TELENOVELA WATCH: 'El Señor de los Cielos' Season 2 Premieres; Plus, 'La Viuda Negra,' 'El Capo 3,' 'Camelia La Texana,' Favorites for the Week and More

A scene from LA VIUDA NEGRA (weeknights at 10 p.m. ET on UniMás) illustrates the root of my antipathy for the so-called narco-novelas. The title anti-heroine is at a cemetery to visit the grave of her mother. Police arrive at the cemetery to arrest her for the murder of a teenager her gang kidnapped and shot dead. The supposed suspense of the scene is whether the anti-heroine will escape. In a ludicrous showdown with the police, her right-hand man manages to shoot dead six to eight officers. The show expects me to be relieved the anti-heroine has escaped, thrilled at the ingenuity and skill with which the henchman killed the officers, but my only feelings are of repulsion, my sympathies lying solely with the murdered police officers.

Good writers and producers can find entry points into this material to make it more palatable. One of the first full-hog narco-novelas and one of the best, SIN TETAS NO HAY PARAÍSO, adopted a “cautionary tale” approach to the material. It glamorizes the narco lifestyle, but that glamorization is presented through the eyes of a stupid teenage girl, a framing device that allows authorial detachment for comment and criticism. The story itself contrasts the girl’s fantasies of a narco life with the grim and destructive realities when she actually becomes a part of that world.

CAMELIA LA TEXANA Reaches Over 2.2 Million Total Viewers

Telemundo Media's CAMELIA LA TEXANA reached a cumulative audience of 2,224,000 total viewers and 1,405,000 adults 18-49 on premiere night, according to Nielsen. Starring Sara Maldonado and Erik Hayser and directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Carlos Bolado, Telemundo’s “super series” averaged 1,629,000 total viewers and 1,028,000 adults 18-49. Locally, the new series ranked #1 in Miami with adults 18-49, regardless of language and outperformed all four general market broadcast networks in Los Angeles and Houston, where it tied with CBS on ratings for the #3 station in the time period.

With a Twitter TV audience of almost 34,000, the CAMELIA LA TEXANA premiere was the #1 Series on Spanish-language networks, ranked by Tweets, amongst all live or new airings. The series saw over 2,700 Tweets about the premiere, according to Nielsen SocialGuide. The Tweets were sent by over 1,200 Unique Authors and generated over 85,000 Impressions.

Filmed in high definition cinema optics and produced by Campanario Entertainment and Argos Television, CAMELIA LA TEXANA is inspired by the popular corrido "Contrabando y Traicion" by the legendary group Los Tigres del Norte. The plot, set in different cities in Mexico, Los Angeles and San Antonio in the 1970s, tells the story of a passionate love affair and betrayal that leads an innocent young woman to become a criminal in her search for revenge.

Source: Nielsen, NPM Live+SD, 2/25/14, fast national program ratings. Reach based on NPM fast cume, 6+ minute qualifier. Source: Nielsen: NSI ratings, Live + SD 2/25/13; 10-11p ranking based on impressions. Based on Overnight Preliminary data.

TELENOVELA WATCH: Four New Shows Premiere This Week

Four telenovelas make their US premieres this week, two of them – LA VIUDA NEGRA and CAMELIA, LA TEXANA - are world premieres. Both LA VIUDA NEGRA and CAMELIA, LA TEXANA are examples of that often disreputable genre that follows the lives of drug traffickers dubbed narco-novelas.

Indeed, 2014 looks to be overbrimming with narco-novelas with a second series of EL SEÑOR DE LOS CIELOS coming later this year to Telemundo, a third series of EL CAPO planned for March on MundoFox, all coming on the heels of the recently concluded reruns of LA REINA DEL SUR and ESCOBAR: EL PATRÓN DEL MAL on Telemundo and the currently airing ALIAS EL MEXICANO on MundoFox.

There have been two prevailing approaches to the material in the recent string of narco-novelas. The first takes a true crime angle, presenting the story of a real person, often fictionalized and with many names changed, but an attempt to tell the story with at the very least, a docu-drama style of realism. The best of these and by estimation, the only masterpiece of the narco-novela genre as a whole, the only one to demonstrate the moral seriousness the material demands while also telling its story in an engrossing manner, is ESCOBAR: EL PATRÓN DEL MAL.

CAMELIA LA TEXANA To Premiere on Telemundo February 25, Sara Maldonado and Erik Hayser Star

Photo Credit: Telemundo

At a successful community event at La Plaza México followed by a press conference in Los Angeles, California, Telemundo announced the premiere of CAMELIA LA TEXANA Tuesday, February 25 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Filmed in high definition and starring Sara Maldonado and Erik Hayser, the super-series is inspired on the popular corrido "Contrabando y Traición" by the legendary group Tigres del Norte. The plot is set in different cities in Mexico, Los Angeles and San Antonio in the 1970s and was produced by Campanario Entertainment with a production team numbering more than 200 and nearly 100 actors.

Sara Maldonado and Erik Hayser play the lead characters in the super-series alongside Dagoberto Gama, Andrés Palacios, Eréndira Ibarra, Luis Ernesto Franco, Joaquín Garrido, Tamara Mazarrasa, Julio Alberto Casado, Peter Theis, Estefanía Villarreal, Ana Paula de León, Víctor Alfredo Jímenez, Iñaki Goci, Néstor Rodulfo Rojas, Claudia Lizaldi, Arcelia Ramirez, Claudette Maillé, Salvador Benavides, Mario Beller, Ramón Valdes (German Valdes), Patricia Garcia, Mayte Gil, Sergio Arras, Alvaro Sagone, Briggitte Beltran, David Medel, Miguel "Burra" Pérez, Rodrigo Oviendo, Carlos Gallardo, Mauricio Pastrana, Carlos Hernan Romo, Cesar Valdivia, Quetzalli Cortés, Cosmo Gonzalez, Salvador Benavides, Oscar Zamanillo, Roger Cudney, Julio Casado, Arcelia Ramirez, Jaime Estrada, Carlos Tavera, Enrique Anaya, Claudio Guevara, Hector Hugo de la Peña, Sergio Reynoso, Agusto Granados, Gabriel Hernan, Anilu Pardo, Mauricio Galán, Arnulfo Reyes, Javier Escobar, Ricardo Rojas, Barbara Singer, Luis Fernando Padilla, Eric Ramirez, Gabriel Cisneros, David Ponce, Oscar Olivares, EduardoGleason and Isi Rojano.

Developed and written by Diego Ramón Bravo in collaboration with Hilario Peña and adapted for television by Rodrigo Ordoñez and Marcelo Tobar, CAMELIA LA TEXANA was directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Carlos Bolado and produced by Tita Lombardo, of such acclaimed films as Amores Perros and Babel.