Caray, Caray!

"Rey muerto, rey puesto," says Ratas, "the king is dead, long live the king."

Labels: aurora, herederos, reina-sur, telemundo

Now the whole primetime line-up on Telemundo is poised to change:

Urban Anthropologist has kindly been filling us in on the final days of Aurora in which our eponymous heroine lives on as the beating heart in a new protagonista. ¡Guau!

No one seems very excited about Los Herederos del Monte as it plods to its conclusion, proving perhaps that it takes more than All the Pretty Horses and All the Pretty Boys to make a successful novela.

La Pola, the historical novela from Colombia currently being aired on Univisión’s sister station, TeleFutura, has been given a tentative welcome to this page. Nobody wants an Invasion of the Pola Monster but we are open to brief comments and questions about this fabulous new show (as long as we remain a Logorrhea Free Zone).

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For the past few months, most of our conversation here has been about La Reina del Sur. As of Friday –


There are storm clouds gathering over Transer Naga. Teresa has many enemies but it’s a couple of insiders – both brought in at Patty’s invitation -- who seem poised to destroy her.

First there’s Teo. It is only after the suicide of his wife and would-be killer, Eugenia, that Teresa allows herself to think that what she and Teo share may be love. She seems touched when he surprises her with a yacht (that he bought with her money – what a prince!). [The yacht bears the name “El Bandido” but the script refers to it as “El Sinaloa”, as in the book.] For the first time, she invites him to her house. And she gives him a gift -- an untraceable gun for his own protection. Teo looks as if he expects her to take it out of the case and use it on him at that moment.

After Teo leaves, we are treated to a cheesy telenovela cliché -- not all that common in this show -- when Teresa falls in a dead faint. At a doctor's office the following morning, she learns she is pregnant with Teo’s child. [My favorite moment: the doctor congratulating Pote, whom he assumes to be the father.]

Then there’s Lupe/Veronica, Willy Rangel’s secret weapon in “Operation Sappho”. Lupe seduces Patty by exploiting her unrequited love for Teresa and posing as “Teresa Two”, the other Mexicana. L/V has several narrow escapes but she talks her way out of danger by exploiting Patty’s feelings for her. Patty can’t think beyond sexual betrayal so it never occurs to her to share her suspicions with anyone else at Transer Naga. And Patty reacts to this perceived betrayal by sinking into a profound depression. (Ya no queda ni la sombra de la hermosa Patty O’Farrell.)

Teresa herself is spending more time thinking about Sinaloa and el Güero and asking Pote questions that until now she has perhaps been afraid to speak aloud. On Friday, Pote confirms that it was el Gato who killed Brenda and Chino’s children – her godchildren -- on Batman’s orders.

The repulsive Cucho Malaspina finally impales Teresa – and Teo – on his telefoto lens, makes a small fortune publishing the photos and then goes on television to talk about the private life of “La Reina del Sur”.

L/V delivers documents to Flores and Willy that show the surprisingly vast financial network of Transer Naga and the names of the rich and famous people, the politicos, the philanthropists, the show biz types, the artists, who are involved in some way in the business. This is sensitive info but not enough to put Teresa et al in jail.

But the info L/V steals from Teo’s computer gives the police something they can use – evidence that Teo has been robbing Teresa blind! Now they can pressure Teo into giving them what they need to put Teresa out of business.

The police confront Teo with what they have discovered. If he informs on Teresa, they will shield him from her vengeance, he’ll keep everything he stole, and get nothing more than a judicial slap on the wrist for his own involvement. If not… Teo doesn’t even bother to feign conflicted feelings. Willy and Flores have themselves a rat.

Ironically, L/V is filled with guilt and self-reproach for betraying Patty. It may be that her words to Patty were all lies but their emotional content was not.

There is a delivery en route – 20 tons of cocaine – and between them, L/V and Teo give the cops enough details for them to set up a plan to intercept the carrier and arrest Teresa.

Willy recognizes that L/V is vulnerable and moves to get her out of Spain quickly. “Operation Sappho” is over and L/V is to fly to Mexico in the morning.

Juarez, while doing routine surveillance, catches sight of Teo coming out of the police building; his informant tells him Teo was in the Anti-Drug area. [The informant also tells him a man and woman, both with Latin American accents, are working with Flores.] Juarez reports Teo’s police visit to Oleg . Teo, when confronted by Oleg, claims that he was just following Teresa’s orders – to threaten Flores and explain away the documents. Then he tries to get Oleg off-balance by accusing him of being jealous – to which accusation our phlegmatic and enigmatic friend replies: A lo mejor sí, a lo mejor no. Soy ruso. Con nosotros, nunca se sabe. (Maybe I am, maybe I’m not – I'm Russian. With us, you never know.)

Both Oleg and Juarez are uneasy about the 20 ton shipment after hearing about Teo’s visit to the drug cops but there’s no way to shut it down – the Aurelia Carmona is already on her way. All they can do is be extra vigilant.

Patty, who has morphed into a zombie version of herself, breaks into L/V’s place by climbing through a window. Her frantic search of the flat is interrupted when L/V herself returns. Patty hides in the wardrobe and overhears one side of a phone conversation – L/V’s job is done and she’s packing to go back to Mexico in the morning.

Teresa calls Teo and asks him to come to the office. She has something she needs to tell him personally -- clearly, she wants to tell him she’s pregnant. But before she can begin, he goes on the defensive and blurts out the same lying explanation for his visit to the police station: he was only doing what she asked him to do.


So. We all know that the Golden Age of Transer Naga – and with it, our all-time favorite novela -- is coming to an end. What we don’t know is who will survive to tell the tale. And we don’t know how the Mexican side of the story will play out.

Your turn.

Labels: aurora, LaPola, reina-sur, telemundo

REINA

Labels: aurora, herederos, LaPola, reina-sur, telemundo

LA REINA DEL SUR

We had to content ourselves with three new episodes this week. I don’t have much to say about Friday’s “Twenty Favorite Moments” except that most of the sequences included were the ones I could have done without. I’m not a big fan of graphic violence and cruelty. My favorite moments all along have been writer- and actor-driven. Small scenes that reveal larger truths. But I suppose action sells. And all of us agreed that the scenes with Teresa and her two loves were superb.

We’ve wondered before whether this show would be perceived as a glorification of the narco world especially at this moment in history when Mexico is suffering its consequences en carne propia. (As many of you already know, Televisa began airing the series in Mexico on April 4.)

And here I have a confession to make. I don’t exactly tweet – who cares what NovelaMaven had for breakfast? -- but I do have a Twitter account and I follow a few people I find interesting. I guess you could say I ‘twalk’ (twitter+stalk); or maybe I ‘twurk’ (twitter+lurk).

So anyway, the other day, Roberto Stopello, writer of the tv adaptation of our novela, posted an intriguing tweet speaking to this question. He wrote on April 28:
Pa' que les voy a decir no, si sí? Alvaro Cueva es como Teresa Mendoza! Al pan pan y al vino, vino! | http://t.co/Rv27Goj

Following that link will take you to a piece by Alvaro Cueva: Cambios, extrañamientos y cosas peores: El pozo de los deseos reprimidos. (Changes, reprimands and worse: the well of repressed desires.)

[I had some trouble with the word ‘extrañamiento’. It seems to mean, literally, something like ‘exile’ but here I think it means ‘reprimand’.]

Anyway, here’s a quick and dirty translation of the parts of the article that referred to “Reina”:

Did Héctor Villarreal, Undersecretary of Regulations and Media of the Ministry of the Interior really send a written reprimand to Televisa for its airing of the telenovela “La reina del sur”?

I prefer to think it’s untrue, that it’s just a rumor, that it’s a publicity gimmick – because if it’s true, it’s obvious that the gentleman isn’t watching this Telemundo production; nor does he have people capable of reporting the truth about what is happening on our screens.

“La reina del sur” is very far from promoting organized crime in this country.
Moreover, weeks go by without any scenes taking place in Mexico; and in contrast to what happens in other national melodramas, it is full of basic values.

Didn’t ‘Teresa Mendoza’ (Kate del Castillo) just go to Morocco to defend a mother’s right to be with her child?

Didn’t the hero of this telenovela just give us a lesson about defending children in the face of human trafficking occurring in different parts of the world? Is this what they want to censor?

It looks like he just wants to cause trouble. He’s attacking something without taking the trouble to know what it’s about. He’s not a savvy tv viewer.

If Don Héctor and his colleagues were really interested in what is happening in our industry, they would be investigating other cases which really are shameful like “Pequeños gigantes”….

