Caray, Caray!

MARIANA

Running commentary:

Iggy is rockin’ a tropical shirt with long sleeves??? not a guayabera and not a Hawaiian shirt . . . But something else.

Why does Mariana always wear a dress that looks like a slip or lingerie?

Isidro “swoops“ in to save the day!

Remember to bring along your machete in case there are problems on the way. Hmmmmmm . . .

Time for Mariana to put on her big girl pants and choose her “husband”.

Why couldn’t Atilio just do us all a favor and kill himself?

Chachi sure got an eyeful. Sounds like it was far from the first time Atilio and Marcia have gotten together. Anyone having seen that would have to run and tell somebody.

The wedding cruise via outboard . . . finally Iggy and Mari made it legal.


 

MARIANA

My! My! Jarifa. I've only watched to first few minutes of this. Looks like another rollercoaster ride.

I can't agree with you more on Mariana's dresses, though. I've noticed those lingerie spaghetti strapped dresses. Maybe someone thinks she has nice shoulders??? Cuz it's certainly not her cleavage LOL
 

MARIANA

Well, once again, my sulky DVR did not deign to record, so I'm very grateful for your running commentary JARIFA. And for sure RGV CHICK, those lingerie dresses are not showing off dramatic cleavage, but then our heroine is a demure, recently de-flowered virgin, and Ignacio's love for her is pure and noble, despite the enthusiastic deflowering. Or so we must believe. Onward!

Atilio and Marcia? Wow, I didn't see that coming. But what is her relationship to the family? She's always harping that she's not anybody's "tia" but I've never understood quite why she's there.

Happy to hear that Isidro swept in to save the day. He's got to do something to justify his cabalmente irritating presence in this story!

CITAS

DORIS, I agree "Andycaps" has a certain saucy ring to it that DORISCAPES does not. But your recaps are a delight and I'm happy you're helping us keep up with a light-hearted story. It's all doom and gloom on MEDICOS at the moment, and lots of sad things going on in DULCE. And thankfully we do have the riotous humor of Mariana as Andy points out so well.

It's beautiful weather-wise here. Keep the faith everybody.
 

MARIANA

Here's a few more tidbits...

Iggy talked Francisco to declare against Ati, but Cumache reminded Ati that Franc was a witness at the hacienda massacre; so now Franc is dead...by Cumache's hand. BUT Isidro showed up and gave his testimony. Lucrecia also showed up and testified that Ati confessed everything to her. Ati got arrested but managed to talk the comandante to release him under house arrest...since he is a man of his word (GaG!) and won't leave.

Chachi witnessed Ati and Marcia "moving the sofa" and ran to Camilo to tell him all about it. Chachi and Cam did some serious "oral sliming" (credit to Lila), but when it got too hot, Cami pulled away.

Lucrecia is closing down the cantina since Ati had told her that he would close it down if she testified.

Funny how Cumache was telling Liborio that there was nothing to fear since Ati is "THE MAN" and immediately after jumped at the sound of children shouting and running toward him....but he ain't skeered LOL
 

MARIANA

Judy, Marcia's mother married Ati's father; so Marcia is Ati's and Isabel's step-sister.
 

O/T

Just finished my marathon viewing of STuD and am sorry it is over. It was quite enjoyable even though there was a long time where Valentina rivaled Rogelio from LQNPA in terms of stupidity, unpredictability and intransigence. I did like that they gave us a good ending with Lucero singing at the wedding and all of the loose ends tied up to two years after the wedding. I even got to see the legendary “pear robe” that I have heard mentioned so many times on Caray.

Are there any other good rancho novelas out there?

I cannot wait to see Colunga in “Malverde: el Santo Patrón” courtesy of Telemundo.
 

OT

La Vecina will have it's gran final tomorrow, Tuesday. On Wednesday, "Alborada" will replace it (on Unimas at 12:00-2:00PM).
 

OT

You've got to watch ALBORADA Jarifa. I liked Amor Real even better, but Alborada is excellent. Fernando Colunga at his best.
 

OT

JudyB, thank you for the suggestion. I appreciate it. The problem is that I am not a big fan of almost anything “de época” unless it has to do with specific historical times/events I am interested in. That being said, I may try to catch an episode to see what it is like. ; )
 

OT

Well it takes place during the time of Mexico trying to get out from under the domination of Spain. And also involves the trials related to the Inquisition. Some pretty heavy stuff, but wonderful acting and top flight script and filming. As someone put it, it’s like Masterpiece Theater for Mexico. And Colunga is just drop dead gorgeous throughout.
 

