What I Saw: Jane the Virgin

Time to blog again! It’s been awhile and I’m itching to get back into some kind of flow. I’ve finished my first playthrough of Life is Strange and am working on my second before I post on it. I’m curious to see what changes there are in the story if I make dramatically different choices. I’ve also started watching a web-series called RWBY as a throwaway (meaning I won’t blog about it) show to watch in between other shows, which is fairly entertaining. It’s created by Rooster Teeth who was famous for creating Red vs Blue which started off as a hilarious parody of the Halo videogame franchise but then turned into a serious story and action filled show. RWBY is an (and I use the term loosely) original show, which has heavy anime influences of gun-swords and fantasy. For right now, I’m going to post on a show that I’ve heard about from a few different sources but had not taken the time to watch until now, when I was craving something new to watch. This post will be a little different because rather than look at the theme of each episode, I will be giving my thoughts about the show overall. Here we go!

What I Watched:

 

Jane the Virgin S1.E1-6
Premise: Jane Villanueva is a mid-twenties Latina who decided as a child to hold on to her virginity until marriage. A mix up at the gynecologist office led to her getting pregnant after being accidentally artificially inseminated. The father just happens to be the owner of the luxury hotel she waitresses at, which complicates the relationship with her fiancé.

What I saw:

Traditionally, network TV shows are episodic with something small keeping the “filler” episodes linked together until it reaches a story-arch episode. (If you ever wanted an example of this, just listen to the first couple minutes of any Supernatural filler episode and you’ll find the same line “We haven’t got any leads on X villain and we should go on a hunt to clear out heads.”) This show is told through a continuous story rather than being split into singular episodes, but I did notice after the first couple of episodes each one had an overall theme that it talked about.

Diversity
Another split from the traditional network show is the diversity of it’s cast. There are plenty people of color as the main characters, side characters, and in the background. In fact, when I saw some of the white side characters it sort of threw me off because I had gotten so used to seeing people of color instead, which to me is a good thing! For Latinx there is so little representation out there outside of telenovelas that it is refreshing to see my people front and center.

Language
Speaking of telenovelas, they are featured prominently as both a plot device (her long lost father stars in a telenovela) as well as a cultural truth about Latinx people. I’m a Latino, and I am ashamed to say I don’t really like telenovelas; but even I have to admit that they are very prominent part of my culture. The other cultural truth about Latin American culture is the mixed use of languages. Rather than most other shows which try to sling some unrealistic ghetto Spanglish, Jane the Virgin acknowledges the different languages used across the generations living in the same household. Jane’s grandmother speaks only Spanish (but oddly enough speaks English in the trailer...) but understands English, Jane and her mother speak primarily English, while Jane’s estranged father Rogelio is comfortable using both interchangeably.

Religion
Catholicism plays a role in some of the influence over Jane’s decisions, but does not control her actions. It is implied that she is a woman of faith, but attends semi-regularly like most other Americans. In one of the episodes we find out she has kept her virginity not out of faith but out of fear of becoming another statistic of a young single mother like her own mother. She also weighs the decision of abortion when she first finds out she is pregnant, and again we see it is not only her faith which determines her decision, but many other factors. There was a very good balance on how much religion influences a person, instead of the stereotypical portrayal that Latinx people are totally devout Catholics.

Race
Racial discrimination is actually missing in the show so far. Jane is engaged to a white man, Michael, but it is considered to be normal since they were already dating for the last two years. This could be the creators normalizing interracial dating, which is great. However, there are plenty of other moments outside of their relationship where in real life racism could take place but none have been presented so far. I hope the show does not ignore racial discrimination entirely, but I do respect the creators for choosing to normalize race relations. The beauty of fiction is not only showing the world for what it is but what it could be; a world without racism.

Storytelling

The storytelling in this show is more on the dramatic side, which could be a result of telenovela influence. The cinematography also has the heavily dramatic angles where characters are talking to but not facing each other, so both of their faces can be seen on the camera. Those angles always bothered me just because I think I hardly ever talk to someone without facing them, unless I was busy doing something else. Like I mentioned earlier, it all flows in one continuous story with the narrator occasionally repeating information in the beginning of the show to make sure everyone was clear on each characters’ arch. The pacing of the show is really good so far, with each character’s story having adequate time to fully play out.

