The tone of Virgin is so light and whimsical you very quickly stop caring about the constant twists and absurd happen-stance. Instead you watch it for the breezy character interplay, and the occasionally perverse situations they create for one another. Virgin is a light hearted parody of tele-novellas; a genre of television I have never seen in my life, but never-the-less it is a fun deconstruction of the bizarro drama that (I assume) happens in them.
If there is a broader emotional thread, it is a frank observation about how devout Catholicism can still thrive in a changing, modern society. My wife informs me that she grew up with the same harsh lessons on staying pure, and how much pain she might inflict on Jesus should she have pre-marital sex, so there is a great deal for her to relate to in this show. Jane herself constantly butting heads with her single mother (who gets around a lot) and her zealous grandmother (who doesn't), but the show never really tries to demonise the religion or make Jane out to be some kind of weirdo for her faith. Nor does it condemn characters for their lack of it - the religiosity simply informs their characters rather than define them.
Jane The Virgin is a fun, accessible show with a daft sense of humour, providing a good opportunity for people like me (English) to see one of the less visible corners of the Americas.
Series Simple without Shallowness, Complex without Complication
Within the first episode of Jane The Virgin, the protagonist Jane is accidentally artificially inseminated with semen belonging to her boss, who was also a one time fling. The boss happens to be the brother of the doctor who carried out the procedure, Jane's actual boyfriend is currently investigating the boss for his involvement in a drug ring, the Doctor's ex-girlfriend happens to be the partner of the boss's dad. Jane's dad happens to be the start of a trashy telenovella she happens to watch. Jane The Virgin is easily the most contrived story I have ever seen, even more so than Les Misérables, but it doesn't give a damn.
The tone of Virgin is so light and whimsical you very quickly stop caring about the constant twists and absurd happen-stance. Instead you watch it for the breezy character interplay, and the occasionally perverse situations they create for one another. Virgin is a light hearted parody of tele-novellas; a genre of television I have never seen in my life, but never-the-less it is a fun deconstruction of the bizarro drama that (I assume) happens in them.
If there is a broader emotional thread, it is a frank observation about how devout Catholicism can still thrive in a changing, modern society. My wife informs me that she grew up with the same harsh lessons on staying pure, and how much pain she might inflict on Jesus should she have pre-marital sex, so there is a great deal for her to relate to in this show. Jane herself constantly butting heads with her single mother (who gets around a lot) and her zealous grandmother (who doesn't), but the show never really tries to demonise the religion or make Jane out to be some kind of weirdo for her faith. Nor does it condemn characters for their lack of it - the religiosity simply informs their characters rather than define them.
Jane The Virgin is a fun, accessible show with a daft sense of humour, providing a good opportunity for people like me (English) to see one of the less visible corners of the Americas.