Who's That Guy? - Ricardo Chavira

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Ricardo Chavira is owning television in 2017. The actor first rose to popularity on Desperate Housewives as Gabrielle's jealous husband, Carlos Solis. The actor's chemistry with his television wife Eva Longoria sizzled so much that he guest starred in her short lived 2016 sitcom Telenovela.

 President Chavira
 Chiavera spent most of 2016 playing fictional Pennsylvania governor/Democratic presidential nominee Frankie Vargas on ABC's  Scandal. During the season, political mastermind and possible sociopath Cyrus Beene (Jeff Perry) pushed Vargas to the front of America's consciousness. Beene went as far as to secretly initiate a shooting at the PA Capitol building, where the unknowing Vargas rescued co-workers and became an American hero. The race came down the kind Vargas candidate and the ex-first lady turned senator Mellie Grant (Bellamy Young).

     Last season's finale was drawing to a close as the clock ran down on on finding a running mate. In the last minutes of the show, Vargas called Beene to the stage, announcing him as his VP candidate. This season picked up in January with a shocking jump through the election. Vargas was announced as the winner and on stage to make his speech as President-Elect. Then he got SHOT! This is the second attempted presidential assassination on Scandal. Unlike the fortunate President Grant, Vargas did not survive, (Poor Vargas). Now Chavira appears in flashbacks that explain what happened along the campaign trail.  At first it seemed like VP-elect Beene was manipulating America, putting out an ideal candidate and plotting to taking him out so Beene himself would be the default leader. At this point in the story, we're still not sure who ordered President Vargas to be assassinated, but Beene and his secret lover (FBI agent Tom) have confessed their innocence in jail. Olivia (Kerry Washington) has also come to the conclusion that her accusation of Cyrus was wrong. Scandal show runner Shonda Rhimes said that  this season's story is about the electoral college and how it chooses the president when the people's candidate is taken out of the race. Many have argued that the show has picked up on an unrest in the country, even though the story line was on film long before the results of the election. I can't wait to find out more about what got Vargas assassinated in the coming weeks.

Lover Chavira
     Chavira also has a growing role as Bruce on the CW's Jane the Virgin. On Monday's episode, Bruce proposed to Jane's mother Xiomara (Andrea Navedo), known as Xo. In the first few episodes of the series, we learn Xo had an off-screen affair with Bruce and he recently broke up with her. Bruce was also cheating on his wife with Xo. Jane (Golden Globe winner Gina Rodriguez) and her grandmother vehemently despised Bruce for the turmoil he brought to their family.  Xo spent the first two seasons of the show finding her way back to Jane's over-dramatic telenovela star father, Rogelio De La Vega (played by Jaime Camil). Check out Rogelio's hilarious tweets here.

     Bruce is the complete opposite of Rogelio. Where Rogelio is vain and tweeting his feelings, Bruce is a quiet and reserved , and he is a lawyer. The triangle developed between the three has been intriguing over the last few months. Rogelio financed Xo to open her own dance studio, which coincidentally happened to be in the same complex as Bruce's new office. Xo seemed to have all her dreams coming true; Bruce and the studio, but at the cost of her friendship with Rogelio, The couple broke up as teens and Xo chose to raise Jane on her own. In their adult relationship, they got drunkenly married in Las Vegas, then engaged for real months later. In planning their life together, Xo chose to end things  because Rogelio wanted more children and she had already raised their daughter, who is now in her 20's.

     In the weeks since January's three-year jump and the death of Jane's husband Michael, Bruce and Xo have been going strong. As the show's least dramatic couple, their triumphs have been small, Xo and Jane winning over Bruce's teen daughter. This relationship one of the most real parts of the show.  I partly hope Xo and Bruce get married because she needs something stable in her life, although I am a hard-core Rogelio fan. Mr. De Le Vega got into a reality TV marriage with his matchmaker Darcy on the show, the De Le Vega-Factor. The show pieced together clips of Xo to look like a jealous ex, and fans of Rogelio actively name-call and throw coffee. Through this rift, Bruce encourages Xo to forgive Rogelio, and that makes me like Bruce even more! He helped Rogelio with legal advice on his lawsuit against the "DLVF" production company, because he knows it will please Xo. This whole situation brings up an important question in Jane's life. Can two people raise a child and not let their feelings get involved?  Jane and her baby daddy Raphael are also faced with the same question as she recovers from her husband's tragic death.

Officer Chavira

     “He doesn’t think we killed Gary, he’s just obsessed with ants!” remarked Sheila (Drew Barrymore) in episode 4 of The Santa Clarita Diet. The new Netflix show is reminiscent of Weeds, except instead of growing pot plants, Sheila is a new zombie. She and her husband Joel (Timothy Olyphant) start murdering people and storing them in a freezer in their storage unit so she can feed on their bodies. Chavira played their couple's nosy neighbor, Officer Dan. This guy was a crooked yet tough officer from the L.A. County Sheriff's office (he mocked a neighbor that works for the cushy Santa Monica police dept.) who became suspicious of the Hammonds.  This character reminds me the most of Chavira's character from Desperate Housewives. He is not a nice person. His gentle, nerdy stepson Eric constantly verbally abused at his own hand. Even Dan's wife Lisa (Mary Elizabeth Ellis) began an affair to get away from him.

