As Viúvas das Quintas-Feiras

I kept watching till the end, because I simply had to know what the hell happened to these three guys who floated dead in the pool, as we came to see in the very first scene of this Mexican mini-series. Well, the answer fortunately came, towards the end of the last episode, but I cannot say that I was very satisfied with it, or with the whole series, to be honest.

The setting in a posh community for the super rich is promising, and the format of six episodes in which we alternately follow six of the main families that live there, is a nice find, as is the gradually exposing of all their hidden dark secrets. But this sounds way better on paper than it actually turned out to be. The secrets (mostly due to the husbands) aren't very spectacular (one looses his job, another his money, a third mistreats his wife, that sort of things), and surprisingly enough these various problems hardly ever got intertwined with those of the others, but stayed in fact 6 isolated stories.

While most of the wives were very flamboyant and powerful, most of the guys were whining whimps and extremely annoying. Their ultimate pact, that led to the afore-mentioned opening scene, came totally out-of the blue and seemed in no way in sync with their supposed intelligence; surely they could have, with combined forces, have come up with a less dramatic and definitive solution to end their family problems.

The actors playing the wives were pretty good, if you can live with all the Latin temperament that most of them lavishly presented; the male actors however were rather underwhelming. There were also some teens, who did a reasonable good job, but their story-lines unfortunately led to nothing.

Very dark and depressing. No likeable characters. Watched it because I could not find anything else at the moment. Very boring. A lady and the guard at the gate. Not believable. The paranoid jealousy of the husband, Not believable, although I once had a husband just like him, who did not beat me but instead humiliated me at every turn and tried to separate me from others. The plot itself, not believable.

I don't know, because I dont know the book.

I also dont understand the bad reviews, as the show is very entertaining.

Yes, it is slow paced but it helps to focus in all the different characters, which the actors portray magnificently.

I was particularly surprised by Omar Chaparro, who I only knew as comedian. Really good performance.

The rest of the cast was perfect and the actors fit perfectly togheter.

The setting and art was also very well cared.

It indeed has mexicanisms, but also, is playing in Mexico form an adapted Argentinian work.

I recomend it a lot, is not a thriller, is a drama showing the ugly face of all latinAmerica's pretty rich.

This is an example of the new type of Telenovela from Mexico that deals with the socio-economic divide that plagues the country. There are the usual rich vs poor, indigenous vs "eurochilango" and social class dynamics. The story has a "Peyton Place" type theme, with the usual dark secrets that are buried beneath the facade of apparent wealth and respectability. Some of the subplots never develop into anything and one wonders why they have been since they contribute very little to the overall story. There is little progression or character development, and viewers are left hanging since it never completes the story arc. Entertaining if one knows the culture and the slang, but nothing special at all. There are much better examples of the "new Telenovela". The House of Flowers comes to mind!

It could've been so much better. I hated the end? It lacked of strength.

But the show was very entertaining, the actors where so good, the dialogue was so real, the locations was super cool but I wish they've shown more of the contrast of life in Mexico.

That's said, other bad thing was some of the Wardrobe, not realistic in how that 1% dresses Elon Mexico.

Omar Chaparro was a very pleasant surprise, he is usually doing annoying characters on tv, this one was strong and dramatic and serious acting suits him.

But oh lord the en was so meh.... Now I am off to read the book and that may change my review.