Unlike “La reina del sur”, “Pequeños gigantes” is shown in the family hour … and let’s not even get started about the “talk shows”…

That’s why I think that this scandal is a lie. It’s just a smear campaign that the social networks came up with to make the folks at the Ministry of the Interior look bad. Because if it were true, it would be scary.

Now it seems that a telenovela that tells the story of a woman who falls in love with the wrong man is dangerous; on the other hand we don’t need to do anything about the tons of garbage we “shoot up” every day.

It’s not for real, right? It didn’t really happen, did it?

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If you want to know exactly what Cueva wrote, check out the link. I also found another discussion of the theme here: http://tinyurl.com/3okqumd

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When I watch La Reina, I often think of The Sopranos, another brilliantly written series that sometimes made us squirm because we were rooting for the bad guys. But I don’t remember anyone worrying that Tony Soprano’s real-life counterparts would be swamped with eager recruits. I suppose that in the case of the drug cartels in Mexico, the wounds are open and bleeding – and even an artistically integral treatment of the theme can be painful, even insulting. Thoughts?

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Does anyone know anything about the novela Marina that will be shown at 1pm eastern/12 noon central as of May 9? I thought it might be worth recording because it stars two actors I like, Sandra Echeverría and Mauricio Ochmann. But then I read that after the first few episodes, Mauricio was replaced by the Colombian actor, Manolo Cardona.
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Herederos and Aurora watchers – the floor is yours!

Labels: aurora, LaPola, reina-sur, telemundo

LA REINA DEL SUR: As of Friday, April 15

♪♪She is the very model of a modern major CEO ♪♪

She takes meetings and makes decisions. Her enemies and rivals track her every move. She is learning to delegate – but that lesson is coming slowly. She is trying to be dispassionate – and that lesson is coming along even more slowly.

SHE TAKES MEETINGS ABROAD:
She travels to Colombia and strikes a deal for 15 tons of cocaine. This is too much for the Russian market so Oleg arranges a meeting with the Italians -- the Camorra – who have, up to now, dealt with the Gallegos.

SHE TAKES MEETINGS AT HOME:
She gathers her inner circle and agrees to entrust the important banking to Patty’s handsome cousin, Teo. He proposes setting up accounts in Grand Cayman – a place free of the gossip and susceptibility to bribery that plague Gibraltar; and immune to European government crack-downs. This proposal sends the fuming Eddie A and his Gibraltar connections back to the kiddie table.

The fledgling company’s leadership is also clarified: Teresa will be (like W), “the decider”.

SHE MANAGES PERSONNEL:
In a private moment, she lets Conejo know why she treated her so roughly. Conejo proves to be a quick study. Later she concocts a story for the Colombian whiz kid security guy that distances her from Teresa (and appeals to Conejo’s ironic sense of humor): She says she just got out of the hospital where she was being treated for a nervous breakdown after her husband and mother-in-law died in a terrible way.

SHE TAKES MEETINGS WITH POTENTIAL ALLIES:
Teresa and Oleg, with Patty as translator, sit at a table with the Italian Camorra. The Italians try to talk over her head, addressing themselves directly to Oleg and speaking Italian without pausing to give Patty a chance to translate. They ask Oleg why he brought these women along. Teresa shoots right back: She’s the boss. If they have something to say, say it to her and Patty will translate. She explains her proposal – to transport the product from Venezuela to Casablanca in Africa; and then to Europe.
Her conditions:
No payment in drugs.
Payment must be in dollars. And in cash (en efectivo).
The Russians and Italian will split the costs.
She can offer them a price 40% less than the Gallegos are asking.

[When the Italian steps away from the table to make a phone call, Teresa whispers to Patty that she feels like she’s in a Mafia movie. Well, so do we.]

The Italian response: They don’t want war with the Gallegos. If Teresa wants their business, she’ll have to negotiate with Joaquin Perna. Remembering how the Gallegos betrayed Santiago, she flatly refuses to deal with her enemy. She leaves the table. Oleg stays behind and indicates his willingness to negotiate and promises he will talk to the Mexicana. [Clearly, she hasn’t mastered this hatred having an expiration date (fecha de caducidad) stuff yet.]

AS FOR THE ENEMIES AND RIVALS:

THE THREE STOOGES, MEXICAN STYLE
Batman realizes his matones (killers) have been captured when he phones them and gets to hear their moans and screams. And Oleg learns that “Batman” is the one who sent them.

Oleg drives Teresa to the torture chamber – an abandoned slaughterhouse? – and tells her:
La suerte de estos hombres está en tus manos.
(The fate (literally, luck) of these men is in your hands.)
She wants to kill them herself but Oleg holds her back. He tells her not to lose her self control, and not to cross that line and become a killer. She finally agrees. She remembers how Pote showed el Güero respect on that terrible night in Sinaloa. He is to be spared – taken to a hospital and then flown back to Mexico with a message for his boss. As for the other two: ¡Buen viaje al infierno! (Have a good trip to hell!)

BACK IN MEXICO
Batman tells Epifanio Vargas that the rusos have his nephew. He denies sending him to Spain – it’s just that there was no way to stop him from getting on the plane. If Ratas comes back to Mexico, it will likely be feet first (con los pies por delante).

Epi tells the Rat’s mother her boy is in trouble.

THE POLICIA
Willy Rangel, DEA agent (and for me, the only false casting note so far in this series) is in Spain. He and Flores, along with Flores’s current crooked boss, meet in a hotel bar and talk about their obsessive Teresa-hunting. Willy admits to a grudging admiration for his prey. Even more crooked ex-boss Juarez, now a soplón (informer) for Oleg, comes along, makes Willy for a Mexican policeman, and reports the sighting to Oleg and company.

THE GALLEGOS
They get word that the Mexicana is cutting into their Italian market with her 40% off sale. Joaquin is finally on board with his mad-dog son, Siso – Teresa has to be eliminated.

THE LAST ACT:
Teresa and Oleg are outside the torture chamber and they hear a shot fired. Now your enemies are part of the past, Oleg tells her.

But inside, the unimaginable is happening. Yes, Gato has been killed. But Ratas is freed from his chains, he manages to break away, grab a weapon, kill the Russians and escape!
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Herederos and Aurora fans – are there any left out there? – fill us in, please!

Labels: aurora, herederos, reina-sur, telemundo

LA REINA DEL SUR – hasta viernes

This week we see Teresa complete her sentimental and academic education in prison, under the tutelage of Patty O’Farrell, black sheep of a wealthy Irish-Spanish clan of aristocrats. We also get a glimpse of the dark secrets in the O’Farrell family, including a suggestion of a history of father-daughter sexual abuse that helps to explain Patricia’s hatred for her parents and perhaps her self-destructive behavior.

Patricia uses her influences to get Teresa released from prison after serving about half of her five year sentence. She arranges a job for her -- waitressing in a place in Marbella, perhaps a step up from the ‘puticlub’ of Yamila. And a year or so later, Patricia herself is a free woman and joins her friend Teresa.

Patty knows where Jaime Arenas hid the half ton of cocaine three years ago, the cocaine that got him killed and Patty gravely wounded, and which the Russian mob still has a claim on. Teresa and Patty gamble their lives by confronting Oleg Yasikov with a proposal to sell him back his own drugs. But it is Teresa who seals the deal, convincing him first that she can move the cocaine from its hiding place to the marketplace; and also that she can teach them the hashish trade.

On Thursday’s episode, the daring coke retrieval is carried out. Knowing that the police have been watching their every move, they distract them with a decoy yacht (yate señuelo). Meanwhile Oleg, Patty and Teresa speed away in a Zodiac. When the police – as expected -- catch up with the three, they find no drugs in their possession. (I’m still a little fuzzy on this switcheroo, but clearly the drugs were moved on one vessel while the police were watching another.)

Oleg makes good on his promised six million Euro payment. He’s impressed with la Mexicana. As they say in the movies, he tells Teresa: This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Oleg is less pleased with Patty and her propensity for nose candy and infelicitous business disclosures in public, especially when Teresa leaves her alone – and kind of jealous -- during her two day visit to Melilla. He catches her out by using a Russian mob agent, Katia, to pose as Spanish ‘Ana’; Katia reports back to Oleg on all of Patty’s indiscretions. That’s the last time you talk about our business with strangers, Oleg tells Patty. Nobody threatens me, she snarls back.

Comisario Flores visits former Comisario Saturnino Juárez in jail and questions him about Teresa Mendoza’s relationship with the Russian mob and tries to get him to spill the names of his contacts. Juárez gives him a big fat nada and tells Flores it’s just a question of time before he turns into a dirty cop too.

Meanwhile the journalist Oscar Lobato spreads the word – Teresa Mendoza is back, she’s paired up with Patricia, the enfant terrible of the O’Farrell family, and allied with a capo of the Russian mob. He wouldn’t want to be in the shoes (en el pellejo, literally in the skin or hide) of the people who betrayed her and the Gallego.

