#on the other hand I'll probably just watch downton abbey lol and if i make it in time I'll watch whatever fp is left | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

laufire · 10 months

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"La Promesa", ep. 1

I did end up starting this Spanish show/soap my mother is now binge-watching. 1 (1h+ long) episode down... 240 to go until it ends (I think??) in December ñalsdkfjasf.

I called it "Spanish Downton Abbey" and it's more or less accurate LOL. Think Downton if the father and head of the failing state was a bigger idiot than Robert; Cora died after two children and he then married The Evol Stepmother from Hell And Second Worst Person in The World* to have two more with her; and the character in Mary's position was a mix between her and Sybil personality-wise, and had a twin brother. There are two other children: a middle boy, Manuel, The Silly Second Son Turned Heir Who Really Only Wants to Build and Fly Aeroplanes (AND is the show's Helpless Love Interest), and the charmingg and spoiled younger girl, Leonor.

BUT. None of them is the protagonist. That title belongs to Jana, a girl who's infiltrated the manor as a maid to uncover the truth of her mother's murder & her baby brother's abduction. She's headstrong and probably too impulsive to lead such a task with the cunning and grace it requires LOL, but I'm rooting for her!! I like her. And I have to, with this face *-*

Predictably, I liked the main antagonist, the Marquise, a lot too LMAO. Spanish TV is good at making me hate the villains (they are teeeeeeerrible people) and making me look forward to their demise, but I have certain Types, and in her case I might have mixed feelings! I particularly enjoyed that she is so hostile to and mistrustful of Jana from the start; she shows good mercenary instincts if nothing else.

There's also loooooots more murder than in Downton Abbey just to start with lol. The episode opens with Jana (then called Mariana) and her mother Dolores running through the state, chased by some masked men in horses that wanted Jana's baby brother**. They kill her mother and get the baby, and Jana barely gets to escape by jumping into a river, with the men assuming she's dead. And then the episode ends with the lady of the house, the Marquise Cruz Esquerdo, murdering her stepson when he accuses her ("them") of killing Dolores, and everyone in the house discovering the body the next morning.

The episode itself revolves around the older brother's (Tomás) wedding to a rich, hapless heiress in order to save the state (he's also in an illicit relationship with one of the maids). He's the one who dies and… I'm a bit torn about it LOL. Mainly because he and Cruz had a GLORIOUSLY hostile dynamic I would have loved seeing for longer maybe with hatesex included idk. the chemistry was there. But alas! It needed to happen xD

(this is after she stabs Tomás so. in a way, they DID have hatesex!)

As for other things in the episode: Jana and Manuel have a brief meet-cute when he sees her conning her way into the service and finds it SO charming he just MUST ask her out ñalsdkjfaf (she's briefly under the impression he's in service as well, since he was working on the aeroplane. She still says no because she's in Mission Mode. Keep that energy, girl!). By the end of the episode she's saved his life*** when he has an aeroplane accident and he's Fully In Love. I'm tentatively into them?? Incredible.

Another thing I liked from the episode was that the service characters are clearly going to be more involved in Plot and Intrigue and DRAMA TM than in DA. The butler obviously Suspects Something regarding Jana and is already far more interesting than Carson, the marquise's personal maid is a heinous shit-stirrer of the first order (O'Brien is NOT on her level)... I'm looking forward to getting to know them the most.

Anyway. I don't know when I'll have the time to continue but so far, I'm into it. For sure, some of the acting was over the top and some of the dialogue was heavy-handed as fuck (there was a conversation between the eldest daughter, Catalina, and her father, with the typical "you need to move with the times to keep the house! I'm good at this, I should be the heir!" "no because you're A WOMAN and you need to FIND A HUSBAND and OBEY HIM IN EVERYTHING" shit that was... yikes. and I hate the father btw. I know we're meant to see him with more benevolence than the likes of Cruz and her father but I don't like him one bit lol).

BUT I'm looking forward to seeing more of the characters, and especially, to seeing grandpa get his comeuppance <3

*the Marquise's father, Chief Rapist and Literal Former Slave Trader, wouldn't let her usurp him like that!

**we don't know why this happened but given the marquise's father is said to have been raping the housekeeper for who knows how long, and that I know she's pregnant in a later episode... my suspicions are running that way, at the moment. I also wouldn't rule out him & his daughter killing the lord's first wife t b h.

***Jana uses this to leverage her way into a permanent job AND it doesn't soften Cruz towards her even a little bit, when it's clear Manuel is the apple of her eye. This is why they're my faves so far xD

#talking to the void #patriotic tag #la promesa #jana expósito #cruz ezquerdo #jana x manuel #my thoughts #promesa thoughts #cruz x tomás #id in alt text #captioned

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