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.