode 40) will reach US airwaves. There are also a pair of Univision co-productions with Venevision: Rosario and Cosita Linda which are seeming ever less likely to air here.


Dr. Mata
MundoFox continues to revamp their weekend lineup this Sunday with the premiere of Dr. Mata at 9 p.m. ET. A 2014 Colombian production from RCN, Dr. Mata is a 1940s set drama based on the true story of serial killer Nepomuceno Matallana.

The story: in 1945, a maid accuses Buenaventura Nepomuceno Matallana, a wealthy lawyer, of causing the disappearance of her employer. She gives her evidence to a journalist, who teams with a detective to investigate Matallana. They discover he might not be responsible for the disappearance of just one person, but perhaps several.

Enrique Carriazo (Los Reyes) plays Matallana, Yuri Vargas is the maid, Nicolás Rincón (Alias El Mexicano) plays the detective, Luis Fernando Hoyos is the journalist, and Geraldine Zivic (Flor Salvaje) plays Matallana’s great love. The cast also features Sandra Hernández (A Corazón Abierto), Margalida Castro (Victoria) and César Mora (Escobar, el Patrón del Mal).


Product placement on Lo Que La Vida Me Robó
Seeing how out of place the Yoplait yogurt sponsorship of the Nurses Ball looked this week on General Hospital highlights how relatively rare product placement is on American soap operas. This is especially true in comparison to the telenovelas from Telemundo and Televisa.

Plugs on Telemundo telenovelas for Subway and Macy's have been commonplace for years now. At Televisa, sometimes whole novelas seem to have a corporate sponsor whose product is featured, even if just in the background, in nearly every episode. Tostitos bags were ever present in Amor Bravío. On Por Siempre Mi Amor, the heroine, an interior designer, only goes to Home Depot and their placards litter her offices.

The product placement is usually not too intrusive, that is until Lo Que La Vida Me Robó began plugging a Toyota truck. There have been at least three outright commercials complete with glory shots of the product with the characters enthusing adspeak.

The scene that takes the cake, though, showed how careless product placement can debase emotional resonance of a scene. In the story, Alejandro, the hero played by Sebastián Rulli who owns the prized Toyota, has been presumed dead for seven years. His wife, Montserrat, played by Angelique Boyer, wistful one morning, removes a tarp covering the Toyota. We then get a flashback/commercial where we see the Toyota in action, as Montserrat remembers a drive with Alejandro to the beach in which the Toyota was used to pull a boat. Using the Toyota as a trigger for a flashback showcasing the love between the telenovela’s protagonists ludicrously endows the truck with undue importance in their lives. Of course, Alejandro is actually alive and well and living in Buenos Aires. You half expect, upon returning home to Mexico, his first query will be as to the condition of his beloved truck.


FAVORITES FOR WEEK OF May 2-8

Favorite performer: Susana González on Por Siempre Mi Amor

Favorite scene: from Por Siempre Mi Amor, Aranza (Thelma Madrigal) discovering Dafne (Sofía Castro) is faking her paralysis.

Favorite telenovela: Lo Que La Vida Me Robó

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- TELENOVELA WATCH: Surprise Hit 'La Viuda Negra', Final Episodes of 'Siempre Mi Amore', New MundoFox Series


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].