TELENOVELA WATCH: This Week's Finales of 'Los Miserables' (Tonight) and 'Mi Corazón es Tuyo' (Friday)

The Los Miserables finale beings at 8 p.m. ET tonight on Telemundo.

Los Miserables concludes tonight with a two-hour finale on Telemundo starting at 8 p.m. ET. Despite the title and the insistence of the network’s press materials, the telenovela had next to nothing to do with the Victor Hugo novel. Nevertheless, Los Miserables began well and featured protagonist Aracely Arámbula’s first decent performance since her juvenile roles in the mid-1990s. She is by no means a good actress, but after suffering through the likes of Blanca Soto and María Elisa Camargo in recent Telemundo telenovelas, as well as Arámbula’s own horrible performances in Corazón Salvaje in 2010 and La Patrona in 2013, her work here is at least bearable.

Less bearable was the horrific Gabriel Porras who seems to get worse with each telenovela. The opening weeks of Los Miserables were not terrible by Telemundo’s recent standards at least in part because Porras’s role was minimized. Unfortunately, it didn’t last long and soon Porras’s drug lord character was given a twin, so we could see Porras cartoonishly overact two roles. I gave up regular viewing of this telenovela at that point. What happened to the competent actor from those Azteca telenovelas from the early 2000s? The same question fits his Los Miserables co-star Aylín Mujica who was also far better in her work at Azteca than she’s ever been at Telemundo.

Telemundo’s Mexican-produced telenovelas in conjunction with Argos are in a rut. The best of this recent batch is still the first, Rosa Diamante, from 2012. The others: La Patrona, La Impostora, Los Miserables and even the narco-novela Señora Acero all seem part of the same drab, monotonous universe. Budgetary restrictions are noticeable, particularly in how they all feature a seemingly endless parade of characters sent to the same hospital and prison sets. Even the actors are drab in these recent productions, especially the supporting actors and juveniles. Part of this problem may lie in Telemundo/Argos being third in the talent pecking order in Mexico behind Televisa and Azteca. Even with these flaws, the Telemundo/Argos productions are still better than what the network’s been churning out of Miami in the last year, Dueños del Paraíso included.

TELENOVELA WATCH: 'La Sombra del Pasado' Premieres Tonight; Plus, 'Que te perdone Dios,' 'Tiro de Gracia,' 'Dueños del Paraíso' and 'Quién Mató a Patricia Soler?'

La Sombra del Pasado premieres tonight at 7 p.m. ET on Univision taking the place of the mercifully departed La Gata. A Mexican telenovela from Televisa, La Sombra del Pasado is a remake of the 2001 telenovela El Manantial. It is produced by MaPat L. de Zatarain who is coming off the enjoyable La mujer del Vendaval.

La Sombra del Pasado is a hacienda telenovela about neighboring ranches and an affair between the owner of one of the ranches with his neighbor’s wife that leads to a death and a deep hatred between the two families. A love then grows between the son and daughter of the feuding families.

Michelle Renaud and Pablo Lyle play the protagonists, both in their first leading roles. Renaud was the appealing pianist cousin of Ariadne Diaz’s heroine in La mujer del Vendaval and Lyle was the juvenile lead of Por Siempre Mi Amor. In that telenovela, Lyle was paired opposite Thelma Madrigal, who plays the third side of the central triangle in La Sombra and also featured in La mujer del Vendaval as the hero’s spoiled sister.