Jane the Virgin

Jane the Virgin turns a soap-opera setup into something nimble, funny, and unusually clear-eyed about family pressure. By our assessment, its biggest strength is the way it mixes telenovela melodrama, self-aware comedy, and real emotional stakes without letting any one part swallow the others. The trade-off is that it can be openly heightened, so anyone who wants flat realism will feel the style very quickly. In practice it is brisk, affectionate, and full of narration, cliffhangers, and big feelings that know exactly how much they are playing with genre. Compared with ordinary family dramas, it is looser and more playful, but also more controlled than it first appears. Jane the Virgin works best when viewers are open to melodrama with a conscience and a sense of timing.