TELENOVELA WATCH: Best & Worst of 2014

(This look back at the telenovelas of 2014 is US based, covering productions that aired at least half their episodes this calendar year on a US broadcast network.)

I did not see any great telenovelas broadcast in the US this year, but there were a number of decent ones. The return of Brazilian telenovelas to our network television was a welcome change after an absence of a few years and bolstered an otherwise mediocre year. While I don't think Lado a Lado or Avenida Brasil are great telenovelas, they are substantially better than the product reaching our screens out of Mexico, Colombia and Miami.

Lado a Lado is a Brazilian telenovela produced by Globo in 2012 that reached our screens this year thanks to MundoFox. It is the story of a profound friendship forged between two women of different backgrounds who dare to live their lives in ways that conflict with the misogynistic and racist society of Rio de Janeiro in the first decade of the twentieth century. Isabel, played by Camila Pitanga, is a black woman ostracized when she becomes pregnant with a lover's child while her fiancé is missing, unbeknownst to her, locked in jail. Laura, played by Marjorie Estiano, is the daughter of a conservative ex-baroness, played by Patrícia Pillar, who wishes to work outside the home rather than settle for the confining role of housewife her social class and mother demands of her, who later faces the additional stigma associated with divorce. The performances by Pitanga and Estiano are richly detailed and moving. Camila Pitanga has the beauty and aura that make her character's international stardom when she introduces the Paris art world to samba believable, and Estiano's cheerful hoyden is the warmest, most likable soul depicted in a telenovela in a long time.

As the friendship between the two women is the central relationship in the telenovela, their love interests, by necessity, take a secondary role. Only one of the love stories really works, the pairing between Estiano and Thiago Fragoso as her patient, sympathetic husband. The chemistry between Estiano and Fragoso is very strong and their relationship is richly developed. Rather less successful is the pairing between Pitanga and Lázaro Ramos, which after an initial dinner, skips ahead a year, meaning all of its development occurs off-screen. Ramos is an excellent actor, but he is saddled with a dull role as the white-hatted, virtuous hero.

Lado a Lado relies too heavily on conniving villains setting out to ruin the lives of the heroines, perfectly reasonable devices in most telenovelas, but clashing with the loftier ambitions of this telenovela. The stereotypical villains detract and distract from the telenovela's true conflict between the heroines and the racist and misogynistic society as a whole. Better is when a conflict stems from an otherwise moral character, such as when the kind French lady employing Isabel, who arranged for her to be wed in the same church deemed worthy by the ex-baroness for her daughter's wedding, fires her after discovering the baby she is carrying wasn't fathered by her fiancé.

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.

TELENOVELA WATCH: 'Reina de Coazones' Premiere Plus Thoughts on 'Manual para ser feliz' and Favorites for the Week

Reina de Coazones premieres tonight.

REINA DE CORAZONES premieres tonight on Telemundo at 8 p.m. ET. This is the latest Miami telenovela from Telemundo. It sadly has nothing to do with the bizarre late 1990s Venezuelan telenovela of the same name that starred Emma Rabbe and Roberto Mateos. No, this REINA comes courtesy of writer Marcela Citterio, whose last three telenovelas – AURORA, CORAZÓN VALIENTE, and CHICA VAMPIRO – are each contenders for the worst telenovela made the year they were produced.

The story from the press materials: Reina is a humble seamstress “who must overcome the barriers of amnesia to find true love. The story unfolds around mystery, espionage, conspiracy, intrigue, crime and romance, the super-production is set in Las Vegas, Nevada - Sin City - where casinos and nightlife play a leading role in the action.”

REINA DE CORAZONES stars Eugenio Siller in his third leading role at Telemundo. He’s batting .500 at the network after starring in the successful, fine UNA MAID EN MANHATTAN in 2011 and the aforementioned abysmal AURORA in 2010. The lead actress is Paola Núñez in her first role for Telemundo following a string of telenovelas for Azteca in Mexico, most recently the flop DESTINO from last year. The antagonists are played by Telemundo favorite Catherine Siachoque, last seen in LA CASA DE LA LADO, and Juan Soler, his second role for the network after a disappointing fey performance in MARIDO EN ALQUILER last year. Televisa veteran actress Laura Flores moves over to Telemundo in her first full role after a cameo in EN OTRA PIEL. Rounding out the cast are by this point overly familiar Miami Telemundo faces like Henry Zakka (PASIÓN PROHIBIDA), Paulo Quevedo (MARIDO EN ALQUILER), Pablo Azar (MARIDO EN ALQUILER), Wanda D’Isidoro (SANTA DIABLA), Rosalinda Rodríguez (DAMA Y OBRERO) and Paloma Márquez (EL ROSTRO DE LA VENGANZA).