When Teresa shows up for her brief visit to Melilla, her old friends -- Fátima and her son Mohamed, Soraya, Sheila and Ahmed -- are thrilled to see her. They are impressed with how much she has changed. (She looks beautiful and sophisticated and speaks with authority.) She promises to take Fátima and Fati’s son Mohamed back to the Peninsula to live with her.

But some are less than thrilled by her sudden appearance in Yamila: Dris (architect of Santiago’s death and Teresa’s capture) and two of his accomplices, Cañabotas (who set up Santiago in Algeciras) and Velasco, a crooked cop who was part of the plot. These two disappear when Teresa and Dris step into his office to talk. She tells Dris straight out:
No voy a descansar hasta que te hunda. Ojo por ojo, diente por diente!
(I’m not going to rest until I destroy you – an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.)

Later, Dris complains to Cáceres and Coronel Chaib that Teresa has threatened him. Their conversation is interrupted when Chaib gets a call: Teresa has a business proposal for him…

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Can someone fill us in on Herederos?

Labels: aurora, herederos, reina-sur, telemundo

¡Hóla a todos! Some of you know that when I write recaps, I include a lot of photos. I'm not writing recaps for Herederos or Reina and I don't have access to my TiVo setup where I can import the video right now but I thought that Santiago's departure was worth some effort so I grabbed a couple of shots from the online version of Thursday's episode. Descanse en paz, Santiago. We'll miss your hunky self.

Labels: aurora, herederos, reina-sur, telemundo

LA REINA DEL SUR
Part One: A Comment -- feel free to skip the purple prose and go directly to the summary below.

¿Se acabó la luna de miel? ¿Pa’qué te digo que no si sí?
Let’s get a few things straight. For my money, this is still the best acted, best written Spanish language telenovela-formatted dramatic series I have ever seen. Yes, that’s a mouthful –

Spanish Language Telenovela-Formatted Dramatic Series

Because calling this a telenovela sets up false expectations. A traditional telenovela tells the story of a set of characters over time; there are subplot excursions, to be sure, but essentially everything is in service of filling out the dramatic arc. A good part of the pleasure for the viewer is in figuring out how the pieces will eventually fit together; we don’t doubt for a moment that they will fit together.

Remember Aurora? You know, that promising original sci-fi novela starring lovely and gifted Sara Maldonado and everyone’s favorite hunky good guy, Jorge Luís Pila? The show that inherited so much viewer goodwill from its predecessors, El Clon, and ¿Dónde está Elisa? that many of us (myself included) were willing to accept the absurd premise that Eugenio Siller’s twenty-something Lorenzo had morphed into Pila’s forty-something self? (As for the silliness of the science – let’s just acknowledge that technical and scientific accuracy aren’t high on Telemundo’s priorities, adjust our beanies accordingly, and move on.)

I watched as the plot of Aurora took unexpected and -- to me, at least -- unwelcome twists and new characters were introduced with backstories that gave the lie to what I thought I knew. I finally gave up on Aurora when I realized that the problem was me, not them. Telemundo was aiming this one at adolescents and young adults. Definitely not fodder for most of us at CarayCaray.

¡Me cayó el veinte!But now, after a couple of weeks of La Reina del Sur I understand something else: both this new show and Aurora resemble episodic television adventure shows more than they do traditional telenovelas. In each episodio, there is a mini-adventure. Something happens and is resolved. Usually at the same time, a small subplot plays itself out as well. Because the show is aired daily, an ‘episode’ may extend beyond a single evening. But the only story arc that we can expect to continue from the first cápitulo to the last is Teresa Mendoza’s life and times.

In the past few years, I’ve been a little out of it as far as English-language adventure series are concerned, but I imagine that Lost was a bit like this. Super fans could probably tell you everything that had happened to their favorite characters from day one; but casual viewers could tune in to any episode and enjoy a satisfying one-hour story. Years ago, The Fugitive had a long run (sorry); we knew he was looking for the elusive one-armed man, but on the way, we could count on him for a thrilling evening’s adventure.

I’m guessing that the first two capítulos of La Reina that were shown here make up a single episode in the fourteen part version to be shown on Spanish television. That version is likely more faithful to the book and more novelistic in structure. But our version is geared to (if I were unkind, I’d say ‘panders to’) our pan-American tastes for plot movement – threats, chases, judicious doses of beautiful young bodies, male and female. The structure of the book doesn’t exactly lend itself to neat segments of plot so the writers have been busy embroidering. The result? The Adventures of La Mexicana, based on the novel La Reina del Sur. They’ve given us a daring escape from a frustrated DEA agent here, a gutsy foray into a Moroccan orphanage there. Even Teresa’s anonymous ‘grief sex’, although based on an event in the book, is fleshed out into a glimpse into the life and death of sympathetic policeman, Jaime (Juan Pablo Raba).

Maybe that’s why the novela Eva Luna turned out to be such a hit. I watched it early on and found it unbelievable that the producers would gamble everything on Blanca Soto, a drop-dead gorgeous beauty queen with very little skill as an actress and a voice that can only be described as challenging. But they were right on the money! People wanted lots of plot movement, no matter how ridiculous the storyline, and were happy just looking at Blanca, especially when she was paired with Guy Ecker (who must have spent most of his scenes standing on a box so he wouldn’t appear to be staring at Blanca’s chin.)

Here in La Reina del Sur we get plot up the wazoo including chase scenes, sex scenes, and fist fights, gun fights, knife fights; splendid acting; marvelous location shots; and a chance to listen to interesting and varied Spanish dialects. So I’m not complaining. I’m just sayin’…---------------------------------------------------------
LA REINA DEL SUR
Part Two: Friday’s Episode, in brief
Santiago and Lalo head out to sea with a full consignment of drugs in spite of Teresa’s gut feeling – un presentimiento -- that something bad is going to happen. “Yo no soy el Güero” he tells her as he goes out the door.

In Yamila, Soraya notices that Dris is in an unusually expansive mood.

The Gallegos are in Moroccan waters when a Coast Guard vessel appears, seemingly out of nowhere, and orders them to halt. Santiago and Lalo begin to dump their cargo overboard; then Santiago tells Lalo to hold on. Santiago accelerates, the Coast Guard starts shooting and Lalo is hit and falls in the water. By the time Santiago realizes what has happened, he is too far away to help his friend. He manages to make it back to Melilla but Lalo is captured by the Moroccan officials.

The captors torture Lalo until he gives up Coronel Chaib’s name as the one he and Santiago were working for.

In Melilla, Santiago connects briefly with Suleiman and asks him to tell Teresa he is safe and to ask Chaib to get Lalo out of jail. Then he flees to Algeciras, Spain.

If Teresa and Santiago think Chaib is going to help get Lalo out of jail, they are tragically mistaken. When Chaib learns that Lalo has given him up, he curses the day he listened to Teresa. And he decides that 15 years in a Moroccan prison is not punishment enough for Lalo – he has his captors cut out his tongue.

The women – Teresa, Fátima, Soraya and Sheila – figure that someone must have ratted out the Gallegos. Soraya remembers Lalo’s big mouth and Dris’s big ears that day in the restaurant. Ha sido Dris, she says. (Which is a very European use of the present perfect: La Mexicana would surely have used the simple preterite and said “Fue Dris”) Yes, they all agree, it was Dris. He did it out of jealousy.

Teresa confronts Dris: she knows he did it, even if she can’t prove it. But if anything happens to Santiago, Dris is a dead man.

A month passes. Santiago has found work running drugs from Algeciras. But he and Teresa are full of longing for each other. One day, Teresa comes home and finds Santiago sitting on the curb outside her apartment. They fly into each other’s arms and can’t tear their clothes off fast enough. As Fátima remarks with good humor: ¡Qué ganas tienen de revolcarse! (They’re sure hot to trot!)

Come back to Algeciras with me, says Santiago. Teresa turns to the light and says enigmatically:
Un día me voy a morir a esta misma hora. Me va a matar esta luz sucia que siempre entra por la ventana cada vez que empieza y acaba la noche.(One day I’m going to die at this very hour. It’s going to kill me, this dirty light that always comes in through the window when the night begins and when the night ends.)

Yes, she says turning back to Santiago. I’ll go with you. But on one condition – that you let me work with you.
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NUEVO RICO, NUEVO POBRE
This wryly funny Colombian comedy has reached the point where all the bad guys seem poised to salir con la suya. The one bright spot is that Rosemary and Andrés finally dropped their guard (and their pants) in Cartagena and now are willing to tell the world they are novios.