ALBORADA

I will "second" Judy's recommendation that you watch ALBORADA if you have time for a 2-hr/day show. I did not like it as much as Amor Real, but the Patio (and maybe even telenovelaworld.com?) kept me engaged with the historical facts woven into it. From that aspect, Im
learned a lot....about some history re: Jews living in Mexico during that period. Also learned about syphilis. 😜

Is this the one that has the old woman "La Poderosa"?

Diego is scum of the earth and I could have done without that character but the actor played him well. Daniela Romo is great, as is Colunga.
Mónica Miguel herself even has a small role.

OMG!!! I just looked and Mariana Karr is in it. Isn't this the telenovela where she says, "Caray! Caray!" all the time? Thus inspiring the name of our blog patio here? I'm pretty sure it is.
 

ALBORADA

Yes indeed, that’s where CarayCaray was born DORIS. And there’s a hysterical product placement where her character is recommending a modern skin cream for Fernando to use on his scarred leg. Had me rolling on the floor. But who cares...noble, manly heroes, hot blooded, toothsome wenches, intrigue out the wazoo, just a peach of a telenovela.
 

ALBORADA

Judy - I don't remember the skin cream product placement. That is hysterical!

I loved the entrada song sung by Plácido Domingo. That alone is worth the price of admission. ♥♥♥
 

MARIANA

Tuesday’s running commentary:

Mari is going home after getting married?? She is surprised Atilio will not be bound by house arrest order??

Iggy finally changed out of his tropical good time shirt. Yay!

After seeing Atilio with the corpse of his Elisa: Poor Chachi got a double dose of crazy with poor Lola for her mother and Atilio for her father.

Iván didn’t miss a beat putting the moves on Marcia. What are his real intentions??Carol looked concerned from the get go.
Marcia faints at the casino: another fainting spell another pregnancy! Try to hijack Iggy to marry her? Can’t wait until she finds out her sister beat her to it.

Rude awakening for Mari when Atilio calls her “Elisa” and went on and on and on. Finally she knows how twisted he is. Yay! She overhears he had all of her suitors killed. Yay!

Atilio knows Iggy is his son and still wants to kill him. Reminds me of Resendo and José Miguel in STuD. Such complicated parentage issues.

Marcia plays right into Iván’s hands Lucky for him. She needs a lawyer to work against Atilio. Yay!

Priest got an earful with Atilio’s confession to loving Mari and was so totally disgusted he probably would have run, covered his ears and hummed all at the same time if he could.

A new day, a new shirt for Iggy.

Camilo got himself in over his head with Chachi but doesn’t know it yet.

Marcia might be setting up Iván . . .

Fleeing Mari ends up in a barranco that looks more like a cenote.





 

MARIANA

Thanks for the update JARIFA. My DVR is infected with evil spirits. It records the nightime shows just fine. But on MARIANA, even though the red light showed that it was recording, when I went to Mariana de la Noche all I got was a black screen. Will have to check and see if it continues to be evil when I want it to record ALBORADA starting tomorrow. That is one show I could watch again and again (ditto for AMOR REAL). This may be a problem with UNIMÁS rather than UNIVISION. But I've also had glitches with Univision. Oh well. Most of the time, I'm home these days anyway. But don't necessarily want to be locked down in front of the television set (except for OSU games, naturally LOL)
 

MARIANA

Did see part of this, and hate to be negative but honestly Mariana is about the most wimpish, lame ass heroine I've ever seen. When she catapulted down into the barranca, I almost thought "good riddance". But that would be wrong. Soooo wrong to feel that way. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
 

MARIANA

JudyB

Recording is such a pain. My old VCR has its moments that just make no sense. Nothing is dependable. Sometimes I watch this in real time, other times I don’t. That goes for everything I watch. I agree that I don’t like the idea of being tied down even if I am not going anywhere.

It is hard not to be negative about this one. I have NEVER seen anything like this. I am considering it “must see tv” to increase my overall telenovela knowledge. I so agree about Mari. She is a “lame ass”but without her there would be nothing to fill the remaining 82 (?) 😂 episodes. She went in feet first. No belly flop for her. At least she was graceful.

Did you ever see “Mañana es para siempre”? It has a young Susana González and Colunga with Lucero as a villain.
 

I did see Manana es para Siempre JARIFA. Lucero was quite effective as a villain. Fernando’s shrieks when his mama died were distressingly high-pitched, but other than that ( and his preppy sweater looped around his shoulders), he was still a hunk. Still, I much prefer him as a swashbuckler on a horse. That man rides like a god.
 

JudyB,

You made me laugh out loud with “distressingly high pitched”. They did have a unique sound.

