Caray, Caray!

Thanks for these Jean ;)

We're in the home stretch, for sure. I wonder if Pepa will realize that in doing her "civic duty" of calling Rosario with the chisme about Armando's legal woes she may have precipitated the shooting and start to curb her tongue? Chances are Rosi would have tried the Elizondo compound eventually, or the cops might have come to her like they did with Dino's parents, but ya never know.

It was smart of Gabi to try to get Malcolm and Carmela on her side by telling them she'd declare in their favor, but it figures they'd be too afraid of Dino to comply.
 

Thanks as always, Jean!

I guess Rosario really does love Franco - she took a bullet for him! Although Franco came to have no respect or trust for Rosario, it seems he still loves her - he's recently dreamed about her and is very affected every time she's around. I know he loves Sara, but it seems Rosario still has a place in his heart. I'm not sure I really like that, but I guess it's a touch of reality.
 

Body count: With Armando, we’re at 10.

Whoa; I didn’t see Rosario’s shooting coming. This was a nice twist & very well done. Rhonda, I think it would have been cold of Franco not to have reacted the way he did toward her at that moment. While I'm sure he wouldn't change Sara for her at this point, Rosario was probably his first love, and those memories don't fade easily, especially for someone like Franco who totally throws himself into relationships.

I love how the ironies are loading up here at the end: Juan goes in to save Gabriela; Armando dies believing he killed Rosario when he tried to kill Franco; Sara likely saved Rosario by noticing she was still alive. Nice twists. I’ll have to remember to try & catch more of Julio Jimenez’s telenovelas. I think he also wrote "El Cuerpo del Deseo", so we'll see if it holds up as well as PdG.

Still, not all is clever these days. I stopped counting the missed opportunities for escape that Juan & Gabriela seem to be racking up, and the essentially worthless police handling of the situation. The lack of common sense here is causing me too much frustration to appreciate whatever dramatic tension is supposed to be building, so I'm just riding this bit out till the end.
 

Rhonda's & Jean's comments re: Juan Reyes vs. the Medina brothers from LT got me thinking, so here's my "dos centavos". ;-)

The Juan Reyes character is without doubt a less interesting person than either Hugo or Alcides de Medina, but physical attributes being equal, I guess I prefer him to the de Medinas on grounds of character. For all of his professed loved for Soledad, by the time Hugo’s protracted plan of revenge was over, I couldn’t sustain much respect for him. He’d launched into a perversely cruel plan on the basis of information from highly suspect sources, ignoring the witness of Soledad’s irreproachable past behavior and letting his own personal phobia trump his better judgment. In letting it play out so far, I felt he demonstrated a fatal lack of trust in and compassion toward his “beloved” that revealed the true frailty of his commitment. Once he was forced to come clean, he never was able to argue convincingly (in my eyes) that he was justified in his actions. Then, in spite of still being in love with his “true love”, he began a physical relationship with Michelle, dragging another victim into his emotional train wreck.

As we know, Alcides’ emotional and mental health were worse yet. Life with either one would likely be highly entertaining, but I don’t think I could trust either one as far as I could throw them.

In PDG, the relationship between Juan & Norma was given a pretty one-dimensional treatment. It could have been written to be much more interesting, but it was what it was, and I think Danna & Mario did a good job with it. If physical attraction is all that exists between them (which is pretty much all we are shown as an audience), then it indeed doesn’t bode well for them for a long & happy marriage. Since their minimal conversation provides us no insight with regard to common interests, it could be posited that it was physical attraction plus common values that clinched the deal, certainly for Norma. The qualities Juan brought to the table – honesty, passionate fidelity, compassion, the ability to inspire passion in her – for Norma likely outweighed his lack of social graces, said qualities being largely absent in her marriage with Fernando. Curiously, in the few conversations they did have, I didn't perceive a sense of stiltedness, but rather an unspoken ease.

Would Norma eventually regret marrying Juan? Possibly, but since telenovelas are indeed fantasy, I prefer to hold the fantastical view that that they just “fit”, without need for a lot of conversation. And they lived happily ever after. ;-)
 

Great comments, Marie Celeste. I don't think it's even worth doing a post for today's episode, it was so silly. Feonando and Dínorah go upstairs to pack their bags ?! Malcom and Carmela make the money switch and leave while Juan and Grabiela just sitting there unguarded. All they had to do was make it out the front door but nooo.
Juan jumps out of his sinking truck up to his neck in a scummy pond and afterwards his suede jacket is perfect and his cast is still white?!
It's just silliness up to the grand finale a week from today.
 

Loved the comments, ladies. I agree about the missed opportunities for escape, etc. Oh well, as long as Juan is on camera I am happy. (The same goes for Hugo and Alcides!)
 

Marie Celeste - of course you are right about Franco's feelings for Rosario. I'm just used to having clear cut romantic interests in telenovelas, unlike pesky real life :)

I also agree that Juan would probably be a better bet for trust and fidelity than Hugo & Alcides. I just found them much more compelling.

The police WERE certainly useless. They might as well have just given them an escort.

Poor Juan, the trusty red truck is gone for good.
 

Let us all have a moment of silence for Juan's red truck =( Luckily, we have seen it reincarnated as the Altamira truck in DB (either that or a reasonable facsimile).

I echo the comments that Juan and Gabi let entirely too many opportunities to escape go by, but I guess it was necessary to keep this going for another 10 hours. As for Juan magically exiting the pond scum untouched, that was just plain silly.
 

