Duelo de Pasiones awards, part 3 - time to wrap things up

I'm sorry for delaying this, but I will now finish my own personal awards show for my favorite terrible telenovela, "Duelo de Pasiones"!

BEST EVIL COUPLE: Sylvia suggested this category, and I agree that the winners can only be Siena Perezcano and Second-Actor-Who-Played-Hugo as Alfonsina and Hugo.

There were other evil couples on this show -- Orlando and Thelma; Alvaro and his wild-eyed sidekick Sergio; Maximo and his mustache; Vera and her pitchfork* -- but I agree with Sylvia, none of them topped Alfonsina and Hugo for sheer back-stabbing, double-crossing trickery.

I only regret that we didn't get to see First-Actor-Who-Played Hugo in the later episodes. Second Actor was a good actor, but Hugo just wasn't the same without his muscles and ever-present bandana.

BEST ROMANTIC COUPLE: Jorge De Silva and Alejandra Procuna as José and Mariana. We barely saw them together at all, but it was easy to believe they were in love, and I was hoping to see them get back together.

Malena should have received some punishment for keeping them apart (for no apparent reason except snobbery). I'm glad Mariana ended up with nice-guy Ricardo (aka Dr. Love, aka Orville Redenbacher), but I would have preferred to see José and True Love win out in the end.

RUNNER UP FOR BEST ROMANTIC COUPLE: Um... ok, I've got to say it... Rafael Rojas and Aida Pierce as Maximo and Rebeca (better known as Singing Aunt Rebeca). Admittedly, Maximo couldn't stand Rebeca. That's a bit of an obstacle to romance. And he was an evil rapist who deserved his inevitable demise etc. But admit it, didn't you want to see those two end up together?

I just rolled my eyes whenever Alina started sighing, "Ay, Emilio..." to herself or when (in every episode) Emilio stood alone in an empty room, stared into space, and announced woodenly, "Alina. Why can't I forget you?" etc etc. Nor did I care about the outcome of the Rosita/Santos, Ángel/Claudia, Soledad/Elias relationships. But I did want to see Maximo and Rebeca get together. What a perfectly matched, colorful, singing, mustache-twirling couple! Alas, it was not to be.

Which leads me to... BEST REASON TO WATCH THIS SHOW: Rafael Rojas as the evil (yet disturbingly loveable) Maximo Valtierra. There was never a dull moment when that guy was onscreen.

My grandmother, who is old enough to remember silent movies, disliked Maximo because he reminded her of overacting silent screen stars. But that's what I enjoyed so much about his performance: Maximo never let you forget that he was Evil with a capital E. I kept expecting him to grab Rosita and tie her to some railroad tracks. I loved all of it: the flamboyant wardrobe, the mustache twirling, the evil chuckling, the rose-kissing.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that Rafael Rojas is a very good-looking, charismatic man. I'm going to have to track down some DVDs of his older shows. In the meantime, I thank him for giving me a reason to look forward to this silly show night after night.

For my fellow Maximo fans, a link:
Página Oficial de Rafael Rojas

This blog post is running a bit long, so let me wrap it up with a few quick final remarks:

CHARACTER MOST ILL-TREATED BY THE WRITERS: Poor Nurse Susy. Why did the writers spend all that time convincing us of her secret love for Angel, only to suddenly drop Susy from the story? Both Susy and the show's viewers were cheated of a resolution to this storyline.

RUNNER UP FOR MOST ILL-TREATED CHARACTER: Blanca, played by Isaura Espinoza. She actually had a brain, and that didn't fit with the show, so the writers had to kill her off. I was sorry to see her go.

I wish the writers had explained whatever happened to her final letter to Elias. Alvaro made off with it and it was never seen again.

BEST HAIR, MALE: I'm going to give this award to Jorge De Silva because I enjoyed his facial hair. I just enjoyed looking at him, period. Honorable mention to Castulo and Angel for also being easy on the eyes.

BEST HAIR, FEMALE: Alejandra Procuna as Mariana. Her haircut really suited her.

CHARACTER I MOST WANTED TO SLAP: The doctor Aida (aka Dr. Loca). I don't have time to look up the actress's name but my goodness, the character was annoying. Someone should cast the actress as a villain.

