Telenovelas are their own beast, storywise. They’re more like daytime soap operas than anything else, doling story out slowly over dozens if not hundreds of episodes. But the stakes are often high and the circumstances over the top. In a remake of a Columbian telenovela from the ’00s, a business mogul and a working stiff find out they were switched at birth and end up switching lives as a result.
Opening Shot: Thirty years ago, we see a Jeep driving a rural road along a river. A woman in labor is in the front seat.
The Gist: Two families about to have a son show up at the same rural hospital at the same time: The Ferrieras, a wealthy and influential family, and the Galindos, a working-class family. Of course, the Ferrieras get special treatment. But both women have their sons around the same time. However, a nurse who started her shift mostly drunk ends up putting the wrong name wristband on the wrong baby boy. The Ferrieras’ son Andrés ends up being the Galindos’ son Brayan, and vice versa.
In the present day, Andrés (Juan Guilera), buoyed by his family’s money, runs a successful internet startup called Cartsmart, but he seems to be more concerned with how business is doing than anything resembling human relationships, including being spontaneous with his actual girlfriend, Fernanda Sanmiguel (Laura Barjum). Fernanda is actually carrying on an affair with Andrés’ cousin, Mateo López (Ricardo Mejía), and she has a plan to make her and Mateo very rich, but she needs to put up with the business-oriented Andrés first. He intends on proposing to her at a dinner on Christmas Day.
Meanwhile, Brayan (Variel Sanchez) is a gig worker, living with his father Leónidas (Jhon Álex Toro) and the family of his loyal girlfriend Rosmery Peláez (Lina Tejeiro). Despite his lack of work and prospects, Rosie has nothing but love for Brayan; he wants to propose, but needs a stable job first.
Rosie works as an admin at Cartsmart, and when Andrés fires his personal assistant for badmouthing him, he promotes Rosie to his PA. She’s horrified, knowing how hard he drives his personal assistants. But she also thinks she can at least try to get Brayan a job at Cartsmart.
The nurse who switched the babies thirty years ago is now near death, and feels she needs to set the record straight. She calls Andrés’ mother, Antonia (Marcela Agudelo), to tell her that Andrés’ might not be biologically hers. Of course she’s concerned, but she wants to make sure this claim is legit before going public with it.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Newly Rich, Newly Poor is a remake of a 2007 telenovela of the same name. It’s wacky circumstances definitely remind us of the first episodes of Jane The Virgin. The class-swapping aspect is also reminiscent of the Eddie Murphy / Dan Akyroyd comedy classic Trading Places.
Our Take: As with most telenovelas on Netflix, Newly Rich, Newly Poor isn’t in a hurry to tell its story; a whopping 63 episodes dropped on the service all it once. It’s going to take its time to let the story develop, concentrating on the relationships among all the characters and the various twists and turns their lives and romances are going to take.
There are a few aspects of the show that make us scratch our heads, though. Firstly, Brayan’s character feels like someone who wouldn’t necessarily have the life he’s been given. While he and his dad, as well as Rosie and her family, live from paycheck to paycheck, there is a lot of love and happiness among them. We just wonder how the beautiful Rosie, who has ambitions but isn’t ruled by them, keeps being OK with Brayan continuing to scuffle along when it comes to getting a job and earning a decent living. Yes, Brayan is a dreamer, but even dreamers overstay their welcomes if they’re not bringing in any money.
Then we have Andrés, who’s so robotic that the admin who got fired called him an “android.” Is he really that obsessed with business that he can’t seem to get all that excited by the prospect of sex with the gorgeous Fernanda?
What we’re guessing is that these extremes need to be set up so that, when Andrés and Brayan finally switch lives — the crux of the series — we’ll be used to how different they are. Still, both men seem to lead the kinds of lives that only exist in telenovelas.
Of course, there are always side stories, like Rosie’s high school-age little sister Ingrid (Laura Taylor) having an inexplicable crush on Brayan. Despite the attention he gets from Rosie, Brayan considers Fernanda his fantasy woman; how will he handle it when he meets her after he and Andrés swap lives? And we get the feeling that Antonia and Leónidas, who both lost their longtime spouses, will find each other.
There likely will be more than enough story to fill 63 episodes, lined with as much goofiness as over-the-top drama as the first episode had. But you certainly have to be a fan of the telenovela format not to get frustrated with the series’ leisurely momentum when it comes to pushing the story forward.
Sex and Skin: There’s some sex, but all done under the covers.
Parting Shot: Antonia tells her security chief to investigate the nurse and her claims, but to be very discreet about it.
Sleeper Star: We really want to know why Laura Taylor’s character Ingrid has a crush on Brayan, despite him being her sister’s longtime boyfriend.
Most Pilot-y Line: As Andrés’ old PA keeps badmouthing him, the other admins give her looks. That’s when she gives the old comedic saw, “He’s behind me, isn’t he?”
Our Call: STREAM IT. You have to be really into telenovelas to appreciate Newly Rich, Newly Poor, but for those who are, the series is more than entertaining enough to keep viewers’ attention through all the story’s twists and turns.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.