Conclusion

Despite all the content, this post is a little on the shorter side because if I went into each episode it would go into on the crazy long side. I like the show for it’s portrayal of Latin Americans, and as the show covers more themes I’ll write more on it, but in the meantime I’ll just leave it with this overall review. How do you guys feel about it’s portrayal of people of color and Latin Americans in particular? Does it do a fair representation? For those who are not part of the culture, do you feel like you got some sense of the complexity of Latin American culture? Let me know in the comments!

What I Saw: The Walking Dead

I have fallen behind once again on posts and even on my TV watching! It took me until last Wednesday to watch The Walking Dead due to a boring thing like life getting in the way. This week I’m working some overtime shifts so I’m not even going to be able to enjoy my usual mini-binges. I wrote this post last week, but with all the overtime I haven’t had a chance to edit and post it until now. I watched a new superhero comedy show Powerless that came out about one month ago that is alright, but has some actors I am a fan of. I will post on that show eventually. For now, on to the depressing drama that reminds us of our mortality!

What I watched:

The Walking Dead S7.E12&13 “Say Yes” and “Bury Me Here.”

What I Saw:

I have to say I found the pacing of “Say Yes” to be really well done. Other episodes will seem like they drag out the plot, especially switching from one storyline to the other. But this episode had a couple storylines that fit really well together. The theme of that episode was a reminder of our mortality, along with what we’re willing to live and die for.

The reminder of our mortality came with Rick and Michonne’s storyline. The couple go on a little scavenging vacation, going through one building after another gathering supplies and making with the love. They are in a better mood now that they have a plan and allies to help them even the odds against the Saviors. Rick pushes for them to scavenge one more day to keep looking for guns now that he’s back to being leader of the survivors. They come across a carnival that was used as a staging area for refugees, with supplies guarded by undead armed soldiers. With that they will have weapons and plenty of supplies to keep them afloat during the war. Meanwhile back in Alexandria, Rosita is still acting all pissy towards everyone and blames Gabriel for talking her out of her suicide run against Negan. She told him that if she had died then other people would have been alive.

Now what Rosita is experiencing is called survivor’s guilt, which is what some people experience after surviving a life threatening ordeal while others did not. For Rosita, it was the fact that her failed attempt to shoot Negan led to the death of someone else along with Eugene being taken by the enemy. Gabriel was actually pretty spot on with his observations of the situation, and with how life works.

He told her that he knew if Rosita carried out her plan, she definitely would not have survived and there was no guarantee she would have been successful in her attempt. There would have been one less fighter in the group with nothing to show for it. He did what everyone else does in life: he did what he thought was right. He told her he made a choice to intervene and he has to live with whatever consequences that comes as a result, as does Rosita. He then throws responsibility back to her and reminds her she makes her own choices, and she has to decide what she wants to do with her life since she is the one that is stuck living it. Classic existential ideas of choices, consequences, and responsibility for one’s own life.

The other major lesson came with Rick and Michonne trying to kill all the walkers in order to collect all the weapons and supplies. They split up to take them all out on opposite ends. Rick gets distracted by a deer and is overrun by walkers. Michonne comes to help him but is stunned when she sees the walkers feasting one what she thinks is Rick, and she just drops her sword and loses all hope. Of course they are not going to kill the main character of the show off camera like that, and Rick pops out of a crate he was hiding in and snaps Michonne back into the fight. Rick then talks to her about what happened.

Rick reminds her that there is no guarantee that any one of them will live to see the next day. They could get injured or killed any number of ways without warning, and if it were to happen the community would need to keep living on. Michonne at first doubts her ability to keep living in Alexandria without Rick if something were to happen to him; but he tells her she can and she has to in order to make sure their community will start to fall apart.

I think many of us in Western society take our lives for granted at any given moment. We assume there is going to be a tomorrow and everything is going to work out one way or another. But just like in the world full of zombies, our own lives are anything but guaranteed; the only difference is what is likely to kill us. Being reminded of our mortality focuses our attention on what brings meaning and importance to our lives. If we only have so much time to live our lives, we better make sure we’re using it on things that we feel are important; or else we will be left with regret when our time on this Earth comes to an end (if you want to know what that looks like, read The Death of Ivan Ilyich).

