Spanish Telenovelas

This past summer, I actually had too much downtime that I surprised and found myself watching not just random movies, but I also ended up watching a few Spanish Telenovelas, lots of Korean Dramas, and some Taiwanese Dramas. I must admit I was not into watching them before until recently, as I got addicted into watching them, but mostly on K-Dramas (my post on it is coming up...soon!)...thank goodness for English subtitles!

I know these are not movies, but I thought I'd include them here, since I'm into watching them lately.

So far, I've only seen a few Spanish Telenovelas as I haven't found anything really good that grabs my time and attention. These are a few that I've seen...

Grand Hotel/Gran Hotel (2011-2013)

starring Adriana Ozores, Amaia Salamanca, Yon González

Synopsis: 1905. Julio, a young man, arrives at the Grand Hotel, an idyllic place in the middle of the countryside, to investigate the disappearance of his sister. He gets a job as a waiter and comes across the sexy wealthy daughter of the owner. He falls in love with her and starts a dangerous affair while she becomes the only person who will help him to discover the truth about his sister's disappearance. Find out all the secrets and mysteries hidden in the wonderful Grand Hotel.

My Thoughts/Review: This is the first Spanish Telenovela I tried to watch and I'm very glad I did because I was hooked! This was so good. No, not just good, it was great! There are 3 seasons and I've seen them all. I saw the first two seasons on Netflix, but unfortunately, the 3rd one has not been added yet (Updated 7/13/15: Netflix is taking its sweet time, as usual...'cause they take forever to add the last season. Netflix just added the last 3rd season recently! I re-watched all S3 episodes, as they have English subtitles!). I saw the 3rd season on Youtube, but unfortunately, there's no English subtitles. I speak very little Spanish, so I could barely understand what they were saying in the episodes I saw and I had to skip right through the very last episode. I can't wait until Netflix adds the final season for this telenovela. I really loved and enjoyed watching the first season. It was the best of the 3 seasons. I was hooked from the first season's first episode through its last. It doesn't hurt that the main lead stars and my favorite OTP, Julio and Alicia played by the handsome and irresistible Yon Gonzalez and gorgeous Amaia Salamanca made this telenovela worth binge watching and staying up late for. Not too mention the series was very well-written, great cast (especially Adriana Ozores, who played the mother of Alicia...she was excellent on this one!), fast paced, love the mystery and twist and turns, and just the amazing acting by the ensemble cast. Definitely worth watching!

The Time In Between/(El Tiempo Entre Costuras) (2013)

 Starring Adriana Ugarte, Hannah New, and Rubén Cortada
 

Synopsis: Based on the New York Times Bestseller "The Time In Between" by María Dueñas, a young seamstress's life takes an unexpected turn when she finds herself pregnant, alone, and penniless during the Spanish Civil War. As Spain's alliance with Nazi Germany deepens, she takes on a new identity and becomes an in-demand haute couture stylist for the wives of Nazi officials. But soon she becomes swept up in political intrigue when she begins helping the British Secret Service with coded messages in the seams of her dresses.

My Thoughts/Review: I love, love, love this telenovela!!! And what I love about my discovery of this was that I stumbled on this randomly on Facebook this past summer when I saw Dramafever's ads about this and its premiere. It instantly caught my attention and got me to check out the website just to see this amazing and worth watching mystery drama series. It has 17 great episodes (wish it had more and was longer...great series tends to be short and makes you long to see more, doesn't it?) and I must say I binge watch all 17 fast paced episodes in less than a day. It was that great and I was hooked and addicted! Great cast, great acting especially by the lead star Adriana Ugarte and supporting cast including Hanna New (I even tweeted her about how much I enjoyed watching her in this series and she favorited my tweet!). Stunningly gorgeous cinematography and locations (Spain and Morroco). Just a great series, overall. Definitely worth re-watching and one of my few favorite Spanish telenovelas and one of the best TV dramas I've ever seen to date. I highly recommend you check out and watch this must-see series!

A Maid In Manhattan/(Una Maid En Manhattan) (2011)
starring Litzy Domínguez and Eugenio Siller

Synopsis: Based on the 2002 movie Maid in Manhattan the telenovela adaptation follows Marisa Luján (Litzy Domínguez) who manages a small-town hotel in Mexico until it is taken by the drug cartel. She decides to move to the United States to marry Victor, the father of her child, and that way obtain legal documents. They move from LA to New York where Marisa begins to work at a hotel. Cristóbal Parker (Eugenio Siller), the son of a senator and a wealthy heir, falls madly in love with Marisa and she feels the same way. Sara (Vanessa Villela), who is obsessed with fashion, hates Marisa and she will do anything to prevent these two from staying together.


My Thoughts/Review: I enjoyed watching the first few episodes of this Telenovela, but as soon as she left LA for New York (and a few more episodes were fun and interesting to watch), somehow it lost its way and tend to dragged on. I started to lost interest and skip some episodes. Then, I just couldn't go through with the rest of the remaining episodes (but then, I heard there are a total 100 episodes and only 70+ were available on Dramafever). Unfortunately, I didn't finished watching this one and it's a shame 'cause it started so good and I wanted to continue and finished watching it...but with 100+ episodes (and mostly filler episodes in between), I don't have the will nor the time to finished watching this series. I'll never know what happen (but then, it was probably similar to the movie version with a happy ending...or I could probably just search for the ending on YouTube). Oh, well...I've enjoyed some of the episodes I was able to see on my downtime this past summer...