can i really be the only person watching LA REINA DEL SUR?

don't hold your breath (for 60 episodes or more)

the goth stepsister of the kidnapped daughter, the raging bereaved gangster-gran who trains bulls for bullfighting

don't hold your breath (for 60 episodes or more)

the two norteamericano drugs cops back in washington, complaining about "bitches" (with the capitol as a handy backdrop)

teresa flying off to moscow: is she going to find POTE :D ?

(can you even fly to moscow from morroco? teresa mendoza can)

i like the moments when sofia and lupo like each other a bit for a moment, i guess it's classic stockholm syndrome but such strong characters butting heads whatcha gnna do?

ok you can fly from morocco to moscow, and she did

even on brief acquaintance i can see norteamericano drugs cops are going to be an entire sub genre to themselves in this.

correct

ok i lolled at this absurd and marvellous moscow location but i'm not going to spoiler it sorry

pancho villa klaxon

(mention not appearance)

no wait it is a kind of appearance omg (still no spoilers)

I found what I assume is half the first epi of S2 on YouTube. Picked up as bril as it left off. I can not wait til u.s. netflix hooks us up. Seriously best show ever

fabergé eggs klaxon (when in moscow i guess)

oleg is a different actor now, blander imo :(

(also i realised i was getting pote and oleg muddled upthread, bcz potemkine is a russian name)

e8 was a bit of an emo trudge but e9 has picked up some speed

weirdly this is reminding a bit of buffy s7: super-tough 2nd-gen young women en masse (ok there's three of them, teresa's daughter, the goth and her sister)

oh, i was wondering waht up, but didn't wanna spoiler any more than i already. . .that's too bad abt Oleg, my second fave Russian on the show (after Dima). i recall S1 had a episode or two that were lackluster, then it would get back to the goods. too bad the intro. has changed, imo. watching the band play was one of me and niece's fave parts - the facial expression of the bassist literally made us lol every time.

sara vidorreta as rocio aljarafe: best goth in a telenovella?

https://i.imgur.com/1xWUt9w.png

the non-goth is her sister paloma (agata clares)

also lol at the jules verne-ish turn teresa's and oleg's adventures just took :D :D :D

and the swell of some russian-sounding choral music when they hurtle from one absurd scrape to another

"i don't remember you, you're nobody"
"we're the dogs who will feast on your bones"

educational as well as exciting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_crucifixion_legend

the production values and qualoty of film stock have skyrocketed, and it's now set in "the entire world": yet if anything the ambition is even pulpier :)

viz: so far this ep had a v violent middle east scene war scene and a selling drugs in a rave scene and we're less than ten minutes in

i like sofia's watchful patience (so do the scriptwriters and directors, mind you)

https://i.imgur.com/uPw99oT.jpg

Well, I can't spell jefe.

ROMA HOUSE INVASION

juanita does terrific "hold me back! why i oughta… !" (opinion: she oughta)

the war between prisoner sofia and gaoler morgana is hilarious

i've been a bit ambivalent abt the WAY higher production values but now and then (roughly once every other ep) when they frame one of the nuttier scenes it's kind of magnificent

this roma funeral by torchlight with all the grieving is a case in point, it's like something out of peter greenaway ffs

multiple tables turned and yet things don't get better!

(s2e16, for those keeping count or looking forward)

i just watched S1E1 again with a friend to get them on board. i think they were slightly bamboozled. i enjoyed as much if not more the second time around.

on ep10 otherwise. have had a pause due to work and life stuff but aiming to sort my priorities out.

i really like S1 production values. watching the earlier day of the dead parade when she’s on the run some of the shots are just stunning in a v mundane way.

yes i haven't been able to coax my main TV-watching buddies into co-bingeing :{

mundane way is bad words for what i meant which is that the quite cheap and lurid tv values give it a immediacy and realism.

i *should* know what it’s shot in to give it that effect, but i don’t.

ok i just checked “lensed entirely in digital format” it says here.

s2 has a lush HD feel to it, so that the posh locations feel insanely stately and the poorer ones feel art-photographer grungy -- but lunatic nonsense hurtes through both, with not much more than a doorway bead curtain between them, so the immeciacy has become an urgency and the realism is semi-magic

(if it slows down a bit too much sometimes it always picks up speed again, with added wtf acute-angle turns)

yikes this took a dark turn (e20) :0 :0 :0

oh this telenovela is so good at layering the badness of the ppl involved, and getting you to like and even love the "less bad" ones

things really not going epifanio's way

I LOVE THIS SHOW SO MUCH

oh that's good to hear
xpost
hopefully that goes for Ratta, too.

i think Dris Larbi is my favorite character name of all-time

wait who is ratta? dris was great

Ratta is Epifanio's lunatic son

gotcha!

ramiro is very much not my favourite character but i do like actor salvador zerboni's commitment to seeming to be on ALL the drugs ALL the time

― mark s, Sunday, December 10, 2017 10:20 PM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

ALL THE DRUGS

https://www.telemundo.com/sites/nbcutelemundo/files/styles/promotional_content_4_3/public/sites/nbcutelemundo/files/images/gallery/2014/02/19/reina_rataseductora01_130514439041_2_0.jpg

― mark s, Sunday, December 10, 2017 11:03 PM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

because greasing your millstones is what

gotcha!

_ramiro is very much not my favourite character but i do like actor salvador zerboni's commitment to seeming to be on ALL the drugs ALL the time

― mark s, Sunday, December 10, 2017 10:20 PM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

ALL THE DRUGS

🖼

― mark s, Sunday, December 10, 2017 11:03 PM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink_

oh teresa why are you always horny for the worst (also prettiest) people

spoiler*: teresa sexing a hottie who already sent the entire series extremely betraying her

*i mean obviously not a spoiler if you ever watch this show lol

the sexing is on an aztec pyramid, is where it is

i mean on a blanket but

feeling like everyone's a bit softer in this series?

(not sure this makes total sense, a minor character was burnt at a stake in the previous ep lol -- but the pellmell trashiness is toned down and some of the longtime villains have their nice sides fleshed out a bit) (which is OK!) (also the worst new villains are beasts!)

(but there's no one to match ratta)

flavio medina is a great singer (if it's him singing, i know they can do stuff with overdubs and such these days)

also he won the 2015 TVyNovelas Award for Best Antagonist Actor