Hasta Que El Dinero Nos Separe... done

Idealizing anything can cause unnecessary problems. And yet, I can't stop this compulsion, although I know all too well that nothing is totally perfect.

In the last few months, my love affair with telenovelas was wearing thin, mainly because the 'Gran Final' for some of my telenovelas have been hit and miss. For example, En Nombre Del Amor was a disappointment, despite enjoying the stories leading up to the conclusion. And with Mi Pecado, while I wasn't nearly as invested in this telenovela, the gran final was fantastic, especially seeing Carmelo disheveled and deranged in prison. So had some trepidation when it came to the Gran Final for Hasta Que El Dinero Nos Separe. After all, in the weeks leading up to the conclusion, the story seemed to drag a bit, and frankly, there were one too many Alejandra crying over Rafael scenes. Again, my criticisms of that may be unfounded, since I don't understand Spanish and may have missed a crucial plot point. At any rate, I marvel at how wrong I was about how Hasta Que El Dinero Nos Separe would conclude. In fact, I'd venture to say that it was the best finale of soap opera/telenovela that I have ever seen.

In previous posts, I've lamented (read: bitched!) about how American soaps end, or rather, the fact that they get canceled. And it's understandable that most of these soaps that have been on the air have a difficult time encapsulating their long histories in the remaining months, but the haste in winding down storylines that likely didn't work usually took a lot of time away from giving fans a satisfactory goodbye. For example, Santa Barbara's finale centered around Warren and B.J.'s wedding, which was a shame, since their history wasn't as entrenched as other characters. Or Guiding Light, which did resolve some long overdue relationships like Alexandra and Fletcher; however, a lot of time was spent on Josh and Reva, who in my mind, pissed away a lot of time and fans' patience during the last years. The same goes with As the World Turns. While it was nice to see the Hughes' presence in the last episode, they were glaringly absent in the shows leading up to the finale, since the writers decided to focus on Jack and Carly (yet again).

So yeah, I expected that Hasta Que El Dinero Nos Separe would center on Rafael and Alejandra, but imagine my surprise at how the gran final was a celebration of the whole collective. Yes, it was off-putting that several brides shared their wedding with Alejandra, but you know what - I kinda liked it. I liked that the reception was a vehicle for breaking the fourth wall, i.e. showing clips of significant and funny moments involving many of the personnel from the dealership on the large projection screen on the reception hall stage. And it was good to see the staff of the beauty shop, the two cops who had a knack at stopping the main characters for silly infractions, and Vicky's father at the reception as well. And Sadina. And the staff meeting at the old dealership with a staff that bear a strange resemblance to Marino, Ramirez, Claudia, Dandy, Rosella, Jimenez, etc. And the use of top notch actors familiar to regular telenovela viewers implied a reverence for this telenovela that exceeded mine.

Sure, it bothered me that Claudia didn't seem to pay for sleeping with Marco, but then again, there were times when I fell asleep before the end, so it's possible that Alejandra and Claudia had words. But I guess the word of the night was affection - affection for the show, the cast, and the audience. An affection that has been lacking in American soaps in favor of pacifying the soaps' sponsors who callously ordered the plug to be pulled. Finally, some respect was given to all of the people who invested their time in a genre that sometimes don't get their due.

It has been a long time that I said, out loud, how much I enjoyed a television show and how much I was going to miss it. And hopefully, I am not the only one who feels this way about Hasta Que El Dinero Nos Separe, because if enough people love it, maybe Univision will return it to its lineup like they did with La Fea mas Bella.

Here's a snippet of the premiere episode, which I stupidly missed.