Showing posts with label Hasta el Fin del Mundo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hasta el Fin del Mundo. Show all posts

Friday, May 15, 2015

TELENOVELA WATCH: 'Lo Imperdonable' Premiere, 'Hasta el Fin Del Mundo' Finale

Lo Imperdonable premieres May 18 on Univision.
LO IMPERDONABLE premieres Monday at 9 p.m. ET on Univision. A Mexican telenovela from Televisa, it is the umpteenth version of Caridad Bravo Adams’s LA MENTIRA, which dates back to the 1950s. It is baffling why Televisa would approve another version of this story after CUANDO ME ENAMORO, a decent modern adaptation, was made by the network just five years ago.

It is a revenge telenovela: a man blames an unknown woman for his brother’s suicide and vows vengeance. He meets a beautiful woman and comes to believe she is the one who ruined his brother’s life, so naturally he seduces and marries the woman and proceeds to make her life miserable.

LO IMPERDONABLE stars Ana Brenda Contreras whose previous two telenovelas, LA QUE NO PODÍA AMAR and CORAZÓN INDOMABLE, were very successful with US audiences. Spanish actor Iván Sánchez is the protagonist, best known for his role in LA REINA DEL SUR and most recently seen as the crazy violinist antagonist of LA TEMPESTAD.

Monday, September 22, 2014

TELENOVELA WATCH: 'El Señor de los Cielos' Finale Airs Tonight; 'Señora Acero' Premieres Tuesday; 'Cosita Linda,' 'Quiero Amarte,' 'El Chivo' Debut This Week

Tonight is the finale of the second series of Telemundo's narco fantasy EL SEÑOR DE LOS CIELOS at 10 p.m. ET. A success for the network, it seems likely there will be a third series, so it also seems likely tonight's finale will be as unsatisfying as last year's finale.

I did not care much for the first series of EL SEÑOR DE LOS CIELOS and found this second series substantially worse. Indeed, I think EL SEÑOR DE LOS CIELOS 2 is the worst telenovela I've seen this year. Sure, Telemundo's EN OTRA PIEL features worse acting, writing and production values, but EL SEÑOR DE LOS CIELOS 2 is morally reprehensible in its deification of its drug lord protagonist.

I've mentioned in a previous article the crude tactics these narco-novelas use to manipulate viewer sympathies for their drug lord protagonists through the constant imperiling of their family members, but EL SEÑOR DE LOS CIELOS 2 takes this device to shameless extremes. Over the course of this season, the protagonist drug lord has had his young children threatened with a knife to their throats, his mother shot, lost a baby through a miscarriage, his son shot, his daughter kidnapped and finally his ex-wife shot. He is ever the wronged party, ever the victim, so his violent acts are always justified. Even a final hit gone wrong resulting in an unintended loss is presented so the scenes can ultimately be about his pain.

The persistent victimhood of the drug lord is accompanied with incessant lionization of his virility. Has any fictional character since the also vile James Bond needed such overkill to bolster his supposed sexual desirability? The female cast is virtually reduced to the role of harem. The only detractor is the cop played by Carmen Villalobos, whose role in this second series was reduced to little more than standing miffed with her hands on her hips and looking stupid, bested again and again by the intellectually superior drug lord.

Monday, September 15, 2014

TELENOVELA WATCH: 'Manual Para Ser Feliz' Final Week; Thoughts on 'Hasta El Fin Del Mundo' and 'La Malquerida'

Manual Para Ser Feliz (weekdays at 3 p.m. ET) is entering its final full week on MundoFox. This quirky and charming Colombian telenovela really grew on me. There is a shaggy dog quality to its characters, not just the misfits working in the office, but the leading lady fashion designer and her cousin and even the villains that I just found very appealing. It is a modest production that never seems to be reaching for its effects. There is very little plot and almost no actual jokes – the interest and humor comes in observing the little details in the characters’ lives and their day-to-day interactions with each other. In a telenovela format which deals almost exclusively in larger-than-life dramas, there is a cheeky perversity in how Manual Para Ser Feliz focuses on the small and mundane.


Hasta El Fin Del Mundo
There is an unfortunate déjà vu for telenovela watchers who keep abreast of international productions. The Mexican produced Hasta El Fin Del Mundo is the third version of this story I’ve encountered in a couple years after Dulce Amor, the Argentine original, and a current Chilean version called El Amor lo Manejo Yo. In the first few weeks, the two new versions are almost scene-for-scene retreads of the original.

For those coming to the story fresh, Hasta El Fin Del Mundo (weeknights at 9 p.m. ET on Univision) is a respectable version. It is similar in structure to another often produced Argentine telenovela, Amor en Custodia, which was most recently remade as Amores Verdaderos, only instead of a wealthy mother and daughter romancing their bodyguards, Dulce Amor and Hasta El Fin Del Mundo feature a pair of wealthy sisters falling for their chauffeurs.

Pedro Fernández is an atypical leading man. He is not believable as the neighborhood lothario and his acting is filled with too many ah-shucks mannerisms; but there is an earnestness and charm that helps sell the budding romance with the leading lady played by Marjorie de Sousa. He is a likable performer and the fact he isn't a run-of-the-mill telenovela dreamboat only means the producers, writers and actors have to work harder to build a convincing relationship between the protagonists based on something more substantial than the stereotypical telenovela instant romances attained by merely gazing into each other’s eyes.

Friday, August 15, 2014

TELENOVELA WATCH: 'Lo Que La Vida Me Robó' Finale Airs Tonight on Univision; 'Hasta el Fin del Mundo' Premieres Monday

After over 190 episodes, Lo Que La Vida Me Robó reaches its finale tonight on Univision at 9 p.m. ET. The only real hit so far this year in Mexico and the US, Lo Que La Vida Me Robó is a deserved success – it’s a good telenovela, the best Mexican telenovela to air in the US since Vivir a Destiempo and the best from Televisa to air here since the first half of Mentir Para Vivir. (The qualifier "to air in the US" is necessary as a number of Televisa telenovelas, including El Color de la Pasión and Quiero Amarte, have yet to make their US debuts.)

At over 190 episodes, my brain tells me that the telenovela is too long, but Lo Que La Vida Me Robó rarely felt too long. It had sufficient variety of story and locale to constantly feel like it was moving forward or something new was developing, helped enormously by its subplots and secondary characters. Too many telenovelas artificially extend their length through the repetition of a couple plot points played over and over. The fairly pleasant De Que Te Quiero, Te Quiero (weeknights at 7 p.m. ET on Univision) is overlong and feels it because it relies too heavily on the back and forth break ups of its two lead couples to an extent they all look foolish. (The other usual telenovela lengtheners – the protagonist in prison or the protagonist medical crisis – were also avoided in the final weeks.)

One unfortunate trend the final weeks of Lo Que La Vida Me Robó did suffer from is in striving for a “big finish” the story became a succession of cliffhangers, almost all involving physical peril that could only be achieved through characters acting illogically and stupidly. Most ridiculous was when the lead protagonists, with two psychopaths threatening them and their family, inexplicably decide to get away for a romantic weekend isolated at their ranch with predictable results.

Tied into the overused cliffhanger element of these final weeks was the seeming omnipotence of the telenovela’s chief villain played by Sergio Sendel which became increasingly tiresome and silly. Daniela Castro as the other lead villain, the scheming mother of the heroine, often veers over the top, but it is a genuine camp performance, funny and horrific at the same time, and it fits that character and this telenovela.