DISHONORABLE MENTION goes to the writers, editors, and directors. This show was so disjointed that sometimes it was hard to figure out what on earth was going on. I saw a little bit of "Heridas de Amor" recently on YouTube and was reminded of what a high-quality production it was, despite its faults. Duelo de Pasiones was a lousy production. Only its sense of humor and its actors made it at all watchable.

I am in a hurry so I've got to stop writing, and I didn't even get a chance to mention Tonki/Donkey/whatever that dog was named! Oh well. Adios for now.

*You know, the pitchfork Vera waved while leading the mob to kill "witch" Luba... ok, I don't remember if she actually carried a pitchfork herself, but I'm sure she wanted to .

My Duelo awards part 2 - I feel like being controversial!

OK, I've put this off for too long, so it's time for me to present my awards for best and worst "Duelo de Pasiones" actresses. I think my choices will be controversial, but here it goes:

BEST ACTRESS: Believe it or not, I'm going to give this award to Ludwika Paleta for her performance in the thankless role of Alina Montellano (or, as I liked to call her, Duhlina). This may seem like a strange choice since all Alina ever did was cry, act stupid, and moon over Emilio (in itself a stupid act), but I think it takes a good actress to pull off such a lame character without making me hate her, and Ludwika Paleta did that.

Now, if you watched this show, you're probably wondering why I didn't choose Ana Martin (as Luba) for best actress. Well, if it's any consolation to her, she gets my next award:

RUNNER-UP FOR BEST ACTRESS. Ana Martin was very good in the role of Luba. Despite her histrionics, she managed to make Luba a sympathetic character, even loveable. Her scenes with Gaspar were funny and touching and sometimes even scary.

If the show had ended a few months earlier, Ana Martin would have gotten my Best Actress award. But as the show dragged on and on, Luba's over-the-top screeching began to wear on me. I suspected that the actress knew she was trapped in a terrible show and was trying heroically to save it by giving an Oscar-worthy performance every single night.

But poor Gaspar, how exhausting to live with a mother like Luba. Can you imagine her asking him to pass the salt at the dinner table (assuming they had salt or a dinner table in their cave)? "GASPAR! PASS! THE!! SALT!!!!!!!!" screech screech stomp stomp etc. Except that would have been screeched and stomped in Spanish.

My point is that a little Luba went a long way, and six or nine months of her was, for me, too much. But she did a lot to breathe life into this ridiculous show, and I'm grateful for that.

Now it's time for another controversial choice: my pick for WORST ACTRESS... Erika Buenfil as Soledad.

Granted, like most of the actors on this show, she had a thankless role. Soledad was a well-dressed zombie who spent years sitting around in her prison-room all dolled up (how many bracelets does an imprisoned woman really need??) praying lethargically but doing nothing practical to help herself or her daughter, unless you count falling off the balcony in her half-baked escape attempt.

Soledad only came alive when she was squabbling with Alvaro, and even then she seemed half-hearted. As for her "romance" with Elias -- you could practically see her cringing away from him. Not very romantic.

I'm not blaming the actress for Soledad's behavior, but Soledad and Alina were in the same brain-dead boat, and I simply found Alina more likeable and believable than Soledad. I think a better actress could have done more with this character by at least making me understand Soledad. Instead I felt bored and exasperated by her.

RUNNER-UP FOR WORST ACTRESS: Ximena Herrera as Rosita. When she wasn't looking worried, she looked like she was planning to be worried again very soon. She was such a tepid character that I found it hard to believe Maximo would get so worked up over her. Even the death of her best friend Alina didn't seem to wake Rosita from her self-absorbed, bland-faced, mildly worried trance.

To me, Rosita was a big yawn, and when she and Santos disappeared from the storyline I didn't miss them one bit. The only reason she doesn't get Worst Actress is that Rosita was not as important a character as Soledad.

In my opinion, all the actresses on this show were OK, including the ladies who played Soledad and Rosita. They did the best they could with dismal material. Unfortunately, for me, their best wasn't good enough, because the material was just that bad.

I'll have a few more comments on this show in my next blog post(s). It may be a week or two before I write it up, but I'm not done trashing Duelo yet!