This is a critique of The CW's, Jane the Virgin, if you've not seen the show before, please be aware that this article is spoiler-heavy, so you may want to click away now! I really do love this show, I am a huge fan and this piece comes from the love that I have for the show, which I will continue to watch until it's series finale because I'm truly invested in it.
I do, however, have one problem with the show and that is the mega dose of reality that gets pushed into the show in every season finale. In the Season 1 finale, Jane (Gina Rodriguez) had her baby stolen. Yep, Jane had Mateo taken from her. Even though the story was quickly resolved in the first episode of the second season, it was still a bit shocking. With it's pastel color scheme and it's soapy problems, Jane the Virgin is an incredibly light show. Often silly, Jane still covers a number of serious issues from immigration to birth control to marriage to relationships but it does so in an incredibly soft way. Every episode is wrapped up with a nice lesson and we know the conversations are meaningful when we hear the picking of a guitar in the background. But in the finales, BOOM here comes the reality.
You remember that case that Michael (Brett Dier has been working on throughout the entirety of the show? Well he had uncovered that Susanna (Megan Ketch) isn't who she says she is and boom he got shot for it. On a more tangential note, are we seriously expected to believe that Rose (Bridget Regan) has been wearing a face mask this entire time? Really? Why not use the plot point of plastic surgery instead. Michael could have received a list of potential faces for various criminals and boom, Susanna is one of those faces. I get it. It's a soap, it's dramatic and unrealistic but if that reveal had been done in such a manner we would have had all of it come together in a nice little bow.
However, I digress. Right before Jane and Michael have sex, which just never seems to happen, he gets shot, point blank range, in the heart. How are they going to spin this? Maybe a bullet proof vest? Maybe Jane rushes out and calls 911? I don't know but it's a bit much and here why. We the viewers, who are avid fans of this show, know he isn't dead. He's coming back because he has to. And I guarantee in the first episode of season 3, we will be reassured that he is alive. So then why do this? It's incredibly dramatic, which I get, it's a soap opera, but why end the finales with such high stakes and harsh vibes. It doesn't have the desired effect because I knew Jane was getting Mateo back like I know Michael is fine, so then why even attempt this?
Maybe it's just so I can write something about it? What did you think about the finale? Let me know, below!
Written by cwm on May 25, 2016
Now I know what I shouldn't watch. Thanks.
I don't know that you are right. Michael has been SO GOOD this last season, TOO PERFECT in fact. I predict that Michael will either die OR in true soap opera style, be whisked away and presumed dead so Jane can get back with Raphael who will now be unavailable because Petra will become so adoring to Raphael that he will develop feelings for her. Then when Jane realises Raphael is out of reach, and moves on, Raphael will realise who Petra really is.