Should You Let Jane The Virgin Sully Your DVR?

What Is This Thing?

Ever since her daughter Xiomara's accidental pregnancy resulted in the birth of Jane, Alba made it her mission to impress upon Jane -- from childhood -- how important it was that she guard her virginity until marriage. And it worked. Which is why it's kind of a shock to everyone when Jane finds out she's pregnant.

When Is It On?

Mondays at 9 PM on The CW.

Why Was It Made Now?

Ever since the way-too-soon and heartbreaking cancellation of The Carrie Diaries, The CW had a "fizzy female-skewing dramedy" gap in its lineup. Enter Jane The Virgin. (Hee hee.) (I'm twelve.)

What's Its Pedigree?

Credited as co-creators are Ben Silverman, of a million hits -- the most relevant of which in this case is Ugly Betty, since that, like Jane, was based on a South American telenovela; and Jennie Snyder, who's written on girly dramedies of varying degrees of quality and longevity, including Men In Trees, Lipstick Jungle, Emily Owens, M.D., and Gilmore Girls. The cast is mostly pretty fresh-faced; I only recognized Gina Rodriguez, who plays Jane, from a guest shot as Penny's thieving assistant on Happy Endings, and Jane's abuela Alba is Ivonne Coll, late of a similar role on Switched At Birth. And I know what you're thinking, but no, that's not Nev Schulman crossing over from reality to scripted as Rafael.

Apparently that's Justin Baldoni, a totally other guy!

...And?

I went into this with really low expectations. I watched all of Ugly Betty but often felt like it suffered from tone problems; since then, I quickly grew bored of other telenovela adaptations including Devious Maids and Red Band Society and may not return to Chasing Life. Plus that photo up top is the one that led most of the Jane items in fall schedule roundups and I really couldn't with that dumb face she's making.

But I love it.

There are so many ways this could have all fallen apart: if Jane had been annoying; if the plot had holes for the somewhat outlandish premise to fall into; if there wasn't sufficient telenovela-esque intrigue to give the story post-pilot potential. Miraculously, though, it all hangs together beautifully.

What happens is: Jane really does listen to Alba, and maintains her virginity into her early twenties. Her nice cop boyfriend Mike is very understanding, and the two of them have agreed on a very orderly life plan, one of many ways Jane has striven to distinguish herself from her less disciplined mother. But then she happens to go for a pap smear on her gynecologist's worst day, and the distracted doctor inseminates her instead. WHOOPS.

The pilot -- in a methodical yet seamless way -- walks us through all of Jane's concerns and choices. Jane's fuckup GYN gives her a prescription for an unnamed drug that, we understand, will induce abortion, and at first it seems like this is the obvious option -- particularly after Mike proposes just a few hours after she gets this shocking news, and later tells her he doesn't want to start their lives together with her bringing a stranger's biological child into the mix. But Jane also finds out that the biological father is Rafael. He's (a) her boss, with whom (b) she made out one time years ago, and who (c) "harvested" his sample before undergoing cancer treatment, so Jane's pregnancy is his last-ever chance at fathering a child biologically, and (d) he and his wife would therefore be willing to take full custody of the child if Jane carries her pregnancy to term.

While Jane is trying to figure out what to do, she also learns that although she'd always assumed Alba forced Xiomara to give birth to her all those years ago, the truth is that Alba tried to get Xiomara to have an abortion and Xiomara wouldn't do it. And we also learn things Jane doesn't know -- like the identity of Jane's biological father, who has only just learned of her existence; and that even though Jane decides to have the baby and let its father and his wife raise it, they're not the great couple she thinks they are; and that even though Mike seems like a big sweetie, the omniscient narrator wants us to know he's going to let Jane down in a big, as-yet-mysterious way. Intrigue! Sweet mother-daughter moments! A hot lady rocking out at a nightclub in a fierce spangly dress! These are the very things TV was made for.

...But?

I realize we're supposed to hate Petra, Rafael's scheming, money-grubbing wife, because she is trying to force him into staying married to her (he's rich and there's a pre-nup situation). But so far her character is a clichéd misogynist nightmare -- even for a soap. There's also the fact that Baldoni and everyone else in his storyline kind of sucks at acting, which is a problem given how great Jane, Xiomara, and Alba are. In fact, the worst I can say about any of them is that it's a little tedious that Alba speaks Spanish and Jane answers in English -- either all one or all the other! However, I'm basing this review on a screener; if it turns out that Alba speaks English in the air version, I won't be surprised.

...So?

Gilmore Girls plus soapy intrigue? It's already perfect. Please watch it.