5-Minute TV Show Review: Jane the Virgin
10/10 — I LOVE THIS SHOW TO A MILLION BITS
Synopsis/ idea: Jane gets accidentally artificially seminated with Rafael’s baby even though she’s dating Michael and has been remaining celibate until they decide to get married. Telenovela style.
Why I started watching this show
First, the premise is hilarious and amazing and I’ve always heard great things about this show. It’s come highly recommended to me by a few friends and now I’m convinced, converted, and ready to be one of those friends recommending this show to you.
Three (3) reasons I recommend this show
[1] Jane’s characterization
If there’s a top reason that I recommend Jane the Virgin, it’s following the narrative of the main protagonist: Jane. She’s strong, committed, hardworking but constantly thrown into ridiculous situations and obstacles, to be navigated in hilarious ways. Yet, she is resilient and ever-evolving as her character development is a driving force behind the plot.
[2] Hilarious twists and turns
As if the entire premise of being accidentally artificially inseminated isn’t enough, this premise is topped SEVERAL TIMES in narrative shock factor, as every season we learn something new, something different. As soon as something feels like a happy ending, something else goes terribly wrong.
Particularly, in illustrating a lot of these twists and turns in magical realism, accentuating these surprising plot twists using elements of fantasy.
Magical realism is a literary style that weaves threads of fantasy into a depiction of everyday life. Its heroes aren’t fairies or sorcerers, they’re ordinary people — whose lives happen to butt up against the extraordinary… It’s an enchanting formula first popularized by Latinx authors in the 20th century, and has since spread all over, from England to Japan.
[3] The Narrator is a Character
The narrator is often represented as a neutral observer of the story, seldom providing additional commentary. In Jane the Virgin, though, the narrator is as much a crucial character as the rest, weaving in and out of the story with background information, often intentionally biased and/or selective commentary, and more. This gives an additional spice to the story as we are quite conscious about the narrator’s role in presenting certain aspects of the story over the other, which adds to the suspense of an already surprising sequence of events.
One (1) thing I wish they did better
I have Jane the Virgin a rating of 10/10, which is rare. Even for shows that I truly love, it’s hard to give such a high rating because there’s usually something I’d nitpick out of it all. However, my only criticism of Jane the Virgin is that it very much ended (on an important note!) — leaving a void in my heart that could not be filled by any other show as of yet.
Maybe I’ll rewatch it? Stay tuned.
Hi, I’m Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她) and I’m finding that in reviewing TV shows, I get to relive the enjoyment that I had for each piece of the story and the characters I grew to love. The time spent watching TV turns from passive attention to something to something more active, thinking about how I relate to each person and how their choices differ from mine, and how I might learn from them. That extra step of thinking of how the story influences my life has certainly made it more of an enjoyable way to relax!
Hop down the rabbit hole? 🐰🕳
