On Friday, February 20, 2009, another Mexican telenovela, or, soap opera, broadcast on Spanish language network Univision had its “gran final” or its “grand final’.It’s called “Fuego en la sangre”. The show began running on Univision in April 2008. It’s the story of three brother, Juan, Oscar, and Franco Reyes (played by Eduardo Yanez, Jorge Salinas, and Pablo Montero, respectively)who seek vengeance after their sister Libia is killed. They make plans to go to the house of the older man that Libia loved, Bernardo Elizando, to confront him because they believe Bernardo, who had promised to marry the girl, who was carrying his child, abandoned her and let her be killed. Bernardo had also not told Libia he was married to Gabriela Acevedo (played by Diana Bracho). They also plan to use Bernardo’s three daughters, Sofia(played by Adela Noriega) , Ximena (Elizabeth Alvarez), and Sarita (played by Nora Salinas) to get revenge: their intention is to seduce the Elizando daughters and then abandon them. But when they arrive at the Elizando hacienda, not only do they not find Bernardo or his wife there but then they meet Sofia, Ximena, and Sarita and fall in love with them and so their quest for vengeance changes. They still determine to find the killer of their sister but will no longer mistreat the Elizando women. The brothers face many complications in looking for the killer and in getting together with these women that they love. Their biggest complications come from Bernardo’s widow Gabriela and Gabriela’s former son-in-law Fernando who she seduce and makes her lover (Fernando would later betray Gabriela and lead to her downfall). These two do the impossible to thwart them. The Reyes eventually find the killer who evades their attempts to nab him by commiting suicide. And they do “get the girls”. Juan marries Sofia, Oscar marries Ximena, and Franco marries Sarita.
I give this telenovela a “B”. The story is charming, but it has been done before (I have heard of a Columbian telenovela called “Pasion de Gavilanes” which is said to be a lot like “Fuego en la Sangre”). The acting by Eduardo Yanez , Adela Noriega, and Diana Bracho was pretty good. But I would have liked to have seen Adela and the other actresses who played her sisters do a little more work in the novela; would have liked to have seen them do maybe a little more than scream and cry, which is most of what they did. I would have liked to have seen the writers give a different ending to the characters of Fernando and Gabriela. I don’t think they really paid for their crimes, which were numerous. This is why I give the show a “B”.
Tags: "fuego en la sangre", adela noriega, diana bracho, eduardo yanez, elizabeth alvarez, jorge salinas, mexico, nora salinas, pablo montero, soap opera, telenovela, tv, univision