Things get crazy in “Bury Me Here,” especially towards the end of the episode. Carol starts to connect some dots from her reunion with Daryl, and realizes he was probably sugar coating how things were going in Alexandria. She asks Morgan if anything else happened but he dodges the question and tells her she should ask Daryl if she wants to know; which only confirms her suspicions that something else happened. Ezekiel takes everyone out for another delivery run to the Saviors, and they come across a road block which draws their attention towards a grave with the sign saying “bury me here.” They brush it off as the machinations of a mad man (and they aren’t wrong) and go to the drop and discover their offering is short by one melon. The Savior crew punishes the less than smooth operations recently by shooting one of them. Richard was front and center and was provoking the Saviors during the drop, like always; only Benjamin, the young man who is so eager to learn and believes wholeheartedly in the Kingdom, was the one who got shot instead.

Richard later explains he set up the delay and hid the melon in order to provoke the Saviors into killing him and forcing Ezekiel to go to war. While he never meant for anyone else to get killed in his mission (which may have been inspired by Daryl who told him he should die for the Kingdom if he believes in it so much), he asks Morgan to help continue his conspiracy along.

Richard also tells a story from the beginning of the zompocalypse where he left the authorities to act on the behalf of others instead of acting and contributing on his own. A fight that he could have easily broken up led to a fire at the refugee camp and he lost his wife, and while on the run afterwards he lost his daughter.

The theme of the episode was the dangers of inaction. Ezekiel was reluctant to act against the Saviors and make the alliance with Rick. Richard was right when he pointed out it was only a matter of time before one little thing would set the Saviors off and someone would get killed even without war. Richard’s story also revolved around inaction and the high price he paid for not taking responsibility for his own family or the community at large. The lesson: sometimes the worse decision someone can make is making no decision at all.

Now crazy part came after Benjamin’s death, when Morgan literally goes crazy. He flashes back to when he Rick found him again in season 3 and he was “clearing” (*cough* killing *cough*) everything in sight. He then kills Richard in front of the Saviors to show that the Kingdom understands they need to fall in line, which was the next part of Richard’s plan (except the part where he gets killed). Morgan has officially lost it, and he tells Carol the hard truth of everyone that died while she was off on her own ciesta. Carol surprisingly keeps her cool despite, or maybe because of, Morgan having gone crazy. She just decides to rejoin the community at the Kingdom and prepare for war. Overall, really good storytelling with the twist of crazy Morgan that I didn’t see coming.

In conclusion, the show is starting to pick up it’s pacing again, which is good. I was worried they were going to drag out the preparations and add some filler, but the last couple of episodes picked it up. I like how the writers are bringing everything back to the original lessons of the early seasons: not everyone is going to make it out okay so you better get used to it. The world is a messed up place, and is smudged in grey.

Time to wrap things up. What did you guys think about Crazy Morgan coming back? And do you think the war will start before the end of the season or at the beginning of the next? Let me know in the comments!

What I Saw: Jin Season 1

I went to a nerd convention last weekend, and I didn’t do any real TV watching. I also spent some time trying to fix my (ancient) gaming PC which has been glitching. It seems to be working okay now, so I’ll keep trudging along with that story rich game I’ve been playing and post on it eventually. What I did manage to accomplish was finishing what apparently was half of the show I’m writing about today. My friend, the one who recommended the J-Drama to me, just told me there were two seasons of it; which would explain why there was no explanation at the end. Anyways, on to the actual content.

What I watched:

Jin Season 1:
After a neurosurgeon causes his fiancé to end up in a coma after an experimental surgery, Jin comes across a mysterious patient who’s face is wrapped in bandages. He removes a brain tumor which looks like a fetus, and the patient escapes carrying an emergency aid kit. In the struggle to subdue the patient, Jin falls and wakes up in Japan’s Edo period. Once there, he is taken in by a samurai family and meets a historic figure in Japan named Sakamoto Ryoma. He then encounters a courtesan who is very likely the foremother of his fiancé. Jin then decides to teach modern medicine at a much earlier time in order to advance medical science in the present day and save his fiancé.

