Review of Alborada

Alborada (2005–2006)
Great TV, if this was a movie, it would be Best Foreign Film Nominee.
10 February 2006
Warning: Spoilers
This period-piece is an adventure set in the Mexico of some 200 years ago, but written for a modern audience. If you like Hugo, Dumas, Dickens, and much of Shakespeare, then this is for you. It is what Televisa excels at producing. It is what the studio hopes will grab the growing Spanish-American market. This drama is truly superior, as this genre goes. Suspension of disbelief is necessary, but at tolerable levels. Yes, there are quite a few chronological, geographical, and technical errors, but they don't get much in the way of your enjoyment of the story. Spanish-language melodramas are facetiously, yet affectionately, called 'culebronas' by their audience because of all the hackneyed twists and turns the stories take before the leads pair off, exact righteous retribution on antagonists, and ride into the sunset. This story is no slacker in that respect. The writers seem to have done their homework in putting together a saga that moves forward with breakneck speed in every episode. It also has a good smattering of passion, greed, tragic heroism, stolen birthrights, switched babies, corrupt authorities, mistaken identities, damsels in distress, pauperized nobility, adultery, and amnesia (I hope I didn't leave anything out!) Those should be reasons enough to watch it, but there's more. Add to this mix the more modern elements of single-motherhood, the Inquisition's attack on Jews, closeted homosexuality, and a humorous perspective on sightings of the virgin Mary. The scope of this story is breath-taking. The best "novelas" keep all the format gimmicks in balance, yet maintain the plot on a steady course. The recent "Amor Real" grabs you from the very first episode, and rarely slows down. This romance is its slightly more-tawdry cousin. Where "Amor" was a little more technically accurate, the characters were less well developed. "Alborada" is almost over-populated with interesting characters and sub-plots, giving it the feel of a fast-paced movie. Mexican cinema was once the envy of the Spanish-speaking world, and this story shows that some still know how to get it right. As the story begins the viewer is immediately made aware that intrigue and betrayals abound. You may need to record the first few episodes and review them to unravel the story (or wait for the DVD). Luis Manrique y Arellano (actor Fernando Colunga) is returning home to Cuencas, Mexico, from a business trip abroad. His ship stops off in the town of Santa Rita, Panama, where Luis is to meet a man at the request of his cousin, Diego Arellano, Conde De Guevara (actor Luis R. Guzman). Luis asks an innkeeper the whereabouts of a Don Facundo Perez Pacheco, not knowing that the man was recently murdered by men in Diego's employ. Luis is overheard at the inn, framed for the murder, and quickly arrested for the crime. Luis' travel companion is Don Felipe Alvarado (Alejandro Tommasi), who bribes jail guards so as to allow Luis to escape and return to the safety of the Mexico-bound ship. During his escape, Luis somehow trespasses into the grounds of the mansion of an Antonio Guzmán y Pantoja (Arturo Peniche), and is re-captured by a servant. Antonio's mother, Doña Adelaida, questions the accidental guest, and begins the cascade of events of this story. And this is just the start of the very first episode of this wonderful saga. Do not miss it.
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