I also felt the need for a moment of silence when the old pickup went down. I was afraid it might be the straw that broke the camel's back for Juan, sending him right to Dinora's throat. There was enough other silliness in this episode that it would have fit in perfectly. ;-)

Off-topic but Danna Garcia-related:

According to Univision.com, Danna Garcia’s latest telenovela premiered in Mexico on Aug. 25th. “Un Gancho Al Corazón” (“A Hook to the Heart”), being filmed at Televisa studios in Mexico City, is a remake of a 2006 Argentine telenovela, “Sos Mi Vida” (“You’re My Life"), which aired on Telemundo in 2007 as “Eres Mi Vida”. No word in the Univision bulletin about tentative broadcast dates in the US.

It’s a comedy(!) in which Danna plays a female boxer, Velentina Lopez, known in the ring as “La Monita” (“The Little Monkey”). When she hurts her hand in a match & needs a job while she heals, she goes to work for handsome industrial heir/race car driver/widower/single father Mauricio Sermeño (Sebastián Rulli) and - surprise, surprise - they fall in love. There are clips all over YouTube. Here’s a link to the opening titles of the show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iE42rwKSM4

According to interviews on YouTube, Danna trained with 2 professional female boxers & got into great shape for the role. (Yeah, like she was sooooo far gone…..), but what she most appreciated was having a chance to do comedy, playing a character who gets to laugh!

It would be nice to see Danna do comedy, but the opening credits plus the Televisa tradition of doing things somewhat “over the top” (particularly with comedies) makes me nervous that this might be a little too silly for my taste. In the Univision article, the producer was quoted as saying that this version would be very similar to the original; the only changes made would be to “Mexicanize” it a little. I hope that’s not what they said about “Fuego En La Sangre” as it was being adapted from PdG! ;-)
 

Thanks for the 411 Marie Celeste! Interesting thing about female boxers, they tend to actually box! That is, whereas a lot of male heavyweights tend to just throw a few punches trying to get a knockout, and barely move; lightweight male and female boxers actually do a lot more quick punches and move around to avoid the punches aimed at them, playing those matches to the time they were meant to last (as opposed to the 5 minutes 'till the other guy gets knocked out). They don't have to be super muscular, but do require some bulk.

As for "mexicanization" of TNs, I also hope they don't blow it. I'm personally enjoying "Guapos," another "mexicanized" comedy, but HATED the disaster that was "Fuego." Then again, Fuego was supposed to be a drama. I guess it depends on who's writing and directing. Jury's still out on "El Juramento" which is enjoying it's third or fourth remake. I remember liking a previous Mexican remake called "El Amor Nunca Muere," but this was ages ago.
 

Dang it Marie Celeste! I had to check that YouTube link and ended up watching all the interviews, promos, and side by side comparisons ;) For what it's worth, the Argentinian version was a little more "real," but I liked this version too.

Here are some promo links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDzr5rH1Hz4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ6dbS99XSY&feature=related

The second one has about 4 different short clips, and they have a cheesy box announcer flavor, but the actual acting is pretty good. In addition to a nice solid cast, the producer is Angelli Nesma, who produced Guapos. Soooo, the bad news is, we will not be seeing Danna in "Lola Calamidades" (is that still happening?) but "Gancho" has hope. No clue when they'll air it (if at all) in the states, since it looks like "Guapos" will be replaced by "Cuidado Con El Angel" on Univision. It does look like someone's posted the first four or five episodes on YouTube (It debuted Aug. 25), but no guarantee they will post them all. Sigh =(

Meanwhile, we still get to watch her for another week in this one. Here's a useless fact, the promos mentioned that not only was she in PdG (which resulted in FelS), but she starred in the original "Cafe con Aroma de Mujer" (which begot "Destilando Amor"). Does that mean we will soon see LT set in Mexico and starring Eduardo Yanez as Hugo/Alcides? God I hope not!
 

Normally I hate boxing--I can't understand how anyone can enjoy seeing people punch each other and how this could be considered a sport, and how any woman, especially, could even think of taking part in such an activity--but I would watch to see Danna, I suppose. A comedy sounds interesting, too.

As for El Juramento--I've seen promos and have NO desire to watch. The leading man doesn't appeal to me at all! Just seeing them kiss--yuk! (I hope that actor is not reading this--sorry, no offense! Lol.)
 

Margarita,
I have to laugh every time info comes out about a new telenovela, because it seems like there really isn't such a thing as a "new" one; they're almost always remakes of something else!!!

As far as a Mexican remake of LT goes, I think you're on to something there. Just give them time; something will show up eventually, mark my words.

So what would a Mexican "LT" look like do you suppose? They might keep the male lead as identical twins if another male star is willing to do double duty, but they might also revert to the original LT plan & have the brothers played by 2 different actors. (You may have seen the early Telemundo promo for LT on YouTube, with Mario's character under the name of 'Sebastian de Mendoza', and Gabriel Porras playing Alcides. I was super-intrigued by this clip & was a little bummed when Porras ended up NOT being in the actual production because Mario wanted to play both parts.)

As for who would play the brothers in the Mexican version, your suggestion of Eduardo Yañez cracked me up. He does seem to be the flavor of the month over at Televisa. I think Mauricio Islas would handle the dual role well. (He was in "Pecados Ajenos" earlier this year on Telemundo.) If they split the roles, I'd like to see him and Sebastián Rulli pair up, OR reunite him with Fernando Colunga again. The two of them did a bang up job competing against each other for Adela Noriega in "Amor Real" a few years back.

Speaking of Adela, she & all the other FELS ladies are definitely too old for Soledad, as is Lucero. Mayrin Villanueva ("Juan Querendon") is the right age, but her acting skills pale in in comparison to Danna Garcia's. Edith Gonzalez could possibly squeak by as age appropriate, but just barely. Other than her, I'm kind of stuck for guesses. Maybe Marlene Favela ("Zorro"), but she makes me a little nuts so not my first choice. ;-)