'La Doña' - A Review

A lot of people think of telenovelas as Latin American soap operas. Where soap operas and telenovelas have a commonality is they are both long-form storytelling. They both tend to have exaggerated and extraordinary storylines and both tend to have an ensemble cast. The biggest difference between a soap opera and a telenovela is that telenovelas have an ending. Which is why I like them.

La Doña is a 120-episode Mexican telenovela streaming on Netflix. It tells the story of a rich, ruthless businesswoman, Altagracia Sandoval (Aracely Arámbula), who clashes with a local tenement manager, Jaime Aguirre (Rafael Sánchez Navarro), who is fighting to defend the rights of his neighbours and fellow tenants in Mexico City.

Altagracia wants the land as a carpark for her new shopping mall, much to the disgust of Jaime. Due to her wealth and the influence that it affords her in a corrupt society, Altagracia owns all the land around the tenement and also holds documents that deem the building unsafe.

Unhappy with the length of time it is taking for her to get rid of the tenants from the tenement, she employs her team, judge Valeria Puertas (Daniela Bascopé), PR guru Rafael Cabral (Juan Rios), and popular television anchor and Cabral’s wife, Leticia (Maria del Carmen Félix), to destroy Jaime’s reputation and paint him as a chancer and a criminal.

Valeria’s husband, Braulio Padilla (José Maria Galeano) also works for Altagracia as her lawyer. He is in love with her.

Elsewhere, in Veracruz, Saúl Aguirre (David Chocarro), Jaime’s son, is defending Margarita Vasquez (Giselle Kuri) who has accused of threatening a police officer with a gun after trying to report a rich businessman for raping her. Saúl is a passionate defender of wronged women, as his sister was raped and killed some years before. He manages to get Margarita off of the charges.

Altagracia's disdain for men is barely hidden, and her niece, Isabela (Michelle Olvera), who, along with her mother, Regina (Andrea Marti), live with Altagracia, cannot understand why. Only Regina knows why Altagracia feels the way she does towards men.

When they were young teenage girls, they were set upon by five, masked, young men, who call themselves the monkeys, because they all had a monkey tattooed on their chest. Altagracia watched her then-boyfriend get killed and then allowed her sister to escape as the five men took turns raping her. Regina feels guilty and indebted because of that night.

Unbeknown to anyone else, Altagracia, now rich and powerful, is using her influence to find and exact revenge on the men, the monkeys.

Her experience, having hardened her, made her channel her energy into becoming as powerful as possible in Mexico, even marrying Felipe Valenzuela (Carlos Torres) a rising politician, because she believes he could be president. She does not love him.

Felipe feels that Altagracia is becoming distant, her ambition harming their marriage. Altagracia can barely contain her disdain for him.

Back at the tenement, Altagracia’s plan has been put into motion and Jaime is arrested whilst a film crew captures the whole event. Jaime’s wife, Azucena (Gabriela Roel), calls Saúl to tell him. Saúl, with girlfriend Ximena Urdaneta (Vanesa Restrepo) in tow, goes to Mexico City.

Altagracia throws a party for Felipe on his birthday. At the party, she makes it clear to both Valeria and Braulio, that she wants their son, Diego (Leo Deluglio) to get together with her niece. Braulio, wanting to please her, bullies his son into approaching her.

In Tula, Mónica Hernández (Danna Paola) sings to look after her sick, wheelchair-bound, father, Lázaro (Odiseo Bichir). Mónica is determined to take him to Mexico City to see a specialist she hopes might be able to help him walk again.

Lázaro does not want to go to Mexico City, as that is where Mónica’s mother is. Mónica’s mother is, of course, Altagracia. Mónica knows her mother is in Mexico City but does not know who she is. she only knows she hurt her father.

Saúl sneaks into Felipe’s birthday party to confront Altagracia. She is instantly taken by his fearless nature, though she does not reveal it at the time.

This all happens in the first episode, so, obviously, I am not going to summarise all 120 episodes. La Doña is a classic telenovela. It has all the elements that are routinely mocked in shows like Jane The Virgin or copied in the likes of Devious Maids.

It has a dramatic premise, multiple strands of unrequited love, cliffhanger episode endings and secrets galore. It is utterly brilliant.

La Doña has quite high production values as well, with beautiful rich looking locations, costumes, and products. You will believe Altagracia is seriously rich. The acting is, as with most telenovelas, good but necessarily over the top. Every emotion is amplified, camera closeups on every expression.

Aracely Arámbula is magnificent as the wronged and driven Altagracia Sandoval. Every scene she is in, whether battling or loving or—the backbone of many a telenovela—alone speaking her thoughts out loud, she is captivating.

David Chocurro’s Saúl is also completely believable as the morally, righteous and brave lawyer. He, of course, falls for Altagracia—it is a telenovela after all—much to the distress of Vanesa Restrepo’s ever lip-trembling, Ximena.

Watching La Doña is, for me at least, akin to an addiction. Every episode ends in a way that compels you to watch the next one. Even though it is farfetched and—because I am not a Spanish speaker—I have to read it, it is still compulsive viewing.

If you do not mind subtitles or are lucky enough to be a Spanish speaker, La Doña should definitely go on your list of must-watch, bingeable television. Watch it.