by Stephanie Palazzolo, senior editor
“But I can’t be pregnant! I’m a virgin!”
So begins the strangely addicting, surprisingly touching and all-around entertaining “Jane the Virgin,” a telenovela-like show that follows the journey of 23-year-old Jane Gloriana Villanueva (played by Gina Rodriguez), who is, well, a pregnant virgin.
The show begins with Jane’s seemingly perfect life — her boyfriend is going to propose, she’s about to finish school and become a teacher and she’s avoided her mother’s mistake of becoming pregnant at 16. But everything changes at a routine gynecologist checkup, where a doctor mixes up two rooms and accidentally inseminates Jane, who is a virgin, with another man’s only sperm. Things get a little crazier when Jane learns that the father is a man she she kissed five years ago, and, unbeknownst to her, his wife planned on having to baby to force him to stay in the marriage for a few years longer so she could get more money after the divorce.
The premise of the show is a dubious, to say the least, but the show manages to pull it off, mostly due to the talented actors, showcased by Gina Rodriguez’s recent Golden Globe win for Best Actress in a Comedy Series. In fact, Rodriguez carries the show in many ways. Even though many parts of it, if considered, would be totally improbable and unbelievable otherwise, Rodriguez’s humor and wit balances out any implausibility the show has. In addition, “Jane the Virgin” reaches out to a far wider audience than typical “romance” shows do, especially with a protagonist who challenges the typical “blonde hair, blue eyes” notion of American beauty. And although some of the characters might seem like stereotypes at first — the strict, Catholic grandmother and the young, single mother who chases after too many guys — the writers do a great job of adding deeper layers under each character that really distinguish them from their cliches.
“Jane the Virgin” is definitely fast-paced, each 40-minute episode showing glimmers of its Latin telenovela roots with plot twist after plot twist. However, it’s not so quick as to be confusing, and every episode has a helpful flashback at the beginning that goes over what’s happened so far.
With its diverse cast of characters, “Jane the Virgin” is a must-watch.
Watch “Jane the Virgin” on the CW’s website or on Mondays on the CW.
