TELENOVELA WATCH: ABISMO DE PASIÓN Finale; AMORES VERDADEROS Premiere; Five Years Later On UN REFUGIO PARA EL AMOR

Univision’s run of ABISMO DE PASIÓN concludes with a two-hour finale this Monday at 8 p.m. ET. I have not followed ABISMO DE PASIÓN with anywhere near the regularity necessary to render any meaningful comments on the novela; fond memories of the prior version of this story produced in 1996, CAÑAVERAL DE PASIONES, probably prejudiced me against ABISMO a bit from the start, as well as, in my opinion, a few questionable casting choices. When I have tuned into the novela, I encounter just enough annoyances to needle me away from staying with it, like the poor costuming of the heroine, the gloomy, dingy cinematography.

The pedestrianly titled AMORES VERDADEROS (TRUE LOVES) takes over Univision’s 9 p.m. ET slot starting on Wednesday, November 7th. AMORES VERDADEROS is the latest remake of the 2005 Argentinian telenovela AMOR EN CUSTODIA, which already has a previous Mexican remake from 2005 courtesy of Azteca. As if the redundancy of that prior version wasn’t enough, this story of women falling in love with their bodyguards is going to air opposite Telemundo’s similarly themed, interminable CORAZÓN VALIENTE; the similarities of premises shouldn’t come as a surprise as the author of CORAZÓN VALIENTE, Marcela Citterio, also penned the original AMOR EN CUSTODIA.

The protagonists roles on AMORES VERDADEROS are split between a mother and daughter. The mother, Victoria Balvanera, is played by veteran actress Erika Buenfil (TRES MUJERES), who is saved from a kidnap attempt by José Ángel Arriaga, played by Eduardo Yáñez (DESTILANDO AMOR; FUEGO EN LA SANGRE), who is then hired to be her bodyguard. Victoria’s daughter, Nicole, is played by Eiza González (LOLA, ÉRASE UNA VEZ), who competes with José Ángel’s daughter, Liliana, played by Sherlyn (UNA FAMILIA CON SUERTE) for the attentions of bodyguard Francisco, played by Sebastián Rulli (TERESA).

The cast also features Guillermo Capetillo, Marjorie de Sousa (SACRIFICIO DE MUJER), Ana Martín (LA QUE NO PODÍA AMAR), Francisco Gattorno, Mónica Sánchez, Natalia Esperón, and Susana González (LA QUE NO PODÍA AMAR).

UN REFUGIO PARA EL AMOR
This week on UN REFUGIO PARA EL AMOR (weeknights at 7 p.m. ET on Univision) we saw that five years later, Luciana (Zuria Vega) and Rodrigo (Gabriel Soto) are still very much in love with each other, despite his continuing marriage to Gala (Jessica Coch). Once again, Luciana moves back to her tiny village in the hope the distance from Rodrigo will mitigate her ardor.

We also learn that after the five years, Luciana and Rodrigo are no closer to discovering the fate of their lost son, raised by street performer Don Chelo (Salvador Sánchez). The audience has been tantalized by three coincidental encounters between the unwitting, forlorn parents and their child: Luciana crossed paths with him while he was still an infant; while Rodrigo has encountered the five year old version of his son selling newspapers by the side of the road and in an ice cream shop, this latter time Rodrigo was accompanying his five year old daughter, who meets her half-brother, though nobody is aware of the relationships they share.

Focusshifted this week onto the romance of the younger siblings, Rodrigo’s sister Jana (Ilean Almaguer) and Luciana’s brother Lorenzo (Erik Díaz), with Rodrigo and Jana’s mother, Roselena (Laura Flores), setting out to ruin their lives as well. Roselena, after separating Jana and Lorenzo for five years by taking Jana abroad to study, is pressuring her daughter to marry Boris (Julián Huergo). Showing how far gone and controlling Roselena is at this point, she bought Jana a dress to wear at a family dinner where the Jana and Boris engagement would be made official, and it turned out the dress, a plain black sleeveless number, was identical to the one Roselena wore to the dinner. Friday’s episode concluded with Jana attempting to escape her mother’s control by desperately announcing at the dinner she will not be marrying Boris.

RELATED:
- TELENOVELA WATCH: A Look At EL CAPO 2, Now English Friendly; Plus, AMOR BRAVIO & EL ROSTRO DE LA VENGANZA (October 6, 2012)
- TELENOVELA WATCH: UN REFUGIO PARA EL AMOR's Final Weeks, BELLA CALAMIDADES Comes To U.S.; Plus, AMOR BRAVIO, ROSA DIAMANTE & EL ROSTRO DE LA VENGANZA (October 13, 2012)
- TELENOVELA WATCH: CORAZONES BLINDADOS Premieres Monday! Plus, ROSA DIAMANTE, AMOR BRAVIO & UN REFUGIO PARA EL AMOR (October 20, 2012)
- TELENOVELA WATCH: AMOR BRAVÍO Censorship, Final Stage Of UN REFUGIO PARA EL AMOR, PASION PROHIBIDA Casting Controversy (October 27, 2012)

R.G. Morin writes a regular column for We Love Soaps, "Telenovela Watch: A weekly look at the world of telenovelas for non-Spanish speakers." For feedback or questions, you can email R.G. Morin at argeemorin@hotmail.com.