Should You Develop An Addiction To Telenovela?

What Is This Thing?

Ana Sofia is a successful and much beloved Spanish-language actress (despite the fact that she's not actually a fluent Spanish speaker) and the titular star of her own telenovela, Las Leyes De Pasion. But everything may fall apart for her when a new executive at her show's network arranges for the show to add cast member Xavier...Ana Sofia's ex-husband.

When Is It On?

After a two-episode sneak peek starting at 10 PM ET on Monday, December 7, on NBC, it will premiere in its regular time slot -- Mondays at 8:30 PM ET -- starting January 4, 2016.

Why Was It Made Now?

Both a show partly about/made in the style of telenovelas (Jane The Virgin) and a show adapted from a telenovela (The Mysteries Of Laura) are modest hits at the moment. (The less said about Red Band Society, adapted from a Catalan telenovela and swiftly cancelled last fall, the better.) And, like all networks -- all of TV, really -- NBC could stand to put on a few dozen shows featuring characters who aren't white.

What's Its Pedigree?

Former Cougar Town writers Chrissy Pietrosh and Jessica Goldstein created the show together for Eva Longoria (Desperate Housewives, a Season 2 arc on Brooklyn Nine-Nine), who plays Ana Sofia and is also an executive producer here, having developed the show through her production company. Amaury Nolasco (Prison Break) plays Rodrigo, Pasion's villain; veteran character actor Diana Maria Riva (The Bridge) plays Mia, the show's wardrobe mistress and Ana Sofia's best friend. Zachary Levi (Chuck) plays the network executive who puts Xavier and Ana Sofia back together, at least fictionally.

...And?

Longoria's always been a strong comic actor, even going back to the soapy Desperate Housewives, and the fact that she's crossed paths with The State alumni in Childrens Hospital speaks well of her comic taste. She also wasn't, it seems, too vain to surround herself with very strong co-stars: Nolasco and Riva are particularly funny and get a nice story together in "Evil Twin," the second episode of the two airing in NBC's December sneak peek.

...But?

Unfortunately, Longoria may be vain enough to want to keep Ana Sofia basically a good person when a Jenna Maroney-esque ego monster would be a lot more fun to watch. For instance: in the pilot, as part of a discussion of how beloved she is by her fans, there's a reference to the launch of her exercise video -- such a mob scene that someone got trampled; Ana Sofia preens at the memory before shaking it off and saying how terrible it was that people were injured. Do we really think she cares? Wouldn't it automatically be funnier if she didn't? I mean, the conceit of the show is that telenovela-ish stuff happens behind the scenes -- "Evil Twin" is about the actual evil twin of one of Ana Sofia's co-stars. Getting the audience on board with the idea of a soap star who is as big a diva in reality as her character is onscreen would not be hard.

There also seems to be evidence of tinkering already: although almost the whole pilot is about Ana Sofia's terror at having to share the spotlight with Xavier, they essentially have no interaction in the second episode, nor do we get any more information on the woman we see him making out with juuuuust as Ana Sofia had been starting to consider that maybe they could start things up again.

But ultimately, it's just kind of corny. Despite the fact that it's a single-camera show, the actors are all performing with multi-cam desperation. And a pilot gag about Ana Sofia confronting Levi's executive in a dress that's only pinned together goes on about three gags past what would be optimal.

...So?

Fans of slapstick -- or, I suppose, of unpredictable Mexican variety shows -- might find this perfectly serviceable; I don't see a need to carve out DVR space for it myself.