‘Jane the Virgin’ is great, but it shouldn’t run forever

STACIA L BROWN

WASHINGTON: At a moment when much American television seems to want to make us feel as grim as possible, Jane the Virgin, the CW show about a young woman ( Gina Rodriguez) whose life is turned upside down when she is accidentally artificially inseminated, feels like an optimistic pop of colour and good intentions in a grim landscape.

Rather than following the conventions of anti-hero dramas or crime procedurals, Jane the Virgin is an American riff on the telenovela, a genre with a long history everywhere else in the TV-watching world but that’s made almost incremental progress here.

In its second season Jane the Virgin is a great example of why telenovelas are a welcome addition to the TV landscape – but also of how easily they can fall apart. When ABC adapted Ugly Betty for an American audience in 2006, the American telenovela was still fairly new to network TV. The series, based on a Colombian telenovela, was also the first hit of the fledgling subgenre.

It borrowed the absurd plots of its source material – kidnappings, sneaky paternity schemes, nefarious business dealings – but it also managed a gravitas and sensitivity that seemed distinct from other American soap operas.

Ugly Betty functioned more like a nighttime drama than a daytime soap, even when factoring in its sillier material – and that seemed to set a precedent for how American telenovelas would be handled in the future: they wouldn’t be melodramatic, just dramatic. They’d endeavour to strike some balance between serious acting and zany narrative twists.

In its first season, Ugly Betty showed remarkable promise. It became an unlikely critical darling and its star, America Ferrera, who’d long toiled in supporting roles, seemed poised for stardom.

But something began to break down in season two – the show started to go bigger and wilder with its soapy plots. Celebrity guest appearances took precedence over strong storylines. And though the show still had spunk and heart, that began to be overshadowed by an upped-ante of wackiness.

Fast forward to nearly a decade after Ugly Betty’s debut to the unveiling of Jane the Virgin in 2014. It was immediately reminiscent of Ugly Betty, with an actress – Gina Rodriguez – as capable of balancing zaniness and emotional resonance as Ferrera was and first-season plots that someone managed to toe the line between absolute absurdity and breathtaking vulnerability.

The first season of Jane the Virgin felt near-flawless to me when I binge-watched it, but as I neared the finale, I worried over the show’s ability to maintain its momentum. When early promos for the second season boasted a big song and dance number with Britney Spears and a guest appearance by Kesha, I grew even warier.

As it turned out, the show hasn’t overdone it.

Jane the Virgin has just been renewed for a third season. Season two has set the show up with narrative arcs that could be satisfyingly resolved in a third year. It might be best for Jane the Virgin if it goes out at a high point, and if it teaches American audiences that too much of a good thing can turn it bad. – Washington Post

QUALITY: The show has maintained a high standard.