What I saw:

This was an interesting show on many levels. It features strong believable characters, existential ideas, and discusses the ethics of time travel all wrapped into a medical drama. If you couldn’t tell by the setting, it is a Japanese Drama (J-Drama), which differ from K-Dramas not only by the country of origin, but also by the lack of formulaic storytelling. There are loads of spoilers from here on out, so if you plan to watch the show (which I recommend) now is the time to avert your eyes!


Existentialism

Jin has a big existential crisis right in the beginning of the show. Jin took a leap of faith and decided to conduct an experimental operation on his fiance, Miki, risking what little and precious time left with her in the hopes of curing her. The problem with a leap of faith is you don’t know if the choice you make is the correct one until after it is made, and it seems like Jin chose incorrectly. Miki ends up in a coma and he becomes scared to take on any risky surgeries after that. The progenitor of existentialism, Kierkegaard, discussed how a leap of faith is necessary to accomplish our goals. The reason it is called a leap of faith is because the outcome is unknown. All anyone can do in life is make the best decisions that they can in that moment and hope it is good enough. And in those times where the choice is wrong, it is up to that person to get up and make another choice, and then another, and then another.

The other existential concept presented was the Absurd. Jin saved some people’s lives from one incident, and starts to think maybe he was sent to the past for a reason: to save lives and in turn the life of his fiancé. He saved some people’s lives only to see them at risk of dying from cholera days later. He then questions whether his presence in the past has any meaning at all, since the universe seemed intent to balance out his actions. Hence the absurdity that is life: if our actions mean nothing, then why do we feel so intent to keep living. But much like everyone else who comes across this absurdity, Jin pushes forward and tries to fill it with meaning anyways. Because honestly, the only alternative to living is death, and while it makes no logical sense to stay alive people don’t commit suicide for ontological reasons. We just force ourselves to keep on keeping on because while the alternative is just as meaningless, at least we’re not dead.

Being active in your own life was also presented after Jin was almost assassinated for his “Dutch” medical knowledge. He admitted to the sister of the samurai that took Jin in, Saki, that he was treating his experience in Edo as a sort of dream, thinking he was sent for a reason and nothing would harm him until he was ready to go back. But after the assassination attempt he realized he was alive, that it was not a dream, and he needed to start acting like his life was in the balance; because it honestly was. I think people in more developed countries often experience this dream-like state at times, where they coast through life day after day. When there is no outright struggle to work for physical survival (we work for money to buy what we need for survival), it can be possible to forget that tomorrow is not guaranteed for any of us and the decisions we make for our lives today are always important. That cliché of “if you only had one more day to live, what would you do with it?” is something that we need to ask ourselves from time to time to help us think about what we truly value in our lives. We are mortal beings, never forget that.

Feminism

The Edo period is not really known for it’s fair treatment of women. Much like everywhere else, women were treated as second class citizens in the past; hell even in the present. However, Saki becomes enamored with Jin and his abilities as a doctor. She takes up the mantle of being a nurse. She was willing to break with social norms and work in a field dominated by men. She also sacrificed her honor and potentially her family’s honor by breaking off an engagement in order to return to Jin’s side as a nurse. It is not her right to choose her fate, but she went ahead and chose it because she knew what she valued, and she was willing to fight to uphold it. She even rescued Jin by helping him to run and hide from would-be assassins sent by the traditionalist doctors.

The other feminist is Miki’s foremother, Nokaze. She is the most sought after courtesan in all of Edo and with it she has a certain status, albeit a limited one. She is able to decline (I guess I’ll use the euphemism) customers if she does not like them. Since her status is limited only to the red light district, she encourages Saki to pursue her desire to be a nurse. She recognizes they both love the great doctor, but she accepts it with elegance and does not demean herself in any jealous spats. She has a sense of pride which carried with her throughout the season, and I really did like there were no vindictive tricks to fight over a man.

Politics

With what little I know of Japanese history, the country held an isolationist policy for decades in the 1800’s. Contact and trade were very restricted, and the ideas and religions of European culture were actively persecuted against. Ryoma was actually a real-life political figure in Japan who was assassinated as he organized against the shogunate. While in the first season there is some political maneuvering, the most prominent example of the politics of the day is isolationism. Many traditional doctors felt threatened by Jin’s medical knowledge, and went so far as to destroy a facility producing penicillin to stop him from gaining more status. They confront him under the guise that he is a student of “Dutch” medicine and he is not following the rules set for those students (in those days, the Dutch were the biggest figures to have trade/contact with Japan).