All through the honeymoon, la Flacuchenta esa has kept the absurdly priapic Brayan running for cold showers.

Meanwhile, back in Bogotá, little Ingrid thinks she’s been knocked up by the odious Miller (although I’m hoping she’s wrong – the pregnancy test she used was outdated.) The poor innocent Gordo is in jail. Don Leo has been beaten to a pulp by the local thugs and is in the hospital. Mundo Express has lost a ton of money under Brayan’s inept management and now has been audited and slapped with a huge fine. And slimy Mateo is plotting to steal the motorbikes that Rosemary and Andrés bought in Cartagena.

Could anything else go wrong? Well if Brayan takes the bait and commits an infidelity with one of the pro’s his wife is supplying him with, la Flacuchenta walks away with half of the Ferreira fortune. So far he has been surprisingly resistant to temptation.

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Okay, my friends. Your turn!

Labels: aurora, herederos, reina-sur, telemundo

HEREDEROS: Viernes- A pretty boring episode. Aside from Guadalupe accepting Gaspar's proposal on Beatriz' advice and Jose agreeing to accept paternity for Simón, not much new happened. Julieta moved back home and Sofía had dinner at the Millán's.

Labels: aurora, herederos, reina-sur, telemundo

ALGUIEN TE MIRA

A few words about the final episode:
I hate the choice the writers made – with that slight knowing sneer and sweep of the hair off his forehead, Emilio is transformed into el Cazador, the next generation. It says that everything we thought we knew is a lie. That evil is innate and it is passed on from one generation to another. Julián’s mother was a monster who abused him. Emilio’s mother is kind and loving and has never neglected him. It doesn’t matter. Emilio is a bad seed.


As for the rest of the episode:
After the suspense of the fire scene – we held our breath until we saw Rodrigo walk out holding Valeria’s body and we knew the human torch, now dead, was Julián – the characters’ stories were resolved without a lot of surprises:
--Luisa Carvajal gets a medal.
--Tatiana survives and eventually reconciles with Benja.
--Camila gets her diploma and the sisters are closer than ever, linked physically and symbolically by the life-saving blood donation.
--Lola accepts and loves little Pedrito and Pedro Pablo’s family is finally at peace.
--Lucía is institutionalized, seemingly catatonic.
--Piedad arranges the sale of the Surgery Center with the proceeds to be given to Matilde and Emilio and to the families of Julián's other victims.
--Matilde (who has made a full recovery after her surgery) and creepy Emilio are moving to California to start a new life.
--Rodrigo accepts a post in North Carolina and asks Piedad to come with him so he, she and Sofia can have a life together.


About ALGUIEN TE MIRA, in general:

We watched this novela become increasingly graphic in its violence and cruelty. Unsympathetic characters moved about freely, seemingly out of harm’s way, while some we thought were protected by the Geneva Telenovela Convention were mercilessly slaughtered. When Eva Zanetti – kind and clever, yes, but also tall, athletic, trained in self-defense and IMPORTANT TO THE STORY – when Eva fell victim to Julián’s el cazador, we knew the writers were playing with a different set of rules.

There was another crucial point in the narrative when Julián’s guilt was revealed to the viewer but not to the other characters in the story. We sat in helpless but still spellbound frustration and horror while over and over Matilde or Piedad or Tatiana walked smilingly into the jaws of the monster. We cheered for Rodrigo, the hero, the first one to see the truth though his warnings were ignored by everyone except Valeria. And we were afraid for Valeria who, even knowing that Rodrigo would never love her, stood by him bravely. Alas, our fears for her were justified.

Great care went into plotting the story and doling out the bits of suspense that kept us glued to our tvs night after night. And yet -- and this seems to be a Telemundo thing -- no one bothered to anchor this story in time or space. We are told it is modern-day Chicago and we’re given some stock footage of the city, but there is no city feel to the characters’ experiences or environments. Even when Valeria is following Julián and tells Rodrigo where she’s heading, the writers can’t be bothered to look at a real map of Chicago and pick an actual road leading to hunting country outside the city. Valeria can only say she is on the main road heading north. Well if the show were set in Mayberry, RFD, perhaps that would have been helpful.

Compare this to a Mexican Televisa novela where the pueblo or city setting are often strong presences. Or to American or European dramas where the city itself is felt as a protagonist in the story.

And it’s not only the geography that is vague. We are supposed to believe that in a high-profile investigation in 2010 Chicago, the police have only the most rudimentary forensic methods at their disposal.

Further, in a show about a group of doctors, where much of action takes place in clinics and hospitals, nearly all the medical detail is laughable. Compare this to the importance American dramas place on verisimilitude. American medical dramas always list medical consultants in their credits; crime dramas routinely consult with police officials and courtroom experts.

Well the writers may not have done their homework in geography, forensics or medicine. But the actors came through for us. The performances of this ensemble of young performers were impeccable, especially when you consider the time pressure of filming so many episodes in such a short time.

So tell me:

What did you think of the body language Rafael Amaya devised to switch from good guy Julián to evil cazador?
I kept thinking he could have been more subtle. Where Julián is slightly soft and yielding, el cazador could have been stony and dead-eyed. I wasn’t fond of the choice to make the monster slightly effeminate in his gestures – sweeping his hair from his forehead, holding his hand near his face, posing like a Tim Gunn from hell.

What about the implication that Emilio is destined to be another cazador? (See the first paragraph above)

Were you happy to see Rodrigo and Piedad end up together?
I’m not sure how I feel about this. Rodrigo deserves better. But as years of telenovela-watching have taught me, En el corazón no se manda.
----------------------

LA REINA DEL SUR

This novela based on the novel by Spanish writer Arturo Pérez-Reverte begins on Monday, taking over the time-slot from Alguien te Mira. According to Jean, the story was adapted for the screen by Valentina Parraga, the same writer responsible for adapting Doña Barbara.

Kate del Castillo as Teresa Mendoza seems to be an inspired choice: very Mexican, tough, not precisely beautiful but sexy, athletic and charismatic. I’ve read that Pérez-Reverte himself is happy with the choice.

And of course Rafael Amaya, whom we have just left behind in Alguien, appears here in a very different role as el Güero, the heroic fool, the love of Teresa’s life.

This narrative moves around from Mexico to Spain and to North Africa. (I understand that some of the African locations were also used in El Clon.) I’m hoping that this novela will be the Telemundo exception and that place will have the resonance it deserves.

The story begins in Sinaloa, Mexico. Teresa survives using her wits. Until one day her world falls apart and she has to flee…

I’ve heard that the producers of this telenovela are very sensitive to the messages they may be sending to viewers, especially at this moment in history when the drug cartels have the Mexican people by the throat. In my opinion, the original novel doesn’t glamourize criminals or drugs. Can this telenovela version tell the story of Teresa Mendoza without succumbing to the romance of the outlaw? Or will it be just another narco-corrido that glorifies killers?
-----------------


GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT EL MUNDO DE TELEMUNDO

Since the start of a new novela may bring some new readers to this page, Jean and I thought it would be useful to repost these blog guidelines from December.

As the number of comments grows, it gets harder to follow a topic of interest. Most of us, I think, are only interested in one or maybe two shows and would probably appreciate a way to navigate the forest of comments. So in the interest of Chaos Control:

1. Put a clear topic heading on every comment, preferably in caps. For example:

AURORA

Tuesday’s episode was…

or:

GENERAL COMMENT

Telemundo seems to be more concerned with…

That way, we can decide right up front whether to keep on reading. I realize that a lot of us are already doing this, but to those who aren’t – hey, it would help.

2. It’s hard to get away from the recap mindset but I do think comments or questions about what you’ve watched or what others have said are the way to go here. Considering the number of novelas in one place and the fact that the link is for an entire week, when we do post plot updates, it might be best to limit them to brief summaries, basically bullet points of daily episodes.

3. If you’re writing about a particular episode, please add the day of the week. That way you won’t be inadvertently posting a spoiler for someone who hasn’t seen that episode yet. For example:

LA REINA DEL SUR -- Monday
After bombarding us with previews, expectations were high…

-----------------------------------------
Ok. Your turn now.

Labels: alguien, aurora, herederos, reina-sur, telemundo

Happy Valentine's Day! - ¡Feliz día de San Valentín! -

Labels: alguien, aurora, herederos, telemundo

ALGUIEN TE MIRA – últimas semanas

We’ve had horrible moments of graphic violence before but nothing like the sustained hideous sadism of Julián’s triple murder: Daniel’s lawyer, the lawyer’s secretary, and finally, Daniel himself.

