Jane the Virgin - Chapter One - Review - "Fall Tv's Best Surprise!"

Jane the Virgin is perhaps the biggest surprise of this television season. I will freely admit that I watched the pilot – we got screeners back in the summer – only to see what a train wreck this show was going to be. Since then, I’ve been dying with anticipation to see the rest of the world fall in love with this show! It’s amazingly clever, funny, and endearing, and if you haven’t fallen in love with Gina Rodriguez (Jane) by the end of “Chapter One,” you have no heart.

The teleplay for “Chapter One” was written by series developer and Executive Producer Jennie Snyder Urman. The series is actually based upon the telenovela Juana la Virgen created by Perla Farias. The first episode was directed by Brad Silberling who is also an Executive Producer on the show. Snyder also wrote and produced for Emily Owens M.D., 90210, Lipstick Jungle, Men in Trees, and Gilmore Girls. Silberling was most recently an Exec Producer on Reign and directed its Pilot. He also directed episodes of Judging Amy, Felicity, and NYPD Blue, as well as Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.

The show is based on a telenovela, so it’s not surprising that it plays out like one. Now, I have to confess that I’ve never actually seen a telenovela, though I’ve seen snippets, and I’m more familiar with the basic soap opera. So, I’ll be doing some homework, but I’ll be relying on my readers here to chime in with standard telenovela tropes that I may be missing in the comments below. The show also incorporates elements of magic realism – which is commonly found in Latin American literature.

One of the things that I really liked about this first episode was the different ways it delivered information. So we have the magic realism of Jane’s father, Rogelio de la Vega (who happens to be a famous telenovela star) (Jaime Camil) who appears to talk to her and also winks at her from the bus advertisement. We have subtitles when the characters switch to Spanish. And we also get Jane and Michael’s texts scrolling across the screen. We also get helpful information glossed on screen for us – such as Petra (Yael Grobglas) being a “man-eater.”

We also have a narrator (Anthony Mendez) to guide us through the action – glossing the characters’ feelings and motivations and letting us know when we need to pay attention to something. The main characters – Jane, Xo, Jane’s mother (Andrea Navedo), and Alba, Jane’s grandmother (Ivonne Coll) – all watch the telenovela The Passions of Santos, which, of course, stars Jane’s father – though Xo is the only one who knows this.

I loved the dynamic between these three women. We know that Jane has Michael (Brett Dier) in her life, and they’re engaged by the end of the episode, and we know that Xo never spoke to Rogelio after he told her to get rid of the baby, but what of the grandfather? Navedo does a wonderful job of creating the sexpot stereotype of her character. It’s fun to watch the great chemistry between Navedo and Rodriguez. Jane seems more like the serious parent with Xo even coming in to sleep in her bed with her. Yet, by the end of the episode, we see that Xo has hidden the fact that she fought to keep Jane in order to protect the grandmother for Jane’s whole life.

The entire story plays out with a series of highly improbable coincidences. What makes the whole story delightful always comes back to Rodriguez’s performance. She is shocked, appalled, incredulous, dismayed, and determined – and as viewers, we feel all these things right along with her. She’s hard working and kind hearted. She’s working her way through teacher’s college as a waitress, juggling her boyfriend and her family, so it seems plausible that she’d be exhausted and asleep when the distraught doctor comes in and artificially inseminates her instead of giving her a pap smear.

How we get to this point is already complicated! So a brief re-cap if you did miss the first Chapter. Jane works in a bar in a hotel recently bought by Rafael (Justin Baldoni). She met him before when she worked at the Golden Harbor Yacht Club and they shared a lovely afternoon during which she told him her life story and dreams for the future and it ended with a magical kiss. When he sees her again, he thinks he remembers her from a strip club and she calls him a jerk. Rafael has just recovered from cancer during which the chemotherapy sterilized him. He is in an unhappy marriage with Petra who only wants the marriage to last for five years so she can collect $10 million as per their prenuptual agreement. She is currently having an affair with Rafael’s friend and the hotel manager, Zazo (Alano Miller). Petra arranges to be artificially inseminated with the last sample of Rafael’s sperm to prevent him from divorcing her.

Rafael’s sister, Luisa (Yara Martinez), is the doctor who makes the mix up because she comes into work distraught over finding her wife in bed with another woman the night before. Jane’s boyfriend Michael is a cop, and he proposes before he knows about the baby, but then decides he can’t start their life together raising someone else’s child. Petra and Rafael tell Jane they will take the baby, so Jane proposes to Michael, telling him she will give the baby up, and he agrees to marry her. We learn from Michael’s brother Billy (Ryan Devlin) that Michael has some dark secret. We also learn that Michael and his fellow police officers have Zazo under surveillance for some reason. And that’s the part of the story you may have missed!

Some of the highlights in this first episode have to be the scene at the hospital when Jane finds out she’s pregnant and both she and Xo burst out laughing – and then Xo decides it has to be immaculate conception! The best part of this scene, however, might have been just how certain Xo is that her daughter is a virgin, demonstrating how close the two are. I have to admit that I also loved Jane waddling around in the mermaid outfit. Rodriguez is the full package – she does the physical comedy perfectly. I also loved her taking the drink of champagne and then spitting it right back out again. But she also does the drama with equal effect. Her proposal to Michael is heartfelt and touching.

I particularly liked how complex and real Jane’s sudden dilemma is and how she thinks through the ramifications of having this baby. This show is really cleverly written and well acted, giving it a depth that is unexpected. What did you think of the episode? Were you hooked the way I was? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

About the Author - Lisa Macklem

I do interviews and write articles for the site in addition to reviewing a number of shows, including Supernatural, Arrow, Agents of Shield, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Forever, Defiance, Bitten, Glee, and a few others! Highlights of this past year include covering San Diego Comic Con as press and a set visit to Bitten. When I'm not writing about television shows, I'm often writing about entertainment and media law in my capacity as a legal scholar. I also work in theatre when the opportunity arises. I'm an avid runner and rider, currently training in dressage.