Cards on the table, this is probably the most personal pick on this list. Even though Jane the Virgin won accolades and acclaim and a shedload of awards, it's undoubtedly the show on this list where its placement is most linked to my own experience of watching it. But hey, that's what this list is for: a place where I can go in depth about why these shows are my personal favourites, and boy do I love me some Jane. I started watching this show on a whim, and I thought it was pretty sweet for the first few episodes. It didn't blow me away, but I thought the cast were charming and the plot was fairly engaging. And then there's a moment in the ninth episode that hit me like a ton of bricks, punching me square in the heart and sending tears cascading down my face. From that point on, I was in the show's firm emotional chokehold, hoovering up the two seasons that were out at the time, and it kept me hooked right up until the finale. Which brings us here. Now
Jane the Virgin takes a genre of TV I have basically no experience with (the telenovela) and creates such a loving, warm-hearted love letter to it that it doesn't even matter whether you're an expert or a total novice. This is particularly aided by one of the best uses of a narrator I've ever seen in a show. That's Anthony Mendez, whose silky tones perfectly bridge together a myriad of wild, emotional plots, while making sure that the show's frequent use of meta-humour and conceptual playfulness always lands. Because our protagonist is a writer, Jane the Virgin is a show that quickly gains the ability to move seamlessly through the idea of being a creative and approach its wider themes in some pretty inventive ways, ranging from fun, to poignant to utterly devastating
The show has such a great handle on its depth of feeling, especially when it comes to the core characters. There isn't a weak link in the main cast, and the extravagance and insanity of the telenovela-esque plot makes for a perfect match with the writers' ability to make every decision carry serious emotional heft. It won't be for everyone but I think the splashy, over-the-top stylistic choices pair really nicely with the show's ability to keep deepening and complicating its story narratively and emotionally. There's a real truth behind every decision made in Jane, and even when it lapses into the unlikely, it always manages to turn it around again and make it a crucial part of its charm
The twists come hard and fast in Jane, and the show has a real knack for making these big, soapy revelations really resonate. Obviously that's something it borrows from the telenovela but again there's so much love and reverence for that style of storytelling that it never feels like a cheap spoof or parody. Instead, it's a crucial tool for telling Jane's story in a way that directly feeds into something that's important to her. And that's what this is at the end of the day: Jane's story. Everything in this show is done in a way that's totally subjective to Jane, and it builds a nice rhythm of filtering everything that happens through her twin understandings of both reality and the conventions of TV storytelling. This lends the show a heavy dose of self-awareness, but it only works because Gina Rodriguez plays the role to perfection. Again, it's a show with a big-beating heart and shows so much love for every corner of its universe, and so it never feels anything less than 100% genuine when it veers into meta territory
Because the show justifies that and is totally up front with how genre savvy it is, it gives it so much more freedom to use its tropes and clichés in ways that are both knowing and beautifully emotional. Every character is given an arc that is entirely constructed from clichés, but the show is smart enough to dive a little deeper and explore the feeling behind each of its narrative choices. It also lets Jane make some surprisingly sharp social observations that, although they sometimes feel a little heavy-handed, still work because they're usually deployed at the right time to deepen the show's world and lend it some real stakes. All of these beats are remixed constantly over Jane's five seasons, and the show keeps finding ways to use them to ensure that it never once runs out of steam
Again, this is a show that really struck a chord with me when I watched it, a major factor as to why it places on this list, but it's a show that I couldn't compile a top 25 without including. Any show that's broadly a romantic comedy while also incorporating plots about the international drug trade and the American entertainment industry without missing a beat has to be doing something right, and the fact that it's so welcoming and accessible to audiences that might not be the most familiar with the plot beats it's referencing is just another testament to why it works so well. I love Jane Villanueva and her wild, warm world. I've rewatched this show three times at this point, and I know I'll keep coming back to it in the years to come
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