Up to now, Julián has eluded justice with a combination of meticulous planning, skill and dumb luck. But this time -- this time! -- we were sure the forensic evidence would be irrefutable. The detectives would analyze the murder scene checking for things like gunshot residue, bullet trajectory, skill needed to resect a heart and suture the wound closed. And they would conclude that the scene was only staged to make Daniel Vidal appear guilty. They would know that Vidal was just a victim here. And this would lead them back to the police investigators’ prime suspect: Julián García.

Well. Obviously it didn’t happen that way. This Chicago Police Department is hobbled by forensic science more suitable to a 1940’s film noir than a modern-day thriller. Luisa Carvajal’s objections are drowned out by her superiors. They buy Julián’s staged crime. He goes free.

We move ahead several months. Despite Julián’s best efforts to incriminate him as the accomplice of Daniel Vidal, Rodrigo is finally exonerated and set free.

The bellies on Lola and Piedad are ready to pop. Even Lucía looks pregnant now -- whether it’s with a pillow or a baby, we can only guess.

Pedro Pablo is still in exile from the family home although amazingly, he has managed to keep clear of Lucía. Now that Rodrigo is free, Pedro Pablo will have to find somewhere else to live.

Benja is on the straight and narrow, living with Lola and the girls and seeing his kids regularly. He’d like to get back with Tati but she’s decided it’s her turn to be the wild girl. Uh oh. Alguien te mira, Tatiana!

Camila is a college girl. Let’s hope nobody tells her about Spring Break or the College Girls Gone Wild franchise.

Matilde is home with her parents and Emilio. Her emotional reactions to names and events are eloquent. Unfortunately, we, the viewers, are the only ones who can read them. Her doctor tells her parents about a surgical procedure that may help her. Julián does his best to scare them away from it.

In her campaign to win Rodrigo’s love, Valeria has finally taken the gloves off. Literally. Hat’s off, too. Not that it helps – he’s still obsessed with pea-brain Piedad.

Piedad promises to call him for the baby’s birth. She insists her engagement with Julián is still on but she is living apart from him until after the baby is born.

Julián’s Dr. Jekyll is determined to keep his Mr. Hyde at bay. You can almost hear him muttering under his breath: Must. not. kill. While the ever-more seductive Fantasma de Eva whispers in his ear: You know you want to.
------------------------------------------------------------

Okay. Your turn.

Labels: alguien, aurora, herederos, telemundo

Last week’s comments were terrific. Thanks everyone!

NUEVO RICO, NUEVO POBRE

This is for real: Last Friday there was a piece in BBC Mundo about how Venezuelan authorities pulled the Colombian novela, Chepe Fortuna, off the air because:
…promueve la intolerancia política y racial, así como la xenofobia y la apología del delito.
(...it promotes political and racial intolerance as well as xenophobia and a rationale for crime.)

Here’s the article, if you’re curious: http://tinyurl.com/66qt9qa

It seems the novela features a minor character named Venezuela (and another, her sister, Colombia). Venezuela is characterized as a large, kind of vulgar, dark-skinned woman who, when told that her small dog, Huguito, is missing, cries out tearfully:
¿Qué va a ser de Venezuela sin su Huguito?
(What’s to become of Venezuela without her Huguito?)
Her less than sympathetic friend answers:
Va a ser libre, Venezuela...
(You’re gonna be free, Venezuela…)
… because lately that Huguito of yours has been sticking his nose in where it doesn’t belong.

Hugo Chavez didn’t see the humor, apparently. And we’re not likely to see SNL Venezuela any time soon.

I thought of this when I was watching the latest episode of the Colombian comedy, Nuevo Rico, Nuevo Pobre, in which the newly minted and totally unprepared executive of a major shipping company says in a televised speech: Yankees Go Home! The "Yankees" in question are empresarios who have given the Colombian firm an ultimatum: if they want their business, the Colombians will have to do some belt-tightening and lay off 200 employees. Talk about Ugly Americans.

I’m so glad we live in a country where we get to decide whether to laugh or switch the channel.

That’s it. Just had to get that off my chest.

HEREDEROS DEL MONTE – OR – All the Pretty Horses…and the People Ain’t Bad Either.

Lots of amor no correspondido (unrequited love), uncertain parentage, guapos y guapas. I’m happy to enjoy it vicariously through your comments. Have at!

-----------------------------------
ALGUIEN TE MIRA – As of Friday

As we sit at home and gnash our teeth, Julián just keeps getting away with it. Arrrrrggggggggghhh!!! And while Matilde lies unconscious with the direst of prognoses, Julián and the ever-more odious Piedad make out in the waiting room. And Julían waits for an opportunity to get to Matilde – “I’m the father of her child! And I’m a doctor!” – and finish the job he started.

In what may have been the last phone call of Matilde’s life (remember how she frantically dialled Tatiana from the deserted gas station), she cried out Julián’s name. And now the moronic Tatiana is determined to hide that fact from the police. In that decision she is supported by the even more moronic Lola.

Mauricio’s gruesome remains – minus the head – are delivered to the police. The idiot Fiscal insists that Mauricio’s death is unrelated to el Cazador. Amador and Carvajal know better, but not much.

(Can anyone tell I'm getting a little impatient with these people?)

Only Rodrigo has hit upon the truth: the killer is Julián. Rodrigo is trying to keep Valeria from coming to Julián’s attention but she insists on taking risks in her efforts to prove his innocence. I wasn’t worried about her before, but I am now.

Camila is finally a success at something: with her deliberate overdose of ‘calmantes’, she is effectively punishing her sister and her brother-in-law.

Daniel Vidal is still out there lurking in the shadows. Back at the killing ground, he could have stopped Julián from harming Matilde; later he could have prevented the murder of the good samaritan at the gas station. At the very least, if he didn’t want to get his hands dirty, he could have alerted the police. But he is apparently interested in keeping Julián alive and at liberty so he can bleed him dry financially – murder victims past, present and future be damned!

We are waaaaaaaaaay past a possible happy ending. I only hope that the police recognize Julián’s guilt and they are able to stop him. And I’d rather see him dead than in jail because that’s the only way to stop him from hurting anyone else.

How do you think this is going to end?
-----------------

AURORA

I got nothin’. Your comments are welcome.

LA REINA DEL SUR

Like Urban Anthropologist, I’m assuming La Reina will be replacing Alguien. I’ve read that it is the most expensive Telemundo production to date and that Kate del Castillo was author Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s personal choice for the title role.

A few of you have read or are reading the novel. I’ve gone back to it and am trying to read a chapter a week. The prose is already very cinematic and I have a feeling that the script will often use the original literally.
I’ll leave you with this quote, something Teresa remembers:
Raimundo Dávila Parra aka el Guëro Dávila: Mejor, solía decir, cinco años como rey que cincuenta como buey. (p.50)
(Better, he used to say, five years as a king than 50 as an ox. buey: literally, ox but in Mexico = idiot, fool)

Okay, now it's your turn.

Labels: alguien, aurora, herederos, reina-sur, telemundo

¡Hola a todos! Thanks for the great comments last week. With Alguien at an exciting point and Herederos beginning, there was a lot comment on.

Labels: alguien, aurora, herederos, reina-sur, telemundo

ELENA - the finale - part 2

Labels: alguien, aurora, fantasma, herederos, telemundo

Hi Folks: Feliz Año Nuevo-Happy New Year!!!!

Labels: alguien, aurora, fantasma, telemundo

Hi all and Merry Christmas. I'm back from three fabulous weeks birdwatching in Argentina. I had fun trying to speak Spanish the Argentinian way with the 'zsh' sound replacing the 'll' or 'y'. Usually, I remembered right after I said it the regular way. I didn't even attempt the voseo.

Labels: alguien, aurora, fantasma, telemundo

Discuss amongst yourselves

Thanks to everyone who commented last week: Novelera, Vivi in DC, Ann-NYC, Hombre de Misterio, NJ Sue, Urban Anthropologis, Lois, shallowgal, CanuckFan, Erin, Blusamurai. (NJ Sue – have a great vacation! Travel safe!)

Best of all – Jean is due back this week!

With your terrific posts, you guys are bringing this space to life as a real discussion.

For those of you who are new here or missed last week’s page, I’m reposting our suggested format changes:

In the interest of Chaos Control:

1. Please put a clear topic heading on every comment, preferably in caps. Also, to avoid spoilers, where appropriate, add the day of the week. (Adding the day is Novelera’s idea – Thanks!) For example:

AURORA -- Tuesday
Pila melts frozen the heart …

or:

GENERAL COMMENT
Telemundo seems to be more concerned with…

That way, we can decide right up front whether to keep on reading. I realize that a lot of us are already doing this, but to those who aren’t – hey, it would help.