Ethics
There are many ethical ideas presented with regards to how much Jin should change the timeline, if at all. Jin saves the life of the samurai who saved him after waking up in the Edo period. For all he knew the samurai was supposed to live had his own plight not distracted the samurai. His only goal after saving the samurai was to return to his time, but then a woman in Edo became critically injured, and he debates on whether he should interfere or act like he does not know how to save her. He takes into account the famous Butterfly Effect, and does not want to save one life which could go on to give birth to a whole new family of descendants and change the world. He is reluctant to act not only in her case, but also in teaching others how to successfully treat cholera which was spreading all across Edo. Unable to see others suffer, he ultimately decides to act and use his knowledge to treat those around him. He decides to do what he thinks is right despite not knowing how it will effect the future.


Jin’s fiancé is in a coma in the modern day, and right before he attempted the experimental surgery they took a photograph together in the hospital. The photograph changes very slightly at first after he saves someone’s life, but then the photo changes setting completely when he decides to teach some modern technique to others. He uses the photo to guide his progress on the likelihood of saving his fiancé Miki, and she starts to fade from the picture towards the end of the season. Jin discovers that he may have to let Nokaze ignore a diagnosis of breast cancer so she can be sold to a man and begin the line of descendants that will lead to Miki being born. With this knowledge, he revisits the idea of just how much should he interfere in the past.


It was different when he had no idea what would change, but now that he had a clear cause/effect and the ability to choose what effect he wanted, his actions held more weight. He even knew he was doing a wrong thing by allowing Nokaze to die, but he was selfish and wanted only to save Miki. At least so he thought. Jin then realizes he would hate himself for letting someone else die for Miki, and he would also hate himself for erasing Miki from existing at all. Ryoma figures out Jin’s story and saves him from making the choice by begging him to save Nokaze, and Ryoma says he will bear the responsibility along with any hatred from Jin for the choice. After removing the malignant tumor from Nokaze, the photo with Miki disappears entirely, and most likely Miki along with it.


The whole discussion about ethics revolves around consequences. Jin accepts the fact even if he returned to the present, his world is no longer there because of all the changes he already made. He resigns to staying in Edo Japan, and decides to make a life for himself. You can do anything you want in life, so long as you are willing to pay the consequences. While Jin may have been ready to accept the consequence of allowing Nokaze to die of breast cancer, he realized Miki would never have wanted to have someone else go untreated for her own sake. Facing Miki after such a sacrifice was not a price he was willing to pay.


Since Jin already knew of Ryoma’s fate, when Ryoma admitted he was being followed by the shogunate Jin would warn him to take the threats seriously, giving the hint that he knew something. At the end of the season Jin starts to tell Ryoma about what happens to him, but Ryoma stops him. Even though he caught on to the fact that Jin was from the future, he declined to learn more about his own fate because he felt it would keep him from living his life. No one should know too much of their own fate, or else they will be driven mad trying to avoid it. Ryoma understood that, and chose to live his life the way he wants to.


Conclusion

Kind of odd how despite the lack of formulaic storytelling, I ended up making this post a lot more structured than usual. I figured it was probably easier to break it into categories since I talked about a whole season rather than one episode at a time.

With that said, I really liked this first season of Jin. The characters, especially Jin, were believable because they all had flaws one way or the other. Jin started off timid and unsure of himself and his actions, but grew more confident. The characters, setting, plot, and theme were all very coherent and well done. I can’t wait to see how the rest of the story ends!

What kind of approach would you take if you were thrust back in time? Would you try to play it safe and keep from altering history, or would you just go ahead and do whatever you wanted? Let me know in the comments.

