I love it.
Logliney Stuff:
A young woman is accidentally impregnated and decides to have the baby. The owner of the, um, stuff turns out to be a guy she had a crush on! But she is in a serious relationship! Also telenovel shenanigans! Also Gilmore Girls except these protags are Latina and lower middle class!
What’s Up With That:
Jane, accidentally impregnated at her OB-GYN appointment. Everybody could have been very like, oh Jane, be more careful, BUT Jane is a virgin (very Catholic and also believes in LOVE and also wants to concentrate on her writing).
Then they find out the father is Rafael, a dude Jane had a crush on for years! Her delightful boyfriend Michael and Rafael’s lawful neutral wife Petra both have mixed feelings about this. There is a love triangle (quadrangleish), but it is nowhere near annoying as it could be. (TEAM MICHAEL 4EVA.)
The loveliest part of the show is Jane’s family: She lives with her grandmother Alba and mother Xiomara, who have very different personalities. In another surprise, she finds out her biological father is Rogelio de la Vega, a telenovela star! (He and Xiomara knew each other when they were teens, but they were never together.) Everyone has to work through their feelings about all of this. Some of the most wonderful scenes on the show are when Jane, Xiomara, and Alba sit on a swing on the front porch together.
Metatext-Type Stuff:
This could be a pretty straightforward drama, but instead the show embraced its telenovela roots. (This is actually an adaptation, I think.) Accidental pregnancy is the LEAST weird thing that happens. Evil twins, long-lost family, staged assassinations, intergenerational romantic scandals, CRIME LORDS. Plus, plus, plus, Rogelio is a telenovela star, so we have a telenovela about a telenovela. It’s amaaaaaazing.
MAJOR SPOILERS LIE AHEAD!
Character Natterings:
- Jane Gloriana Villanueva
NGL, I actually struggle with Jane. She’s smart, sincere, generous, ambitious. Conversely, she’s narrow-minded, prudish, arrogant, and impatient. She also suffers from that weird TV thing where a person who wants to be a career writer is, in fact, bad at writing. (She gets published eventually.) She’s a wonderful protag, though--it’s not hard to root for her in most everything.
- Xiomara
Xo had Jane when she was sixteen, so she is still pretty young and often has trouble balancing being a mom, being a daughter, and being a beautiful and single woman. She’s a dancer and an aspiring singer. Most of the other characters--including Jane--usually write Xo off as flaky, but when she has to be, she’s the steadiest person in the room.
- Abuela
Alba, matriarch of the family. She’s super-Catholic, guys. Super super Catholic. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t support her family 100%, she just reserves the right to scold them why she’s doing it. Her husband, Jane’s grandfather, was the love of her life, and their story inspires Jane’s writing for the majority of the show’s run.
- Michael
You know the myth of the perfect boyfriend? Strong but gentle, understanding but firm in his own choices, starry-eyed whenever his lady is around. Michael is a song in my heart. I mean, he finds out his celibate girlfriend is having the baby of a handsome dude who owns a hotel, and after a bit of (understandable) freaking out, he’s fully supportive of anything Jane decides for herself. Also, he’s perfect.
- Rafael
Raf. He’s fine, I guess.
- Petra
Petra, as Rafael’s ex-wife, starts off as the villain. (Like, they’re still married for a whole season, I think?) She constantly schemes to take control of the hotel and she’s got some intense Real Housewife vibes. But also, she’s lonely and vulnerable and if you step on any of her people, she will have you killed. Like, literally--her mom and evil sister sometimes employ an assassin. It’s complicated.
- Rogelio de la Vega
Jane’s long-lost dad! He didn’t actually know she existed until he moved to their city and Xiomara realized she had to say something. He is the vainest man in the world, and sometimes I feel like he should be? Nobody around him is ever allowed to forget he is famous, and further, famous for being handsome. But he’s a sweetheart, too--he just doesn’t understand what it means to be a normal human being.
- The Narrator
The Narrator is consistently the best and maybe the best part of the show? It’s hard to pick a best with this show.
Jane/Michael
They are my everything guys I can’t even. Like, they are genuinely friends who talk things through together and fall over themselves trying to be a supportive partner. Jane proposed to Michael! At his workplace! Michael is a police officer! I love them.
Jane/Rafael
He’s FINE, I guess.
Petra/JR
By, like, the third season, my primary goal for this show is Petra finding happiness, somehow. And she did! YAY. Petra meets someone, tries to decide if she wants to be in a relationship. She gets into the relationship, and then it turns out her girlfriend doesn’t want to meet the kids. They work through THAT, and then one of the plants evidence that could get the other one disbarred. You know, normal couple stuff.
Xo/Rogelio
This is a fraught relationship! Xo never told Rogelio they had a kid! Rogelio doesn’t know how to be in normal relationships! Wacky hijinks ensue! When they finally get together, though, it feels like they could have been married the whole time. They worked for it, and it worked out.
Live for the Memory:
This date, guys. Jane and Michael’s first date. It’s a touchstone throughout the series. Look at them! Look at their tiny sincere faces!
In one episode, Rafael (extremely rich trust fund dude) goes with the family to Target and he has fun! And then the sickest burn, courtesy of Abuela, “Because he’s never been there before.” The tension between Jane’s family, who live okay but seem to work two jobs each, and Rafael’s family, hotel magnates and also leaders of a crime syndicate. Like, in the beginning, Raf is technically Jane’s boss, ugh. The show could have done a little more about class tensions, but they did really good when they looked at it.
I can’t even talk about this moment, it’s so perfect and horrible.
Michael’s return was. Oh man. I was not prepared for this. I hate almost everything that happened after it, but oof, the tension, the perfect score, the faces on them all! It’s the most telenovela this show gets because WHAT. WHAT. ARE YOU KIDDING.
World-building Obsessions:
The collective family fills my heart with joy! They could just as easily fracture, and it often seems like they do, but this is a tradition they keep, for the sake of their children. Also, Rafael has so many kids, geez.
Rose. Rose Solano. Did I not mention her? She was Rafael’s stepmother. Also, she was secretly having an affair with Rafael’s sister, Luisa. Also, she was actually the ringleader of an international crime syndicate. You know, the usual.
What the Hell, Show?:
This show has too many twins and they are all on the evil spectrum. I know it’s tropey and all, but after the third identity switch that also requires a paralytic faking a coma, you get kind of tired of it.
Did I mention I hate everything that happens after Michael comes back? It’s THE WORST.
Jane is supposedly a successful novelist. Y’all. She. Is. Not. Good.
Though watching the historical cosplay that represents her writing is always a good time.
Capacity to Fic:
I have not written any fanfic about this show, which now strikes me as weird. There are a couple of places I could probably dig in.
These two could not be more opposite of each other, but they slowly and warily become friends, then family. Petra should have friends! She deserves happiness!
These breakfasts. Are so. Adorable. It’s both a very complicated family tree, but also half found family.
Does This Suffice?:
Weirdly, I don’t have a strong urge to rewatch the entire series. It just felt so...complete? Hm.
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