2. It’s hard to get away from the recap mindset – I’m the worst offender with the wordy Aurora screeds I’ve inflicted on you – but I do think comments or questions about what you’ve watched or what others have said are the way to go here. Considering the number of novelas in one place and the fact that the link is for an entire week, when we do post plot updates, it might be best to limit them to brief summaries, basically bullet points of daily episodes.

-----------------------------

The latest on Telemundo:

El Fantasma de Elena is in últimos capítulos and Los Herederos del Monte seems to be its replacement. Meanwhile, La Reina del Sur is still on the back burner. The Telemundo website says only that it is coming próximamente. I assume that La Reina will take the 9 pm slot when Alguien is done.

-------------------------------

Updates on current shows:

AURORA – as of Friday

Tonight was the Second Coming of Aurora. The absurdly complicated sham reanimación finally takes place. It is an electronic-age magic act, a media spectacle with switching of bodies and loss of screen image at strategic moments. In its wake it leaves a fake Aurora in a coma from which she is unlikely to recover; and the real Aurora with the burden of pretending to be two people: her true self and her daughter.

Collateral damage: Liliana tried, she really tried, to be a soulless, money-grubbing apostle of the great Gustavo. But in the end, she couldn’t do it. And now she is bound and gagged in a back room and at the mercy of Dra Elizabeth. Who has none. Mercy, that is.

While Aurora is recovering from the fake defrosting, she hears Lorenzo declare his love for her. She realizes that both Natalia and Vanesa were lying: Lorenzo never betrayed her. He was and is the love of her life.

But she also realizes that she has developed feelings for Martín.

She’ll have to figure out who she really is and whether she wants to look to the future with Martín or pick up the pieces of the past with Lorenzo. She continues to remind us that her love for her daughter Blanca is more important than her love for any man.

[Since telenovela writers love the conceit of the double identity, I’m thinking we’ll be seeing double Auroras for quite a while. How is the actress going to make them distinct from one another? Cloncitos, I’m sure you join me in hoping that no head-scratching will be involved.]

Meanwhile the Blanca-César-Vanesa triangle is getting ever more sordid and maybe a bit dangerous. The writers keep teasing us with situations where César almost removes his shirt giving Blanca a chance to see the telltale tattoo and realize he’s her kidnapper. But on Friday’s episode, it is Blanca who loses at strip poker. And once again, César gets to keep his shirt on. (It’s interesting that when Martín and Vanesa walk in and find her topless, Blanca seems unembarrassed.)

And in the Department of Cozy Domesticity: We see Natalia and her nasty gnome, Nina, sitting at the kitchen table nursing their Hatred, their Jealousy and their Thirst for Revenge.
---------------------

ALGUIEN TE MIRA – as of Friday

There’s no doubt now – Daniela is Julián’s next target. Julián knows that when the police investigate, they will find a trail leading back to Rodrigo. What he doesn’t know is that Mauricio has photos of him and Daniela together.

When Julián’s son is looking for family photos for a school project on genealogy and rummages through his father’s memorabilia, he finds a photo of his grandmother, Julián’s mother, in the famous black dress. (We hear her name for the first time: Fabiola. Well, that's assuming Julián is telling the truth.) Julián is furious at the perceived invasion but interestingly, Emilio continues to ask him questions fearlessly. This is a very secure little boy who has never been abused. We understand how controlled Julián’s violence has been up to now, how skillful he is at compartmentalizing his life: One part loving father, one part charming, skilled physician, one part controlling ex-spouse, one part monstrous serial killer…

Tatiana has given the police compromising information about Benja and tries to paint him as the killer. (Apparently there was a bloody shirt. He claims he hurt himself changing a tire. But how weird to burn it.) She won’t let him near his children. She is determined to make him pay for hurting her and her strategy is working. He starts to fall apart under the pressure.

Mauricio believes that Benja truly is the killer and that Camila is in imminent danger from him.

Rodrigo is hurting from Piedad’s rejection. Even so, he is determined to stay clean. His unborn child is his strongest motivation, although as Benja suggests, if he sticks to his rehab, he has a good chance of winning Piedad back.

Nevertheless, Rodrigo doesn’t lack for admirers. Valeria is sweet on him. So is Daniela, for that matter.

Piedad says that she’s giving Julián an opportunity. But Rodrigo is the one she's always thinking about. And Eva’s ghost tells Julián that Piedad will never love him. Who does that remind you of? she asks. Oh boy. Probably not a good thing to remind Julián of Mama.

With $5000 cash in her purse, Lola drags the reluctant Yoyita to her meeting with the hitman, El Buitre (the vulture). The women, disguised as a couple of plus-size Avon Lady drag queens, are met by an armed man who orders them into his SUV. Is he The Vulture they’re looking for? Or just a random predator looking to pick their bones clean?

--------------

And now it's your turn. (Ya te toca a ti.)

Labels: alguien, aurora, fantasma, telemundo

Discuss amongst yourselves

¡Hola a todos! As you may have noticed, Jean and I are still trying to figure out the best way to organize this thing. You may remember how it came into being: we didn’t have the requisite five recappers for any one novela, but we Telemundo fans wanted a place to talk about our favorite shows. So we started El Mundo de Telemundo (EMT). We’ve been tackling at least three and sometimes four or five separate novelas in a space posted weekly.

As the number of comments grows, it gets harder to follow a topic of interest. Most of us, I think, are only interested in one or maybe two shows and would probably appreciate a way to navigate the forest of comments. So in the interest of Chaos Control, I had a couple of ideas:

1. Put a clear topic heading on every comment, preferably in caps. For example:

AURORA
Tuesday’s episode was…

or:

GENERAL COMMENT
Telemundo seems to be more concerned with…

That way, we can decide right up front whether to keep on reading. I realize that a lot of us are already doing this, but to those who aren’t – hey, it would help.

2. It’s hard to get away from the recap mindset – I’m the worst offender with the wordy Aurora screeds I’ve inflicted on you – but I do think comments or questions about what you’ve watched or what others have said are the way to go here. Considering the number of novelas in one place and the fact that the link is for an entire week, when we do post plot updates, it might be best to limit them to brief summaries, basically bullet points of daily episodes.

So. That’s my thinking. I’m looking forward to Jean’s return here in a week or two. I know her perspective is going to be helpful. And thanks to everyone – commenters and readers – for keeping this space alive. And lively.

My comments on the developments of the past week in AURORA and ALGUIEN TE MIRA:

AURORA

I am still convinced that Aurora has a short time on this earth. She is a sort of angel (although lately she seems anything but angelic) returned to earth with a specific mission: first, to turn Blanca’s life around; and second, to leave Lorenzo with the knowledge that what they had was real.

But since this is a 100 hours plus telenovela and not a movie or short story, it will be a looooooooooooong time before the mission is fulfilled.

Meanwhile:

The junta’s approval of Aurora’s reanimation comes a little late. The press is watching closely. And now Martín’s friend, Dra Liliana, is asking way too many questions. Gustavo’s solution: disarm her by charming her. Dr. Elizabeth’s: kill her.

Helping Blanca become a good person becomes more challenging each day. And it’s not clear that hiring César as Blanca’s chauffeur is a move in the right direction.

Nina’s road to redemption is also getting longer and steeper every day. First we saw her quasi-incestuous seduction of Martín. Then we saw her injure herself and blame it on Aurora. And now on Friday’s episode she sabotages stage equipment with the clear intent of harming Aurora – maybe even killing her -- and removing her as the star of the show.

In the department of unintentional humor: Dr. Williams explains to Gustavo why he’s so eager to help him. He says: “I am desperately in love with you.” Does this guy look like he’s in love with anyone?

On Friday’s episode, when the beloved dance instructor, who has only a month left to live, asks Aurora about Cryonics, she tries to dissuade him from considering it. In doing so, she reveals to him that she is the original Aurora. (Interestingly, he is unconvinced by her arguments against the procedure: he is eager to cheat death.)

Also on Friday, Natalia confesses to Lorenzo that she was involved with Gustavo years ago, but denies that Gus is Nina’s father. Both Martín and Lorenzo are angered when they realize she has been lying about her recent contact with Gustavo.

And finally: Hot or guácala (Spanish for 'blech')? You decide – César and Vanesa in a car. On the street in front of the Lobos apartment. In broad daylight.


ALGUIEN TE MIRA

There are precious few sympathetic characters left. My candidate for most nauseating moment of the week: The Julián/Piedad kiss. When they showed it again as a flashback, I actually had to avert my eyes.

The most shocking moment: Tatiana ripping the earrings off Camila, right through her earlobes.

The most unfair moment: Seeing Lola accused of threatening Luci after all the crap Luci has gotten away with.