What I Saw: El Vato and the Latinx Dream Chasers

The rain has gone and the sun is shining in Cali...except now it’s cold again (relatively speaking). I’ve been busy on my off days as well as my work days. I’ve been sleep deprived all during my days off, and it finally caught up to me. Hell, the other day I just crashed right after work to all the way until right before I had to leave for work. Despite all that, I did make some time to re-watch some Parks and Recreation and it’s still hilarious. But, today’s post isn’t about Parks and Rec; instead I resumed watching a show I haven’t posted on in awhile. I’m also almost done with a J-Drama and will post on the entire series (all 11 episodes of it, lol) once I finish.

What I Watched:

El Vato S1.E4&5 “¿Tienes Talento?” and “Cougars, Yeguas Y Video”

What I Saw:

The comedic value of this show reminded me of why I liked it in the first place. In episode 4, Vato and his crew are still mentally recovering from their brief run-in with the narco corrido (drug runner) music label. Vato has been calling Chalino non-stop to make sure they are square after saving his life from a gun fight. Mariana got promoted to performing guitar at the Mexican Hooters-like restaurant she works at and gets a visit from her ex-fiance. Pollo is still working on the ranch while Vato and Brandon go on a singing contest show to try and get the chance to win a contract. The show is run by Wendy and her brother Lolo’s music label, but due to internal politics the contest is rigged for an equally talented woman singer to win and Vato gets left in second place with nothing.

I do like how Vato ended up being betrayed by Wendy, who still promises to have his back despite being part of the plan to rig the vote. She was trying to get the female singer onto her side and use it as leverage, but we don’t learn what for until the next episode. I know some people use TV to escape from reality, but I enjoy shows that inject some truth into the stories they tell. Show business is not only business; much like everything else in life, it gets personal and people will mess up with your plans even though you did things perfectly. Besides, living in a society like ours the game is rigged for you to lose; in Vato’s case it was just literal.

Vato gets another good moment when Chalino shows up at the contest. At first Vato thinks he is there to collect his debt with force, but is instead rewarded with a gold plated pistol as a sign of gratitude. His debt has been cleared, all because he did the right thing and saved someone’s life; even if it was the life of a drug dealer. But that moment gets ruined a couple of minutes later when Vato finds out the vote was rigged from the beginning. He points his shiny new gold plated pistol at Lolo when he finds out about the betrayal, which I thought was a little out of character (not to mention over dramatic). It could be that he was channeling his father who was more of a gangster narco corrido singer, but I don’t know. Like I said, he did the right thing and saved a life but was quick to threaten to take one. That arch overall was trying to say that while nice guys don’t always finish last, in the real world they don’t finish first either.
A powerful scene in this episode was between Mariana and her ex-fiance. He surprised her with a visit when she let slip the name of the restaurant she was working at. The whole time he was trying to convince her to return, and she kept telling him that she needed to be in the US to accomplish her dreams of being a famous music composer. When he showed up and said she didn’t have to worry about anything anymore, I almost thought the show was going to go the cheesy route and he was going to find a way to stay. Nope! Instead he gives another push for her to return to Mexico, and she tells him that she loves him, but she loves music more. The only thing she wants to do now is try to make it as a composer. A really good scene not only because she is sacrificing everything to make her dream come true, but because she is also a woman who is self-empowered.

In episode 5, the focus shifts a little more towards Pollo and Brandon. El Vato is bummed he lost the contest and is told by the radio DJ El Chuy that since Lolo has blackballed him it will be almost impossible to get with any record label or radio station in town. El Chuy then suggests Vato go back to Mexico and make music videos to keep his name known until things cool off. Mariana gets an invitation from Vato’s rival, Marcos, at a spot that is known for scouts to frequent and look for composers. Mariana asks Vato to sing her song for her, and he promises to do it after filming a music video at the ranch Pollo works; without the owner’s permission. At the ranch, Pollo runs into a famous ranchero singer, Emiliano, who asks to help him to put down a horse he’s had even before he became famous. Pollo ends up losing his job because Vato got caught filming the video using other people’s cars and horses without permission. Vato also ended up missing the chance to sing for Mariana, who choked on stage and decided to get drunk and make out with Marcos instead. Meanwhile, Brandon meets up with the cougar he met at Lolo’s party.

