TELENOVELA WATCH: Best & Worst Telenovelas in 2013

BEST AND WORST IN TELENOVELAS IN 2013

This look back at the year in telenovelas is US based, covering works that aired at least 50 episodes this calendar year on a US broadcast network.

2013 was a down year for telenovelas. In 2012, I was able to list nine quality telenovelas; this year, only four, and I don’t know if any of those four would make my top five from last year. The one that might, SECRETOS DEL PARAÍSO, is impossible to fully evaluate as its final weeks were heavily condensed by its US broadcaster.

There was some improvement in the final months, so 2014 is already looking brighter with the hugely entertaining bodice-ripper LO QUE LA VIDA ME ROBÓ and the familiar, but finely acted POR SIEMPRE MI AMOR now gracing Univision’s primetime; and the return of Brazilian productions to US network television with LA VIDA SIGUE on MundoFox and the upcoming AVENIDA BRASIL on Telemundo.

It is impossible to follow everything and there were two Colombian telenovelas I regret not being able to delve into this year: CINCO VIUDAS SUELTAS (Caracol, aired on Telemundo) and ALLÁ TE ESPERO (RCN, aired on MundoFox). Both seemed respectable, quality works, but I simply was not able to see enough episodes of either to make a meaningful critique.


BEST TELENOVELAS OF 2013

SECRETOS DEL PARAÍSO (Vista/RCN, aired on MundoFox)
A remake of the 1993 Colombian telenovela LA MALDICIÓN DEL PARAÍSO, there are many elements that on the surface are familiar – the central love triangle involving a woman coming between two brothers, the odious mother of the brothers, past crimes coming to light, secret paternities, and even an actual curse – all the stuff of countless telenovelas, but beautifully rendered here with an aching, languid, cool ambiance and a delicate melancholy that feels extraordinarily modern. This is a soulful, mood indigo telenovela, filled with a sense lost and longing, the lonely characters, adrift, searching for some human connection to assuage their sadness. Top to bottom, SECRETOS DEL PARAÍSO featured the strongest ensemble in a telenovela this year with memorable performances from Juan Pablo Espinosa, Natalia Durán, Iván López, Patricia Tamayo, Ernesto Benjumea, Silvia de Dios, Alina Lozano, Carlos Hurtado, Linda Baldrich, Carlos Torres, Mateo Rueda and Gloria Gómez.

TELENOVELA WATCH: LA MADAME, SECRETOS DEL PARAISO & QUE BONITO AMOR Finale. Plus, Univision Afternoon Novelas & CORAZON INDOMABLE

Alicia Machado stars in LA MADAME.
Photo Credit: Felipe Cuevas/Univision.com

LA MADAME (Mondays-Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on UniMás) is surprisingly cheeky and funny given its potentially exploitative subject: the lives of high-end escorts. Danger and violence often crop up, but the tone remains largely fanciful. The episodes are a hybrid of serial and stand-alone storytelling. Each episode begins and ends with scenes lasting a total of about ten minutes from the overarching, serialized frame story: the Madame (Alicia Machado) running Colombia’s most exclusive and expensive escort service is kept prisoner in the house of a gangster (Roberto Mateos) who orders her to tell him about each of the girls who works for her. In between the opening and concluding scenes of the frame story is a long central flashback detailing the exploits of one of the Madame’s girls. There is a new girl featured every night with a new guest cast suggesting an anthology series, except the guest lady of the night invariably gets into some predicament that requires the Madame to come to her assistance, accompanied by her bumbling assistant Pacho (Julio Sánchez Cóccaro).

TELENOVELA WATCH: Thoughts on SECRETOS DEL PARAISO on MundoFox; DAMA Y OBRERO and MARIDO EN ALQUILER on Telemundo; Favorites From PREMIOS TU MUNDO Nominees

SECRETOS DEL PARAÍSO
While it is a custom of this column to focus on English-friendly telenovelas, i.e., those available with English captions, I would be remiss if I did not mention SECRETOS DEL PARAÍSO (weeknights at 8 p.m. ET on MundoFox), I think the best telenovela airing right now in the US, perhaps the best of the year.

SECRETOS DEL PARAÍSO is a very serious, mature telenovela that creates a suffocating atmosphere of tension in its examination of a pair of damaged families, united by a marriage in the first week. The heavy use of flashbacks of the crimes committed by the protagonists’ parents gives an impression of the past forever intruding upon and shaping the present discord in the lives of their children. There is a marvelous sense of impending doom prevalent through the telenovela, of nooses tightening as the relationships between the characters get messier and messier.

TELENOVELA WATCH: SECRETOS DEL PARAÍS and CACHITO DE CIELO Debut Today; Thoughts on CORAZÓN INDOMABLE

A pair of new telenovelas premiere Monday, July 22 with SECRETOS DEL PARAÍSO on MundoFox and CACHITO DE CIELO on Univision.

SECRETOS DEL PARAÍSO (weeknights at 8 p.m. ET) is a new Colombian telenovela from RCN. A remake of the 1993 Colombian telenovela LA MALDICIÓN DEL PARAÍSO, SECRETOS DEL PARAÍSO looks to be the most traditional telenovela to ever air in prime time on MundoFox.

The story follows a beautiful, sophisticated woman who finds herself trapped in a love triangle with two brothers, not realizing she may be repeating the tragic past of her mother.