6A — Monday, February 13, 2017
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
TV/NEW MEDIA COLMN
The path forward for ‘Jane the Virgin’
Exploring the future of romantic comedy in the wake of loss and mixed emotions
Character deaths on TV rarely
get to me. Even on my favorite
shows, the most heartbreaking
deaths usually make me sad for
a moment — and then, when the
episode is over, I move on and think
about something else. A lot of the
time, too, killing off a particular
character makes so much sense for
the story that my appreciation of its
narrative efficiency far offsets my
emotional reaction to it. But man,
when Jane Villanueva’s husband
died on the last episode of “Jane
the Virgin,” I was a wreck. I was so
in shock that I didn’t actually cry; I
know that the real tears will come
in the next few episodes, when I’ve
accepted that Michael Cordero
is dead, and that he’s not coming
back. As the final five minutes of
the episode passed, I sat in bed
with my hands pressed tightly over
my cheeks, thinking: “No, this isn’t
real. This is a fantasy. Jane’s about
to wake up and Michael will be
lying next to her and it will all be
OK.” But then Jane picked up the
phone and I heard the word “died,”
and then the show skipped three
years into the future, and I knew it
was real.
This is the kind of character
death that hit me hard enough to
briefly disable my critical faculties.
I didn’t know if this was good for
the show or not, and I didn’t really
care. I was just sad. I felt that
core sadness that you feel when
anything bad happens: a breakup
or a death in the family or any kind
of random tragedy; I wish this
thing didn’t happen.
After a while, I was able to
think about it logically. The third
season of “Jane the Virgin” has
been a little unexciting. It’s not
necessarily a step down in quality,
but I’ve gotten used to the elements
that previously seemed so novel
when the show first premiered. It’s
a reliably entertaining show, but no
longer a truly thrilling, surprising
one.
But there were ways to deal with
that stagnation without killing off
Michael. Part of me wishes the
three-year time jump happened
without Michael’s death — we
could skip forward to a point when
Michael was done with law school,
when Rafael was out of jail, and
we’d still have the mystery of the
wedding to look forward to. For
me, Jane’s marriage to Michael
wasn’t a factor in the staleness of
the third season.
In fact, back when Michael got
shot in the second season finale,
I had a long time to think about
the possibility of him dying, and
I ultimately decided it was better
for the show to keep him alive.
To kill off the love of Jane’s life,
especially on the day of their
wedding, right before Jane was
going to lose her “virgin” moniker,
seemed excessively cruel. It would
shroud the series in darkness, and
honestly, I don’t watch “Jane the
Virgin” for its tragic twists and
misery porn. I watch it to feel
happy and hopeful.
Besides,
in
a
TV
world
populated
with
decaying
marriages,
marriages
fraught
with infidelity, lies, manipulation
and miscommunication, Jane and
Michael were a shining light. They
were a couple who occasionally
fought, but who always worked
through their disagreements by
speaking openly and honestly to
each other, learning from their past
mistakes and striving to become
better people. There aren’t a lot of
couples like that on TV. Sure, maybe
it’s “unrealistic” to have a husband
as perfect as Michael, someone
who’s so endlessly accommodating
and understanding, but is there
anything wrong with indulging
in fantasies once in a while
(especially in a telenovela)? Isn’t it
OK to depict the gold standard of a
healthy relationship, to give us all
something to strive for in our own?
The third season of “Jane the
Virgin,” while it might’ve betrayed
the show’s first signs of age, should
be commended for keeping the
Jane/Michael relationship fresh,
interesting
and
swoon-worthy.
Part of me still believes the
greatest sign of the show’s strength
would be to marry off its main
character in the second season and
keep the couple together for the
entirety of the show — five, or six
or seven seasons — while staying
unpredictable
and
interesting.
If anyone could do it, it’d be the
writers of “Jane the Virgin.”
And yet, after having some time
to mull it over, to move past my
initial soul-crushing sadness and
think about what the show will be
going forward, I’m optimistic. It
might’ve been bold to keep Jane
and Michael together forever, but
what the show chose to do instead
is undeniably gutsy. Rather than
settling for a simple happy ending
(which, of course, has its time
and place, and this show seems
like a worthy candidate), “Jane
the Virgin” is going to become
a series about moving on from
tragedy, about how happy endings
can still be possible in the wake of
unimaginable grief.
The next few episodes of the
show will really be a test. Maybe
it’ll become clear the show is
running on fumes, that this move
was a gimmicky stab at retaining
interest by killing off a main
character and teasing a wedding
with a dramatic time jump. Or
maybe the show will prove that it’s
a more thoughtful show than most
people ever gave it credit for, that it
can keep its joyful, optimistic tone
intact despite the unspeakable
loss the main character has
experienced. Knowing “Jane the
Virgin,” I think I know which one
it’s going to be.
BEN ROSENSTOCK
Daily TV/New Media Columnist