I am feeling bored after almost 7 months of what I call “house arrest” so I am trying a little bit of thIs and that and hope something grabs my attention. If not, time to watch “Watchmen” again. Just got the DVDs today.




 

I'm going crazy myself JARIFA. There's only so much reading, TV viewing, cleaning, cooking and yard work one can do before saying I NEED A SOCIAL LIFE! I NEED CROWDS!! I NEED A MOVIE!!!! AND HOURS CHATTING WITH A GOOD FRIEND IN A RESTAURANT. I WANT OUT!!!!!!! AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

And then I quietly remind myself how lucky I am to have a roof over my head, enough food to eat and for now, a healthy family including myself.
 

MARIANA

Monday: Wow! I never thought that Atilio and Marcia were that close. They didn't seem all that friendly in their previous encounters. I have to give it to Marcia, she really does like to spread the wealth.

It was nice to see the Comandante grow a spine, now I'd like to see him grow a brain and start wondering why in such a small place there are so many "accidental" deaths, near deaths, and disappearances. And all of them seem to have something to do with the Montenegros; dating Mariana, about to testify against Atilio, etc.

You can add me to the list, I find Mariana quite boring and I am another who is tired of this Covid-caused semi-isolation.
But it's not quite as bad as solitary confinement in a POW camp and, like Judy, I'm thankful for what I do still have, including this ridiculous, absurd telenovela! It does make me laugh sometimes.

More later, I'm trying to catch up with today's episodes.

Andy
 

MARIANA

JudyB,

I have to have my tantrum every so often but I have been lucky that family/friends and I have been able to remain healthy. I did get to go out and have some recall repair work on the carrito. I found a nice place to wait outside at the dealership and got to read in the sun.

Andy, “I’d like to see him grow a brain”. Should we be so lucky?
 

MARIANA

Well, el Comandante still hasn't grown a brain and is still letting Atilio run around armed and dangerous. Atilio has drawn his gun a couple of times in front of witnesses, ready and willing to blow away our hero. (I wasn't really worried though :)

There is no way such a hothead should be allowed to go around with a hand gun holstered on his belt.

Atilio called in a priest and caught hell. He should have called Fr. MacNamara, although poor Fr Mac was probably gone at least 30 years before this telenovela was made. Way, way back when, the local Catholic church held confessions every Saturday afternoon so people could confess their sins and then be able to receive Communion at Sunday Mass.
In those days there were lots of priests and the church usually had three or four confessionals going, but only one had a long line waiting, and that was Fr. Mac's, and the line moved fast. It mattered not at all how long it had been since your last confession, what sins you might have to confess, or anything else. Almost before you could finish confessing anything he would be telling you "Five Our Fathers and five Hail Marys, go and sin no more."

No inquisition, no lectures, no 'Tsk, Tsk' about the "impure thoughts" which were the weekly sins of every boy of a certain age and no questions as to whether things had progressed beyond impure thoughts, no embarrassment.

Fr Mac was a busy man every Saturday with boys(mostly) and girls, and children of all ages, all lined up to receive quick and painless absolution.


Ah, well. Back to the silly stuff, Isidro tells Camilo that not Mariana but some other woman will be the love of his life, and then we cut to Yadira. Is it to be Yadira? I was kinda hoping that Camilo might save poor Chachi, because she really needs saving. And despite Chachi's best wet efforts it doesn't look good for her.

I don't know what Iván is up to with Marcia, but I'm enjoying seeing her in dresses and Iván's bad girl assistant too. Both first class eye candy. Yum.

And then we finish the day with a real cliff hanger... yawn.

Aside from the eye candy, two hours a day is a killer.

Andy
 

MARIANA

Running commentary:

Search, search, search,

Fight, fight, fight.

The truth is leaking out all over.

Atilio is threatening to kill everyone.

Lucrecia tells Atilio that Iggy is his son.

Marcia will have a BIG surprise when she finds out Iggy is married already.

Best part: Iggy telling Atilio he married Mari

2nd best part Seeing Iggy knock Atilio on his butt a few times.

El Cumache does the old kerchief over the mouth trick to disguise his voice. Wow!!!!!!

Guess it is too early in the novela for Atilio to be dead. : ( He must be scurrying around the mine like the rat he is in the mine.

Too bad the ingeniero had to die.

Yadhira is having her own wondrous visions lost in the jungle.
 

MARIANA

I've been catching snippets of this, but I'm still falling behind. Your running commentary pretty much is keeping me up to date, Jarifa, thanks!