Again, the overall theme of following your dream is ever present in the show. But this time there were a couple of twists. Vato runs into an actress named Abigail, who is also working as an assistant for the famous ranchero singer and convinces her to be in the music video. They share a moment when talking about the struggle, and how even though they have day jobs, what they do matters because they have to do whatever it takes to help accomplish their dreams. Abigail also talked about how she used to go to casting calls all the time, but all the Latina roles were for a maid or undocumented immigrant. Her respect for herself and Latinx culture prevents her from taking those stereotypical roles. I really liked how the show brought up that issue, because as you know I like to celebrate the times when Latinx people are not placed in those stereotypes. We are more than just laborers, we are also intellectuals and artists!

The flip-side comes from the receptionist Pollo met and is crushing on, Estela, who at first wanted to be a singer. Mariana runs into her at the event to scout for composers. She says she is no longer a singer because she has resigned that she will never become one, especially now that she has a kid to look after. A day job stops becoming one the day you stop prioritizing your dreams. For Estela, making sure her child is provided for is her new priority. It’s great to chase your dreams, but you have to balance life with it as well (like I talked about with my post on Atlanta). You can choose to go all out and focus on the dream only, but that sacrifices family, and it is up to the person to decide which is more important. For Mariana it was the dream of being a composer, for Estela it was her child. Both are respectable decisions.

Mariana has another good moment with Vato’s aunt, who brings up the fact that Mariana never writes songs from a woman’s perspective. She mentions she always liked one famous artist who sang unapologetically about how its really like to be a Latina, and urges Mariana to consider doing the same. Mariana is hesitant because talking about issues like that is harder, probably because it hits closer to home and is more real. It feels easier to create something that is detached from what your life is like, but usually art comes off as more impactful the more it impacts the artist. And let me tell you, writing from your own emotions and experiences is way scarier than writing about something you don’t really know. The message sinks in when Mariana runs into the Estela, and asks if she would be willing to sing if Mariana writes songs from a woman’s perspective.

Brandon’s outing with the cougar lady makes him question what he is doing with his life. He gets scolded by the cougar for looking at a pair of tennis shoes and she hands him a nice pair of loafers telling him it’s for his own good. He sees a reflection of himself in a boy who is also being scolded by his mother to where more grown up looking shoes. He gets depressed that he is spending time with someone who is almost old enough to be his mom. The cougar gets disappointed at the sudden mood change and ditches him. Then he sees another reflection, but this time it is a homeless man digging in the trash looking for recyclables to turn in for cash. He then runs over to the cougar and plants a passionate kiss. In life, despite how bad you may think certain things are, there are plenty out there who have it worse. With no job, and no real skill besides being a ladies man (he got info for Vato when hooking up with a grip, as well as free coffee), Brandon started to feel down. But once he saw what his life could be like instead of what it currently was, he realized it wasn’t so bad.

This episode’s most powerful moment came with Pollo’s arch. Emiliano taught Pollo a few things about how to care for horses, and opens up a little about his life. He tells Pollo that his horse is actually very sick, and he wants to put the horse down the same way he used to when he was back at the ranch in Mexico. He talked about trust and friendship, saying he doesn’t know who is really a friend anymore or who wants to just hit him up for favors now that he is famous. His horse is the only one that reminds him of his simpler life from before, and he cannot bring himself to put it down. Pollo ends up doing it, and decides not to take the opportunity to ask Emiliano to listen to Vato’s demo. The scene was powerful because Pollo wanted to treat the famous singer like a human being, and show him that not everyone who is nice to him is looking for connections. It was a difficult choice, but a very honorable one. That moment did a really good job of showing Pollo’s character.

In conclusion. 

I know I ranted a little bit a couple of posts ago about wanting to find a decent show that featured Latinx characters, and I have to admit I half forgot about this show. This show highlights a lot of Latin American culture without being stereotypical, or overly dramatic like in telenovelas (which this hilarious clip of using Spanglish shows). Latinx are portrayed as business people, artists, drug dealers, office workers, and yes, even laborers. But the important thing is there is a wider representation of Latinx. The only part that bothers me is a lot of the main characters have a lighter skin tone, and the background characters are darker skinned tone. This is true for many telenovelas, and those even go so far to cast the villains with darker skin tones.

Overall, I really do enjoy the show. What do you guys think of Mariana’s and Pollo’s decisions? Did they choose correctly, or will they regret it? What would you choose? Let me know in the comments!