TELENOVELA WATCH: Two Univision Novelas, 'De Que Te Quiero, Te Quiero' and 'Qué Pobres Tan Ricos,' Featured Gay-Themed Storylines Last Week; Plus, Thoughts 'El Señor de los Cielos' Season 2, Favorites for the Week

Two Univision novelas featured gay-themed storylines last week.

By a scheduling coincidence, Univision aired episodes this week from two Mexican telenovelas produced by Televisa that featured gay-themed plot lines - De Que Te Quiero, Te Quiero (weeknights at 7 p.m. ET) and Qué Pobres Tan Ricos (weeknights at 10 p.m. ET). A demonstration of the ambivalence at Televisa toward this subject matter – the former featured a negative portrayal, the latter a positive.

I confess I often have a difficult time grasping the tone of De Que Te Quiero, Te Quiero. While enjoying the performances from Cynthia Klitbo, Marcelo Córdoba, Marisol del Olmo, Aarón Hernán and Juan Diego Covarrubias, I find the telenovela too often lapsing in taste - such as a scene where the protagonist winds up in blackface or a scene where an obese couple eats everything offered on the menu – to watch without frequent exasperation. This week featured a caricature Italian man whose demonstrative affection for a young man that he knows to be his son is confused by other characters for a come on. The attitudes expressed by the young man’s loved ones – the telenovela's favorable characters – come across as near panic at the possibility he may be gay; their relief is palpable at discovering it was all a misunderstanding and he is okay, i.e., straight.

While Qué Pobres Tan Ricos features a positive portrayal of its potential gay couple, it progresses with the baby steps not uncommon for a network’s initial forays into gay themes. The couple is cutesy, wholesome, old-fashioned – the first admittance of desire is through a poem – and to this point, absolutely devoid of even a hint of sexuality.

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.

Univision Ranked as the No. 3 Broadcast Network Last Week Among Adults 18-34 in Primetime, Out-Performing FOX and CBS

Lo Que La Vida Me Robó averaged 4 million viewers last week.

For the wek of April 28-May 4, 2014, Univision ranked as the #3 broadcast network in all primetime among Adults 18-34, out-delivering FOX and CBS. Telenovela Lo Que La Vida Me Robó led the way with an average of 4 million viewers.

· On Monday night, Univision ranked as the #3 broadcast network among Adults 18-34 and #4 among Adults 18-49, out-delivering FOX in each demographic. Univision’s entire primetime lineup ranked among the top 15 programs for both Adults 18-49 and Adults 18-34.

TELENOVELA WATCH: MENTIR PARA VIVIR Finale; Thoughts on LO QUE LA VIDA ME ROBO

Tonight is the finale of MENTIR PARA VIVIR at 7 p.m. ET on Univision. It was probably the best telenovela from Televisa last year over its first fifty episodes, but its quality dropped significantly over its second half and it is limping to the finish line.

Even the masterpieces of the telenovela format often have hiccups of a couple or so weeks, usually about two-thirds of the way through the run. You can take the bumps in the road because a good telenovela has already earned your trust, you believe the writers and producer will eventually right the ship, and usually they do. Not this time. Characters acting stupidly to drive plot, subplots stalled, a character ramping up to murderous insanity seemingly overnight, a significant addition to the cast occurring far too late in the telenovela’s run – the final weeks have been an unfortunate mess.

TELENOVELA WATCH: U.S. Premieres - POR SIEMPRE MI AMOR Tonight, ALIAS EL MEXICANO Tomorrow; Thoughts on LO QUE LA VIDA ME ROBO and MENTIR PARA VIVIR

Tonight is the US premiere of POR SIEMPRE MI AMOR at 8 p.m. ET on Univision. A Mexican-produced telenovela from Televisa, it is a remake of MI SEGUNDA MADRE from 1989. Produced by Ignacio Sada Madero who is coming off the very fine remake UN REFUGIO PARA EL AMOR, this adaptation of Abel Santa Cruz’s original story is by one of the writers of UN REFUGIO, Nora Alemán, joined here by Denisse Pfeiffer.

The story: Arturo de la Riva and Isabel López, both suffering from personal tragedies – his wife of ten years suddenly dies, she discovers the man she married was a fraud and cheater – find true love with each other. But their happiness is marred by Arturo’s daughter Aranza resistance to accept Isabel and the nefarious plots of Isabel’s ex-husband Fernando and Sonia, the wicked cousin of Arturo’s deceased wife.