Coração Marcado

Easy to watch South American Soap Opera with with a beautiful cast of mostly Colombian Actors. Beautiful cinematography and locations look good in contrast to other series such as Narcos.

Interesting organ trafficking romance told in a glitzy Soap Opera style.

There was a very good story line from episode one with so much potential. But was like a bad car wreck...you can't NOT look. We just had to know how it ended. I don't know if it was just the dubbing or what. Kinda like a Lifetime movie or bad soap opera. My only spoiler is that there's going to be a Season 2.

As Episode 1 of "The Marked Heart" (2022 release from Colombia; 14 episodes of about 40-45 min each) opens, we are introduced to a married couple who are in the car, enjoying Colombian singer Carlos Vives. Then the car suffers a flat tire and wipes out against a tree. Somehow "bad" guys show up and instead of helping the couple, they kidnap the woman... At this point we are 10 min into Episode 1.

Couple of comments: let me admit that I literally knew nothing about this series. Netflix "suggested" it to me based on my viewing preferences. The fact that this was a non-US series piqued my interest, so I happily gave this series a try. The series is super plot-heavy so I can't and won't say much about that. What I will say is this: it is intended to be a rough-and-tough crime drama set in Colombia's dark underbelly of organ trafficking. Alas, it became very quickly apparent that instead this is a soap opera with plot holes the size of Manhattan and correlating plot developments that were completely over the top and frankly utterly unbelievable.

"The Marked Heart" premiered on Netflix a few weeks ago in late April. I'll be honest: I gave it 4 episodes, and when I asked myself if I really had the appetite for 10 more episodes of this, I instantly knew the answer and I quit. Of course don't take my word for it, so I encourage you to check it out, and draw your own conclusion. Just don't say you weren't warned.

I chose to watch this show because I do think the concept is interesting, will our heart really live on if it were in another persons body?will it feel the same love? Is the love in your heart something that remains? So there I go binge watching the show as I really couldnt stop.

It was interesting and it is also very dramatic which makes me decide that it is a telenovela( thankfully only 14 eps) .The show also brings light to organ trafficking which is a really heavy and dark subject. Though I have to say I did become a bit bored of the crime scenes.

Ultimately the show was quite heavy to watch. Try putting yourself in Camillas shoes, thats a lot of stuff to deal with isnt it? Realising that the heart that was given to you was a result of a murder of an innocent woman. I feel that the heavy subject interwoven with the drama feels a bit messy towards the end.

Though i have to say theyre all good actors and i like the chemistry between the main leads particularly Simon and Camila.

Give it a watch if you are looking for a short soapy show (theres not a lot of it is there?)

Fast paced with enticing cliffhangers at the end of every episode. Thrilling but with the softening cooling of soap opera dialogues. I cannot condone gruesome mistakes in the script complemented with contrived coincidences. Old cliches typical of Latin America productions. Good looking actors and actresses portraying main characters as a resource to keep you engaged with the screen all the way to the end. Secondary actors, "the ruthless bad guys" have lousy grotesque performances, they seem to be acting in a school play stage . Could be watched to have some fun. Some moral questioning arising from the plot spray bright spots in this one more run of the mill series. Some twists in final episode offered . Fine. Colombia producers have exhibited in streaming, better products.