Proof that a little perversion isn’t always a deal-breaker: Mauricio may be a voyeur but ironically, he’s turning out to be a decent guy who really loves Matilde. Will she be able to forgive him?

Rodrigo’s rescue of the model, Valeria, from the abyss was a nice way to show him as a healer. But much has been made of Valeria and Rodrigo being alike. I don’t think she’s long for this world. I suspect her dramatic function is to shock Rodrigo straight with her death.

Unfortunately, Daniela is in Julian’s crosshairs. Will the police crack the case in time to save her? Not likely. But maybe they’ll stop Julián before he gets to Piedad.

My favorite characters right now: Matilde and Carvajal. They are both morally grounded, both free of artifice. Matilde is increasingly dismayed by what she is learning about these people she thought were her friends. And Carvajal is the clear-eyed one who keeps the police investigation on track.
-----------------

Okay, my friends. Have at.

Labels: alguien, aurora, fantasma, telemundo

Just a reminder – Jean is still in Argentina but will be back here with us in a few weeks.

Blusamurai, you have been amazing this week with your detailed (and funny!) recaps of Alguien Te Mira and El Fantasma de Elena. Thanks for all your hard work!

And thanks to everyone who comments in this space. It’s fun writing here when it feels like a conversation with friends!

Aurora

The most powerful presence in this novela isn’t the title character, but the master manipulator, Vanesa Miller. If Aurora reentered the world of the warm-blooded with a vague notion of settling old scores, it is Vanesa who has been busy rewriting their personal history and inventing scores for Aurora to settle.

Vanesa is one of the cleverest villains I’ve seen. She gets people to believe improbable versions of events by having the same story repeated to her victim by various sources. Aurora, for example, hears that Lorenzo was just a fortune-hunter who never had real feelings for her. He and Natalia were accomplices and lovers. The story is told by Vanesa and then, with added twists of the knife, is repeated by Natalia and Aurora’s own father Gustavo. Ultimately, Aurora accepts it as true.

Other half-truths and lies:

Aurora believes that Martín is only after her money (False. He is really in love with her and she is breaking his heart.)

Aurora believes that Natalia was Lorenzo’s accomplice and lover 20 years ago. (False. Natalia’s sin was one of omission. She knew that Lorenzo and Aurora truly loved one another. She knew Aurora had nothing to do with Federico. And yet, succumbing to Vanesa’s pressure, she kept silent. She also played footsie with Gustavo years ago at a time when he was married but she was not. So maybe Nina is actually Gustavo’s daughter and Aurora’s half-sister?)

Almost everyone believes that Blanca is the daughter of Gustavo and Inés Ponce de León. (False: She is Aurora and Lorenzo’s daughter).

Blanca now believes that Lorenzo Lobos is her father (true) and Inés is her mother. (False: Aurora is her mother.)

Almost everyone believes that Beta-Aurora is Alpha-Aurora’s daughter. The only ones who know the truth are: Gustavo, Inés, Roque, Dra Elizabeth, Dr. Parker and Vanesa.

Almost everyone believes the lie concocted by Gustavo and Inés that Federico is Beta-Aurora’s father.

And now a resumé of Friday’s episode:

In a bar:
When Natalia tells Federico about Aurora and Lorenzo’s almost roll in the hay, he is Shocked. Shocked. Why that’s incest! Natalia tells him not to exaggerate. And then she reflects that perhaps Aurora isn’t acting out of love but out of vengeance for her mother’s sake: that Natalia ended up with Lorenzo, that Aurora’s mother is dead and she, Natalia, is alive.

In Aurora’s apartment:
Blanca gets home just as Aurora is about to leave for the Sleeping Beauty audition. Blanca makes a surprising announcement:
Yo no quiero que mi papá sea Lorenzo Lobos.
(I don’t want my father to be Lorenzo Lobos.)

At Lorenzo’s Dance Studio:
Lorenzo is leaving a phone message for Natalia begging for a chance to explain. Enter Martín. Quería desearte buena suerte (I wanted to wish you good luck) he says. And I wanted to talk about Aurora.

Blanca explains to Aurora that if she had been raised as a Lobos, she would have been … oh the horror… poor! She imagines getting up early in the morning, managing her clothes and hair on a tight budget. Aurora muses:
¿Tú solamente ves el lado material?
(You only see the material side?)
Is there another side? retorts Blanca cheerfully. She doesn’t want Gustavo to disinherit her, nor does she want to trade her fancy apellido “Ponce de León” for the vulgar “Lobos” name.

Martín and Lorenzo continue their tense conversation. Lorenzo is going to Spain to leave the way free for Martín to be with Aurora. But Martín rejects the idea of being picked just because he’s available and Lorenzo is not. He wants Aurora to choose to be with him. Then he leaves, refusing to give his father a goodbye hug. As he is leaving, he gets a text message from Nina.

At the Cryonic Clinic:
Gustavo, with a penchant for understatement, says:
Las cosas están complicando!
(Things are getting complicated.)
Let’s see, Elizabeth has murdered Eduardo, Julia Castillo, her doctor friend at the hospital… the police investigation is likely to lead to their door…
But as Dra Elizabeth sees it, their problem has a name: Dr. Williams. Speak of the devil! The bearded young doctor who earlier recognized Julia’s photo on tv pokes his head into Gustavo’s office and asks to talk to them.

At the School of the Arts:
Blanca continues to riff on the horror of being born a Ponce de León and then finding out your father is just an ordinary dancer, not even famous. (Un bailarín común y corriente... un mediocre) And a disconcerted Aurora says: Nunca imaginaba que fueras tan… así. (I never imagined that you were so… like that.)

The instructor who will judge the dance-off between Aurora and Nina arrives. The ladies sharpen their claws.

Vanesa’s apartment:
If Natalia is looking for sympathy, she’s in the wrong place.

Young Dr. Williams turns out to be a Company Man. He rejects Gustavo’s cash. You can count on me, on my loyalty, he tells Gus and Eli. Pase lo que pase. (Whatever may happen.)

Aurora transacts a lot of business while she waits for the audition to begin:

First Federico shows up and tells her she can’t have a relationship with Lorenzo because he’s her father. She laughs unpleasantly. I can see you never really knew my mother, she tells him. She was very sexual and she had many lovers – among them, my father.

Then Vanesa reports back by phone to Aurora: Natalia told her everything but the color of Aurora’s underwear when she caught her and Lorenzo together. Black, Aurora tells Vanesa. Sexy, no?

Aurora puts Vanesa on ‘hold’ to take Lorenzo’s call.
Line 2: Lorenzo’s not sure about going to Madrid…
Line 1: Vanesa repeats the lie about Martín. She says Natalia told her that he is determined to do what his father couldn’t; he’d do anything to get your fortune.
Line 2: Lorenzo begs Aurora not to tell Martín they were together. He’d never forgive his father and besides, he doesn’t want to hurt him.

And then Martín comes along and vengeful Aurora says, with feigned sympathy: I guess you know. And she hugs Martín. She continues:
Natalia nos cachó a punto de hacer el amor en mi departamento.
(Natalia caught us just about to make love in my apartment.)
No, no lo sabía (No, I didn’t know) says Martín, barely breathing. And, he continues, I don’t want to know anything about you or what happens in your bed.

The audition has begun. Nina takes her turn first and the instructor watches her performance approvingly.

Meanwhile, Natalia continues confiding in Vanesa. She’s not sure Nina should be in The School of the Arts or that she should be living in Vanesa’s apartment. She doesn’t belong in that world. But Vanesa wants to talk about Lorenzo and Natalia obliges.

Sometimes, she admits, I think I’m getting what I deserve. The oath (juramento) you forced me to take and the betrayal…

Vanesa interrupts her. Which betrayal do you mean? Are you talking about the oath? The fact that you ended up with her great love? Or that you slept with Aurora’s father?

Back at the audition, Aurora takes her turn and the instructor is so excited, he is bouncing in his seat.

Martín and Nina meet in the school hallway. She wants him to see the Director about a possible job there. She promises she won’t bother him. It’s not you I’m avoiding, he tells her, it’s Aurora.

Natalia shows up a Lorenzo’s studio. He tries to explain what happened with Aurora. She isn’t his lover but she does have this strange power over him… Anyway, he has decided to go to Madrid alone. Perfect, says Natalia bitterly. So Aurora wins.

Now Nina and Aurora dance side by side and we see the instructor wince at a clumsy move that Nina makes. The instructor announces his decision: Aurora will dance the role of Sleeping Beauty!

Martín phones Lorenzo and reviles him for being with Aurora. Who told you? asks Lorenzo. It was Aurora herself, says Martín.

