La rueda del amor: Fin de semana para recordar (2021)

Not bad!

I was so disappointed with the way My Extraordinary ended, especially because I had high hopes for it to be a really exceptional drama, and not just another "kill the gays" story based on homophobia. But, because I liked the cast of ME so much, I was happy to give this series a watch. Here are my pros and cons:

PROS

TRANS CHARACTER IN A DECENT MAIN ROLE. So happy that Jenevive, while a mostly comedic character, was given a main story line and, at the same time, a degree of substance and not just another joke character portrayal.

GOOD BALANCE BETWEEN COUPLES. So we had two LGBTQ+ couples and two straight couples. Fine by me. None of them were given short shrift, so good on the writers and directors.

ACTING. Some really good performances! Enzo was great (as usual), so were Nico, John, and Keijee.

THEME SONG. Absolutely LOVED the opening OST. Catchy tune, I was always dancing and singing along.

END SCENE. Loved the ending scene with Romeo and Jenevive. So cute! "Normal" and "happily ever after" relationships featuring a trans character are so rare... a trans character's story is usually "never gonna happen." This is progress.

CONS

INCONSISTENCY WITH STORY. There were issues. 1) Why was Markie such a dick to Clark? Sure, Clark was hitting on Markie, but he didn't do anything wrong. Markie was going along with it -- twice -- but then just insensitively dumped Clark the moment Daniel was in the picture. We were just supposed to ignore that, I guess. 2) The end focused on Miguel's homophobia against Markie and Daniel, but (other than a brief scene in an earlier episode), Miguel's hatred for Romeo and Jenevive as a couple was not addressed. Why just Markie and Daniel? What's Romeo's story? Always gay? We don't know. 3) The forgiveness of Miguel was just too fast. He was such a homophobic asshole through the whole series, then he sheds a few tears and all is forgiven? And mom is "proud" of him, within just a few minutes? No... just no.

JANICE. I'm probably in the minority, but I couldn't stand Janice, with all her "I'm more than just a beautiful face" and "I'm not just some trophy girl" comments. Gurl... you're not exactly Miss Universe, get over yourself. Total turn off. Both Mateo and Moises can do better.

MIGUEL'S STORY. I would have been happier if a little less time was devoted to the Miguel/Jane relationship and more to Miguel's homophobia. As it was, Miguel just came across as an ass who needed a lot of therapy sessions. A couple of sentences about his military dad's influence just didn't cut it.

Still, I enjoyed this. It was nice to see some of these actors again. I'm giving it 8.0 out of 10.

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centered on a family

Overall: I enjoyed how it centered on family members, but wish they had had fewer couples to more fully flesh out the remaining ones. 8 episodes 15-40 minutes each. Episodes 1-3 focused on Romeo and his romantic interest. Episodes 4 and 5 focused on two of the brothers. Halfway thru episode 6 introduced the fourth brother's love interest (BL). Aired on Asterisk YouTube channel https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYXMbfSmZgHRM2ZKLFtgZzrHPONemdIPj&si=5KRiSYN1SwMfkZGM Later condensed into a 2 hour movie version which doesn't have English subtitles https://youtu.be/zyN6T74edu8?si=2QeAwWrvbZFKdO-V Asterisk also produced: My Extraordinary, Meet My Angel, Diving Into Love

Content Warnings: punches, homophobia

What I Liked
- the mom
- that he stood up for Jenevieve at the beginning of episode 3
- family dynamics felt realistic, that they loved each other and also at times had conflicts
- different types of dynamics with the couples
- good in episode 4 he said he was her friend and she had the right to make that decision
- character growth

Room For Improvement
- too many couples in not enough screen time
- never a fan of that kind of a "plan" where the mom was sad
- 2 and a half minute intro for a 12 minute episode was too long

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