     It's important to note that Sheila became a zombie through some unclear reason in episode 1. As of episode 8 (2 more to go), there is no explanation how this happened. She fed on her smarmy co-worker Gary in the backyard, eating his fingers and eventually his body. Joel, their daughter Abby, and Eric cover up the murder. Dan continued asking why Joel was outside spraying their lawn for ants in the middle of the night, which was a cover for washing away the blood. Dan was so obsessed with the lawn that he found a rogue finger and and blackmailed  Joel into attempting to murder a convict that could not be convicted. The couple reasoned this was in line with their new motto, only killing bad people that deserve it.  After a bad situation where the convict became a zombie, Dan took it too far. He falsified a dossier and asked them to kill Lisa's side dish, spreading horrible lies about the pediatric doctor (Scott Michael Foster).   Joel stood up to Dan as Abby and Eric planted a flash bomb in his garden. He was going out one way or another! Joel killed Dan in episode 5, smashing a shovel into his head, and marking the family's first non-zombie committed kill. Lisa and Dan's partner began a search for him, assuming he took off because of the contraband the teens discovered in the garage. Was his death justified? Will anyone figure out Joel killed Dan? I'm guessing this is an issue for season 2. 

CW Gets Golden Globes

It's finally happened, the CW has managed to get it's programming into legitimate award categories! I'm so excited my Monday night jams Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Jane the Virgin scored nominations for the Golden Globes! Both Gina Rodriguez (Jane) and Rachel Bloom (Crazy Rebecca) are nominated for best actress in a tv comedy or musical!

Britney Comes Back to TV, a JTV Special

     In Monday night's Jane the Virgin, the show had a special guest star, none other than Britney. I began this episode being super excited to see the Brit, but I was quickly let down and disappointed.

     Appearances like this  used to be a pretty big deal back in the day, but somehow it made me feel kind of sad. The show opened with Jane taking her baby to the Maribela hotel to stalk Britney, then they got together and did a creepy dreamed-up imaginary dance sequence to one of Britney's much weaker hits, Toxic.

     Something seemed off about Britney in a way I cannot explain, like she might have been forced to do this as a favor to someone, or it was a blackmail scenario? We're way past the days of "eave Britney alone", but I have to wonder, who is she? Could is just be weird for her to act in something that's not the Mickey Mouse Club? Having seen Crossroads (never the full movie, just bits and pieces), we know she is not he best at holding down a feature presentation.

     This led to a much weirder plot where Britney had been invited to Miami to perform at a highly important wedding ceremony. Who's wedding, you may ask? Crazy Petra is blackmailed into marrying a crazy explosives salesman, Miloche.

     The episode got  downright hilarious when Jane's telenovela star dad Rohelio De La Vega (always use his full name) admits to having a feud with Britney over a Latin Grammy Awards presentation. A very serious twitter feud with some "Mean Girls-esque" banter. I did at least laugh at Britney and her dancers began walking around the hotel in one large synchronized group. Is Brit really that desperate for exposure, or am I just not in the joke?

     My favorite Britney tv appearance is when she showed up on Sabrina the Teenage Witch, teaching Sabs some dance moves in Paris. It was also kinda a weird situation,  but it worked because she really seemed like herself, just a teen pop star dancing around with a fan, and not a glambot. Alas, it was during the Drive Me Crazy phase of 199, so maybe Britney was just more of an authentic gal back then.

Late to The Party: Or How I Became a Fan of JTV

     I recently received an email from my aunt, who said her book club screening of 50 Shades of

Gray didn't work out, so they watched a new quirky show, Jane the Virgin. It didn't end up on my fall roster, but I caught up on as much of the season as i could and I jumped in. After all, lead actress Gina Rodriguez won the Golden Globe for this show after about 10 episodes, so it must be pretty cool.

     First of all, JTV is party telenovela, part fantasy drama, and part Ugly Betty. The resemblances between this show and  long loved and far-plot flung ABC dramedy are one of the reasons I got sucked into this new show. Rodriguez, much like  Betty's America Ferrara, had a way of showing her character as a true, honest relate-able person, who happened to be artificially inseminated with the child of a gorgeous hotel magnate that will likely never have kids due to a cancer scare. Just an average plot, right?


Here are the basics:
- Jane lives with her illegal immigrant Abuela Alba (who only speaks Spanish with subtitles on the screen) and her young, hip mom, Xiomara. She is a waitress, writer, teacher, and daydreamer.
-  Jane is often found working at the Maribela Hotel, which is always close to bankruptcy.
- Jane never knew her dad until a few weeks ago, and he happens to be a rich, self-obsessed telenovela star, Rogelio De Le Vega. Watch him tweet in real time.
- Jane was engaged to a police detective, Micheal, who wanted nothing to do with having a baby.
- Gorgeous hotel magnate, Rafael, really wants to have this baby, and he is trying desperately to divorce his wife, Petra.
- Petra is crazy. Her mother Magda is also crazy.
Rafael's sister was the doctor that accidentally inseminated Jane, she was supposed to be inseminating Petra, who was keeping it a big secret.
- There's a wild criminal mastermind, Sin Rostro, who is Michael's ex-stepmother.
- Sin Rostro is also known as Rose, a former lover of Michael's sister (after she had a face-change so nobody could recognize her).
- This hotel is a prime spot for murders.

Let's see where we are at the end of the season.