Showing posts with label Los Miserables. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Los Miserables. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

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.

Monday, November 10, 2014

TELENOVELA WATCH: 'En la Boca del Lobo' Premiere; 'Reina de Corazones' Rushed Ending; Plus, 'Los Miserables,' 'La Gata,' 'El Chivo' and 'Señora Acero'

EN LA BOCA DEL LOBO premieres tonight on UniMás at 10 p.m. ET. It is a Colombian narco-novela produced by Sony and Teleset based on the book "At the Devil's Table: The Untold Story of the Insider Who Brought Down the Cali Cartel" by former L.A. Times journalist William C. Rempel. The title of the book is probably as much a synopsis as required, but more details from the press release:

“The story centers on Ricardo Salgado, an engineer and soldier who rises to become head of security for the godfather of the Cali cartel, one of the world’s largest crime organizations and at war with the Medellin Cartel. After losing his best friend and family, Ricardo has nothing else to lose. Looking for redemption in a world full of corruption, he’s willing to turn in the Cali Cartel to the CIA. But when the operation goes south, Ricardo see himself in the ‘wolf’s mouth’ and he must fight to stay alive.”

Luis Fernando Hoyos (ROSARIO TIJERAS) stars as Ricardo; and the cast features Carolina Acevedo (COMANDO ELITE) as Ricardo’s love interest, and Lucho Velasco (LA VIUDA NEGRA) and Ricardo Vesga (LA MARIPOSA) as two of the heads of the Cali Cartel.


REINA DE CORAZONES
Telemundo is giving the bum’s rush to REINA DE CORAZONES (weeknights at 8 p.m. ET), announcing it is in its final weeks while editing together three episodes a night into a single hour. It is rare for Telemundo to slice-and-dice their telenovelas in this fashion, but REINA DE CORAZONES is a special case because it was recorded long before airdate. In the past, Telemundo recorded their telenovelas close to airdate allowing for quick adjustments to story and character based on audience reaction. A flop telenovela would sometimes see drastic narrative shifts in an attempt to boost viewing figures, as when EL FANTASMA DE ELENA in a single week killed off a half-dozen characters and removed its supernatural angle or RELACIONES PELIGROSAS moved the students to the background and emphasized the storylines of the teachers and parents.

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

TELENOVELA WATCH: Premieres Tonight - 'Rastros De Mentiras' on MundoFox, 'Los Miserables' on Telemundo

RASTROS DE MENTIRAS, the Spanish-dubbed, international edit of the 2013 Brazilian telenovela AMOR À VIDA, premieres tonight on MundoFox at 9 p.m. ET. It is the fourth major work from Globo to reach broadcast television in the US this year following LADO A LADO, AVENIDA BRASIL and LA VIDA SIGUE, breaking a long drought of Globo productions being consigned to pay television in this country. FINA ESTAMPA and ESCRITO EN LAS ESTRELLAS, a pair decidedly mediocre Globo telenovelas, were also broadcast this year, with FINA ESTAMPA still running weekdays at noon ET on Telemundo.

The plot of RASTROS DE MENTIRAS concerns Paloma, a woman from a wealthy family of doctors who struggles to follow in their footsteps. While the family is touring Peru, Paloma’s conniving brother Felix, who hopes to be the sole heir of the family’s wealth, reveals to her she was secretly adopted. Devastated by the news, Paloma runs off with a lover she met on the trip.

Paloma gets pregnant and returns to Brazil. She winds up giving birth in a bathroom. Felix finds her unconscious, takes the baby and abandons her in a dumpster where she is found by Bruno, a kind man who coincidentally recently lost his wife and son in childbirth. Bruno raises the child as his own. Years later, fate brings Bruno and Paloma together and the pair begins to fall in love.