Andy, I did catch the switch to Yadira after Isidro told Camilo that there is a woman for him; and I thought the same thing as you. Also I caught that Ivan's last name is Navarro and when Marcia told him who she needed the lawyer for, Ivan made some comment alluding to his hatred for Atilio. So is Ivan a Lugo-Navarro??

ANNOUNCEMENT

I'm going to start posting the Daytime page on Thursdays also. Now that "Imperio" recaps are being posted on a daily basis, that will push this page too far down. AND I'm really having a hard time coming up with new topics for weekend discussion! LOL
 

MARIANA

Andy, father Mac sounds like he was exactly what was needed. So funny!
 

MARIANA

RgvChick, yep, Iván is a long lost black sheep of the Lugo-Navarro’s.

Thanks for thinking about this page’s placement on the main page and publishing another page on Thursday’s. IMHO, A new discussion topic each week is way too much to have to think about. : )




 

CITA A CIEGAS -- Capituos 11-13 *muy breve* (Sept 21-23, 2020)

Aitor’s mother was in a very bad traffic accident and is brain damaged. She can be kept alive artificially but will be in a permanent vegetative state. Doc Salazar recommends pulling the plug. Lorena agrees, it is what she would want.
→ So again in telenovelaland, the “pull the plug vs artificial life support” is presented, though not as much of a plot propeller as it was in Me Declaro Culpable.
In this story, it is not dragging down the tempo, almost to the point of everyone carrying on with their life as normal. Lorena is out at the casinos with Maura; business as usual. QTH??? It's rather odd. I wonder why this is even in the story.

Maura gets it in her head that Lenora and Salazar are having some sort of affair or flirtation. She goes over to Alondra’s and throws a big rock thru a glass door. Police happen to be driving by and arrest her. Mau is building quite a record down at the police station.

Lucía goes on a date with a guy she selected from the dating app. He looks NOTHING like the photo he posted to the app. “Uh, I grabbed the first photo I ran across.” Riiiiight. Date is an epic failure.

Lucía decides to start a diet to lose weight. She tosses almost all the snack foods in her desk into the trash can. Ingrid finds more in her desk, then gives her the contact info for a dietician/nutritionist. Bere shows up and makes Lucía give her the snack food in Luc's purse. These co-workers take no prisoners. :-)

Eduardo lets his son Lalo run the TV station for the day, and Lalo already has a buyer for it. Gah.

BECAUSE IT'S ALL ABOUT THE SPANISH:
“telaraña” – spider web
“guaqui” – variant of “guacala”
“farándula” – show biz, celebrities
“influencer” - Influencer (another social media Word adopted from English)
“trolleos” - (Internet) trolls
“con per” - very short form of ‘con permiso’
“caducar” - to expire (a sell by date on food, namely, Lucías snack foods!)
 

Hi BUSY DAYTIME PATIO.

ANDY...Father Mac sounds like a good sort. He understands how hard it is to control one's thoughts and gives "sinners" a quick solution. The amount of time humans spend beating themselves up and guilt-tripping themselves is truly sad sometimes. Mind you, not recommending we raise folks without any conscience at all, but still...the hormone tsunami that hits during adolescence is certainly troublesome for all sorts of reasons.

JARIFA...Well, very relieved that Atilio finally knows Iggy is his son. That was driving me nuts. Once again, the red light showed my box was recording, and once again...nada. I was busy with a visit from daughter and grandson, so your resumé was key. Thank you hard-working partner.

I wasn't taking any chances with Alborada. When it came on, I checked the recording right away. It was there. Simply don't understand what's up with Mariana. Maybe Isidro needs to set it straight and rid my DVR of evil spirits.

DORIS...I've given up on Citas, but love your recaps and vocabulary lists. The only character I like is Salazar. The main character, Lucia, just seems loutish to me. I presume she's supposed to be endearing and awkward, but it just comes across to me as crass and repellant. Plus an alcohol problem. Hopefully my reaction is not the typical one, and this show and this actress will do well.

In the meantime, I'm just enjoying hopping down Memory Lane with our "mystery boinker of Santa Rita" as Melinama named him years ago. I was always very touched by how kindly he treated his sickly, frigid, unattractive wife. She valiantly tried to do her duty, with gritted teeth, because...well, it WAS her duty. And she wanted to give him children as the Church mandated as well. He always treated her with great gentleness and respect. A real caballero.
 

ALBORADA

JudyB, I watched the first two episodes today and found it interesting but, alas!, it is not for me in spite of Colunga’s winning grin. I do admit it was fun seeing so many familiar faces so young.
 

MARIANA

Wow, more great drama!  :-p

Jarifa, thank you for your "running commentary", it's a huge help.

