BWW Recap: Was JANE THE VIRGIN's Premiere a Comedic Miracle?

Last night, CW's highly anticipated new dramatic comedy JANE THE VIRGIN finally made its way to television screens. The telenovela-inspired show tells the story of twenty-three year old Jane as she is thrown through the biggest hoop of her life. And believe me, this show has the makings of a telenovela.

Most of this pilot episode was what audiences already saw in previews. Jane is really close to her religiously virtuous grandmother and her teenager-trapped-in-an-adult's-body mother, Xiomara. Jane has always played by the rules, and done what she felt was right, and just when everything in her life seemed perfectly balanced, everything was flipped upside down.

Jane's doctor, Luisa Alver, had a rough night before her shift at the hospital. She helped persuade her brother, Rafael, to divorce his wife who had stood by him through chemotherapy, then went home to find her wife in be with another woman. Needless to say, her head was not in the right place the next day. Because of her mess of a personal life, instead of giving Jane a pap smear, she accidentally inseminates her; honest mistake. She realized the mistake when she moved on to her next patient, her sister-in-law, who was expecting to be inseminated by Rafael's sperm... the sperm that was just put into Jane. See what I mean when I said it has the makings of a telenovela? And that's not even half of it.

Jane and her mother find out she is pregnant two weeks after the incident when Jane is taken to the hospital after fainting on the bus. She goes back to Dr. Alver who confesses her mistake and apologizes (not that an "I'm sorry" is going to fix this whole fiasco). Jane then visits Michael, her boyfriend of two years, where she blurts out that she's pregnant with another man's child, as he is proposing. Unfortunately, because he was so sure the proposal would go smoothly, he invited their entire families, minus his (mysteriously sketchy) brother, who crashed the party anyway. The couple decided to act like everything was fine and that the proposal went off without a hitch for their company's sake.

As if things couldn't get more complicated for her, Jane meets with Rafael (who runs the hotel she works at) and he tells her that he is the father of the child. He doesn't, however, tell her that she is carrying the only sample he has or that he has cancer; his sister tells her later on in the episode, without his approval. This makes things even more difficult for Jane, because she and Rafael had a brief, but somehow still relevant history. She had a huge crush on him a few years ago, and they had one date and one kiss, but he never called her to pursue anything further than that.

Jane talks to all of the most important people in her life about the decision to keep the baby or not. Her grandmother reveals that she wanted Xiomara to have an abortion when she got pregnant with Jane, but that Jane has become the best part of her life, and strongly suggests she keeps the child. Michael wants to start a life with Jane, but not if she's starting it while carrying the child of another man, so he tells her not to keep it. Her mother tells her that it is ultimately her decision, and she'll be supportive no matter what she chooses.

Jane ends up deciding to have the baby, and to give it to Rafael and Petra because she wants the baby to have a loving mother and father, especially because she never knew her father. Little did she know, not only does Rafael want a divorce from his wife, but she sees her father more than she thinks, he is the star of the telenovela she and her family watch together. She also decides to put on a brave face, and waltzes into Michael's workplace where she very sweetly proposes to him and depite his hesitiations earlier in the episode, he says yes.

There was so much going on in this episode, that I am a little apprehensive about whether or not the show can keep the entire season this drama-filled. I thought this first episode was so well done. It had heart, comedy and a thick plot. Its leading lady, Gina Rodgriguez is an absolute treat. I'm excited to see where the rest of the season is headed.

Did you watch the series premiere of JANE THE VIRGIN? What did you think? Let me know in the comments section below! JANE THE VIRGIN airs on The CW Mondays at 9/8c.

Photo Credit: Tyler Golden| The CW

To post a comment, you must register and login.