Aurora stands behind Lorenzo in his studio as he screams in anguish before his mirror: Leave me alone! Get out of my life!

I’m right here, she says. Say it to my face.

He rails at her: What are you trying to do, drive me crazy? Separate me from my son? Is this what you want? And he grabs her roughly. Is he kissing her? Biting her? Her mouth is bleeding and she tells him to stop, he’s hurting her. He pushes her away:
¡Vete! ¡Lárgate! Ya no sé quién eres, ya no sé quién soy!
(Go! Get out of here! I don’t know who you are anymore, I don’t know who I am!)

Wow. Is this the same person Nina is talking about to her friends Vicki and Blanca? My father is the sweetest man in the world, she tells them. Once, when the family went camping – Nina was about 5 – she dropped her teddy bear (osito de peluche) in the river. Her mother wanted to just buy a new one but her father spent the whole night looking for it. He came home soaked, dirty and exhausted. But he found the bear! Unfortunately, he caught a cold (agarró un resfriado) from his cold, wet night and had to spend the rest of the weekend in the tent.

Blanca looks wistful as she listens to this story about Lorenzo. Maybe she’s not such a material girl after all?

Martín doesn’t waste any time, does he? He escorts the young Cryonics doctor -- the one who had her eye on him from the beginning – into his shabby apartment. We learn her name: Liliana. And they agree to drop the ‘usted’. Pretty soon, they are dropping their pants too.

At Aurora’s splendid Fifth Avenue apartment, Inés and Roque are tending Aurora’s wounds. He hurt you! says Inés. No, says Aurora, I’m the one who hurt him. They made fun of the old Aurora because she was too good; but no one is going to laugh at the new Aurora!

When Blanca comes home, Aurora is surprised to learn that Blanca and Inés have made up. Blanca makes it clear that she still confuses material goods with love. Inés proved her love by reactivating her credit cards. When she walks out of the room, Aurora turns to Inés and asks:
¿No le pudieron inculcar otros valores?
(Couldn’t you teach her other values)
We did what we could, says Inés. And about tomorrow – are you going to let Lorenzo leave?

At the Lobos apartment:
Natalia listens to Gustavo’s message: I didn’t come to see you because I didn’t want to suffer losing you again.

Lorenzo is puzzled when César hauls in a large suitcase. Natalia explains that she and César will be going with him to Spain. To start a new life together. Then Nina arrives to say her farewells and make peace with the family. Family hug.

At the airport:
Aurora, in a blue baseball cap, is looking somewhat furtive. She thinks:
Natalia, vine a despedirme de ti y de tu traición.
(Natalia, I’ve come to say goodbye to you and your betrayal.)

The Lobos family – Lorenzo, Natalia and César – walk along pulling their suitcases behind them.

And Aurora, (thinking that Lorenzo is going to Madrid alone, I suppose), reflects:
Tu partida solitaria es el placer de mi venganza.
(Your solitary departure is the pleasure of my vengeance.)

Back at Martín’s shabby digs:
Dra Liliana gets out of bed and steps on the remote, turning on the TV by accident. It’s a news report about Julia Castillo. Her body shows traces of cryonic treatment. There will be an investigation of all the local cryonic facilities! While Martín and Liliana are disturbed to hear this, she admits that when the news about the bloodless body first emerged, she did think about the clinic.

Blanca’s pesadilla:
She is at home in their apartment when Aurora calls her with dreadful news:
Es horrible lo que pasó! El avión se cayó y no hubo sobrevivientes. Lorenzo se murió!
Something horrible has happened! The plane crashed and there were no survivors. Lorenzo is dead!

A shaken Blanca wakes up, realizes Aurora isn’t in the apartment, and calls her on her cell. Aurora answers that she is taking a walk but Blanca recognizes the airport sounds in the background.

At the Cryonic Clinic:
Inés admits to Gustavo that she was Eduardo’s lover but she wasn’t the one who killed him. She confessed falsely so he would think she had done something important. (Interesting. Like a cat offering its owner a dead, bloody bird as a gift). Just as she and Gustavo embrace, Dra Elizabeth barges in and asks tartly: Are you congratulating Gustavo on his upcoming wedding? Don’t you want to hug me too?

And back at the airport, the Lobos family walks together. The blue-capped Aurora follows at a discreet distance. But it is Blanca who runs up and shouts:
¡Lorenzo! ¡No te vayas papá!
(Lorenzo! Daddy, don’t go!)

Previews: Blanca’s nightmare becomes a reality. The plane carrying the Lobos family is reported to have crashed en route to Madrid!
No survivors have been found!
---------------------------------------------------------


Alguien te Mira

Mauricio tells Matilde that two victims, Rocío Lynch and María Gracia Carpenter, were Benja’s lovers. He says Eva was killed because she was getting close to the killer. If Matilde is unwilling to help Mauricio in his investigation, he’ll have to go to Tatiana and tell her everything he knows about Benjamin.

Rodrigo’s boss, Amanda, offers him his job back, but he feels he isn’t ready yet.

Pedro Pablo fantasizes about Lola and Lucía being together in his office, both great with child, admiring one another’s bellies.

At the catering office, Matilde ruminates about what Mauricio told her. And when Lola asks her to react to Tatiana’s announcement that she and Benja are getting divorced, she says perhaps it’s for the best. Lola says it’s all the fault of some little tramp! But it’s a problem that can be fixed. Tati isn’t buying that. For her, the marriage is over. Still, she is resolved to find out who Benja’s lover is and make her pay! Camila listens to all this in silence.

The model, Valeria, is on a photo shoot and is shown using cocaine.

Rodrigo recalls Piedad’s angry interrogation about his relationship with the group leader, Daniela.

Back at the catering place, Lola and Matilde continue talking about marriage and divorce while Camila sits apart and cries. She tells Tati she’s not feeling well and leaves for home.

Rodrigo continues his Piedad reverie; he envisions the scene where she pushes him away and tells him she can’t trust him. Then he gets on his bike and rides off.

At the police station, Luisa gets a report that they are following Benja and he is at his sister-in-law’s apartment house.

Inside that apartment house, Camila is begging Benja not to divorce Tati.

Luisa’s boss Angel asks her to accompany him on a visit.

At Rodrigo’s apartment: Julián arrives. He tells Rodrigo that his attentions to Daniela are upsetting Piedad. Rodrigo counterattacks: You’re dying of rage, aren’t you? he says. No matter what you do, you can’t stop Piedad’s feelings for me. And I’ll always be a part of her life because we’re having a child together.

Benja and Camila continue their conversation. We’re fine the way we are, she tells him. He denies that the divorce is because of Camila. She shouldn’t feel guilty because the rift in the marriage was something long coming.

And at the catering place, Tati confides to Matilde that she feels worthless (desvalorizada). Matilde, recalling her conversation with Mauricio, tries to get Tati to talk about what happened.

At the rehab center, Daniela remarks to Rodrigo that Piedad is obviously very much in love with him. But we’re not together, he tells Daniela. Yes, she acknowledges, but the two of you have a child on the way.

As the clinic is closing up for the evening, Julián invites Piedad to go out with him but she declines and prepares to leave.

Luisa and Angel are waiting for Julián. (So this is the visit Angel was talking about.) This isn’t an interrogation, they tell him. They just want to talk to him about Eva. Julián tells them that the last time he saw Eva was at the clinic reception. He gave her directions to the spot where the heart (sent to Benja) was buried. And the morning Eva disappeared, Julián was at home without witness.

Angel shows him the photo of the dress Eva was posed in. Julián says he has never seen it before.

Luisa tells Julián that the one thing they know about the killer is that he is a doctor because of the skills needed to remove the victims’ hearts and then suture the wounds.

Tati visits Camila to thank her for her concern. They will always be sisters, she says and she will always love her.

The rehab group session is over. Daniela remarks that she is concerned because Valeria didn’t show up. She and Rodrigo decide to go for coffee.

At Pedro Pablo’s house, Lola tells Benja that she is pregnant. She scolds him for his plan to divorce Tati and his involvement with Camila, which he angrily denies.

Matilde has a nightmare: She is in bed when she hears someone opening her door. She hears voices and finds Benja, Julián, Rodrigo and Piedad in her livingroom. Piedad, her mouth painted bright red, pulls out a knife.

Emilio, Matilde’s little boy, hears his mother scream and rushes into the bedroom to comfort her.

Piedad, now definitely in stalker mode, drives by Rodrigo’s building and sees a light is on in his apartment.

Inside that apartment, Daniela is flirting pretty aggressively with Rodrigo. As Piedad is getting out of her car, Daniela and Rodrigo are kissing. And the kiss seems to go on forever.

Credits roll.

Labels: alguien, aurora, fantasma, telemundo