SPOILERS: MY WINE-FUELED S3 RECAP OF MSHD

You know... I was looking forward to this final season for 12 months. Almost sure that they would end up together because of the promo materials and natural telenovela-esque story arcs (although, let’s be honest, as LB+ watchers we can never be to sure about a happy ending). But, despite my endgame coming true, this season felt deeply underwhelming. After episode 5 the series completely lacked any affection and close scenes between Mariana and Ana, especially on Mariana’s part. Suddenly the episodes solely focused on them in relation to the babies - and on all the other couples. And, with the ending we got, it just felt so underserved. We didn’t truly see Mariana’s realization that she might have been wrong about “being confused”. The break-up with Ferrán came completely out of left field (a bit of a deus ex machina, if you ask me because without him having a kid, she might have even stayed with him, despite his unreliableness and aversion for children in his space/home). We didn’t get a conversation between Ana and Mariana that went beyond the kids’ well-being, their businesses and “by the way I love you”. We didn’t actually see them reconnect and share a space beyond quick pecks. And even the rest of the plotlines... these characters all had so much potential. Instead, we got redundant, repetitive, almost circular stories. I mean...how often can a couple break up and get back together because their priorities don’t align (looking at you, Cynthia and Pablo; as well as Fernanda and Juan Carlos). How often can a teenage boy be insecure about a girl (Ro! Yes, and I know... the answer is “quite often, just like girls and any other teenage hormonal person attracted to the female sex” - however, in a concise narrative approach, that emotionally almost identical situation doesn’t need to be shown 2 or 3 times). I think the series lost focus. It’s an ensemble series, but it forgot its core dynamic. And that’s why a season of only 10 episodes somehow ended up feeling too long and tedious. Because there was so much character development and potential that was just skipped over in favor of repetitive plots. That hunger and physical closeness as well as emotional intimacy we saw in the kiss between Mariana and Ana in the S2 finale was never shown again. Same with Mariana’s tenderness and hope when it came to Ana in S1. And Ana’s love confession involving bikes felt a bit public and cringy. Maybe because we skipped all the potential close and confusing situations/tropes that would have come with “fake dating” not to mention the true emotional repercussions that would have come after that and after sleeping together. Maybe because they rarely had any scenes just the two of them, where they talked about anything but work and the children. Which means: I’m happy about the end game, but narratively I am far from satisfied. Aaaaaaand with that I end my first official tumblr post/ tv rant. Thank you all - which is probably 2 people, if I’m lucky - for reading this far.

Bluets - Maggie Nelson

Drone “Portraits” UK-based photographer Dimitar Karanikolov shares a collection of portraits using a drone taken from 2017-2021.