What I’m Watching: Jane the Virgin

Jane the Virgin: Season 1, Episode 7 “Chapter Seven” (B+)

The mark of any good show that starts with a certain hook is its ability to seamlessly outgrow it, and that’s just what this show has done. The narrator is still there, of course, but Jane being a pregnant virgin has moved more into a background plotline, providing fodder for the nuns to use her to attract believers to the school and for her to dream up baby names with Rafael. Who would have thought just seven episodes ago that Jane would spend the whole night being effectively romanced by Rafael in one of the show’s most romantic extended scenes so far, and that Michael would be a distant memory who had to have the news of Jane spending the night with Rafael thrown in his face by an unsuspecting Xiomara? On the more kitschy side, I did enjoy Jane’s list of reasons to be wary of Rafael being depleted one by one. The antics of Xiomara and Rogelio are proving to be extremely entertaining, and Nicholas Gonzalez’s retired soccer player may prove a formidable competitor for the suave but overeager celebrity star. I think I’ll nominate Petra as this show’s most dynamic and interesting character, caring for her hostage and saving his life when her mother seemed ready to let him die, and then teaming up with Lachlan to get Rafael booted from the company. Things between Rafael and Jane were going so well, with Rafael even managing to survive a stern talking-to from Rogelio, and now this is going to throw a serious wrench into their romance that likely won’t permit them to make it.