I will never understand why el Comandante, after a while, allows Atilio to do pretty much whatever he pleases and while armed. The guy is supposed to be shipped off to the reclusorio for trial after all.

How nice that the lovely Yadira, gorgeous in red, and with flowers in her hair against a green jungle backdrop, encountered Fabio's younger brother in there. AND she saw la María loca collecting lots of fruit. Could María have a hut guest?
In any event we now have a small clue as to María's diet, jungle fruit, perhaps the occasional birds' eggs, and peanuts at the cantina. And tequila when she can get it.

Why, oh why, oh why, oh, Why did they ever follow Atilio, into the mine, oh? (With apologies to Wonderful Town)

Why did they not just bar the door and wait for him to come back or die in there? He is an armed fugitive from justice, the mine was a regular death trap, and, oh, whatever!

I forced myself to watch Ing. Gerardo's final goodbye to Marcia. Wow, the things actors have to do to make a living.

Andy
 

MARIANA

Andy, I haven’t thought of Fabio in ages but your comment is right on. All that flowing shiny hair!

NOBODY is too smart in this one. The police are useless.
 

CITA A CIEGAS

Doris, thank you for doing such a great job keeping us up to date with CITAS.

It sounds like a fun show from your descriptions and I would be watching if I could stand to watch yet another hour of telenovelas. But there are days when I consider myself having the fastest trigger finger in the East, and it's usually poised over the FFWD button and itching to go.

If telenovelas have taught me anything, it's that you can indeed have too much of a good thing.

Andy
 

CAFE CON AROMA DE MUJER

Patio, I honestly do not see what all the fuss was about with this ca. 1994 telenovela and will drop it as soon as something better comes along. I often have it on in the background when I'm in my sewing room, which generally is not when MARIANA is on. CAFE is "on demand" so I can watch it whenever.

Have any of you ever watched it? What am I missing that made it so wonderful?

Maybe I should record MARIANA and have it on in the background, instead? Because Hallmark movie reruns in the afternoons have become very, very lame. This is probably a plot on their part so that viewers will be thrilled when new autumn and holiday theme movies for 2020 debut. Gah.

One thing I have to say for CAFE is: OMG the hairstyles and clothing are so late 1980s/early 1990s!!! It is almost painful to see that. lol
 

CAFÉ CON AROMA DE MUJER

DORIS, I think at the time it was wonderful. But telenovelas become very dated very quickly. After hearing about my Colombian friend rave about it, I watched a few episodes but it didn't grab me. It looked clunky and amateurish compared to the updated Destilando Amor version of it. So time passes, tastes change. Just as we wince when we look at old pictures (my long hair in the sixties was piled in such profusion on top of my head, you probably could have landed a 747 on it!)so we shrug when we see these dated telenovelas and wonder what all the fuss was about.

By the way, my DVR is again blotting out Mariana into utter darkness. Evidently it is a TV critic even more harsh than I am.
 

Judy - I had problems with Unimas and our DVR when watching Amores Verdaderos. It recorded fine the first several weeks. Then I started getting a test pattern screen instead of Amores Verdaderos on the DVR recordings . However, I could watch just fine in live/real time. I called Comcast, who ran all the tests and said they didn't see a problem. So I quit watching. They even called me a few weeks later, to ask if it was better, I told them NO. It must have gotten moved to another level because out of the blue, a month or two later, just for fun I recorded an episode and it was fine. By then I had lost momentum and desire to watch it.
 

DORIS, I do think it's a problem with stations that have a weaker signal in our Spectrum package. I re-booted the TV twice and then Alborada DID record, but first I was just getting a black screen like with Mariana. I'll see how it goes tomorrow...unless my second grandbaby-in-town arrives...in which case all TV shows, en español or in English will be completely forgotten and irrelevant. My 40-year-old "baby" is 40 weeks pregnant but always seems to go over. If Baby Roo does not arrive by Oct. 3 the medicos will meddle, but I hope he decides to make his appearance the old-fashioned way.
 

Re CAFÉ CON AROMA DE MUJER:

At a time when every telenovela had basically the same plot: cenicienta, jail,real parent was wealthy but unknown, jail, pregnancy, etc., etc. Café broke new ground.

First, it was a story that had a real business at its center. Second, the female lead was, yes, a "poor" woman, but she lived with her real mother, studied, and modern woman ought her way to the top of her profession. Third, the hero was impotent - except with that one woman. Fourth, there were no blondes with big breasts. Fifth, there were not an endless series of hot bedroom scenes.

The two leads were exceptional.

Looking back on it from 2020, Sebastian appears to be almost a stalker. But, back then, believe me, the novela was a breakthrough.