LAS BRAVO premieres tonight at 8 p.m. ET on Azteca. It is a Mexican telenovela from Azteca based on a 2013 Chilean telenovela called LAS VEGA’S. It features a highly unusual premise for a telenovela, from the official synopsis:“LAS BRAVO is the story of Valentina Bravo and her three daughters – wealthy, privileged and prejudiced women whose sheltered world falls apart with the death of the family’s patriarch. Left behind with an exorbitant debt, the four women are forced to push aside their pride and get their hands dirty managing their newly found cash cow – a strip club for women. Las Bravo must learn to get along with a group of male performers equally desperate for survival. Along the way, the Bravo family will learn independence, find themselves and discover plenty of opportunities for love.”
LAS BRAVO stars Edith González as Valentina. González is enjoying something of a renaissance at Azteca after hitting a bit of funk in the late 2000s at her longtime home, Televisa, bottoming out with a pitiful role in CAMALEONES in 2009. Her fascinating turn as DONA BÁRBARA for RTI/Telemundo in 2008 briefly interrupted the Televisa sludge, but her move to Azteca in 2011 to star in CIELO ROJO marked a full-on rejuvenation in her talents as an actress. Her performance in VIVIR A DESTIEMPO in 2013 is one of the crowning achievements in her career that dates back to child roles in the 1970s and includes the lead in the landmark 1993 version of CORAZÓN SALVAJE. One hopes LAS BRAVO will continue her Azteca quality streak.