By Lynn Elber, Television Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --Actress Gina Rodriguez's adorably fizzy charm itself would be enough to make CW's "Jane the Virgin" look like a winner.
But the sitcom debuting at 9 p.m. EDT Monday boasts a premise that's both high-concept and clever, as well as offering the rare prospect of a show that is focused on Latino characters who go beyond stereotypes.
Based on a Venezuelan telenovela — the deliciously over-the-top soap opera genre that also gave us "Ugly Betty" — "Jane the Virgin" is about a young woman who has clung to celibacy as instructed by a sternly loving grandmother and to further her own dreams of professional success.
Fate has other, crazy plans, and the still-virginal Jane finds herself pregnant. Chaos and comedy ensue, impeccably played out in the pilot starring Rodriguez as Jane Villanueva; Brett Dier as her rightly confused fiance Michael; Ivonne Coll as grandmom Alba, and Andrea Navedo as Jane's high-spirited mother, Xiomara.
For the CW, the sitcom is an odd duck, a family comedy on a schedule rife with zombies, superheroes and vampires in series including comic-book based newcomer "The Flash."
The network must avoid slipping "completely down a genre hole" and being perceived as other than a broadcaster, CW President Mark Pedowitz told a TV critics' meeting. "Jane the Virgin" can help, he said.
"Audiences do not come to us to watch procedurals. They have other, better places to go. But they do come to us to watch interesting characters in a very serialized form," Pedowitz said.
For Rodriguez, 29, "Jane the Virgin" was a project worth waiting for. The actress, whose credits include "The Bold and the Beautiful" and "Army Wives" and indie films, said she turned down a role on Lifetime's "Devious Maids," Marc Cherry's successful follow-up to ABC's "Desperate Housewives" that he produces with Eva Longoria.
"I didn't want to do a show about maids because there are other stories to be told" about Latinos, Rodriguez said in an interview. "I know all the women on 'Devious Maids' and I love and support and wish them only the best. … It just wasn't my dream."
The positive buzz swirling around the sitcom is reminiscent of what Rodriguez encountered when the 2012 film "Filly Brown," in which she played an aspiring hip-hop artist, screened at Robert Redford's Sundance festival.
"I was the 'It Girl,'" she recalled. "People were like, 'Rah, rah, rah, you're amazing. You're going to be Jennifer Lawrence' … Yeah, I wish."
Such big-screen fame wasn't immediately forthcoming, but she's already determined how to handle herself whatever happens.
"I learned about the woman I want to be, that ego is the death of talent," said Rodriguez, who doesn't name names when it comes to anti-role models in the industry.
Besides, she says, she has already achieved a measure of success in the eyes of those she holds dearest, her family. After graduating from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Rodriguez appeared on stage as artist Frida Kahlo and got one especially crucial review.
"'You can do this. You're good,'" she recalled her father telling her. "I said, 'I made it. He believed in me. He accepted everything I wanted to accept and believe in.'"
The Chicago-born Rodriguez credits parents Genero and Magali Rodriquez with instilling drive and positive self-esteem into her and her two older sisters. One is a physician, the other an investment banker.
"I'm not a self-made anything," she said, firmly. "My father made me look in the mirror and say, 'Today's going to be a great day. I can and I will.'"
Rodriguez is appealingly confident in an interview, holding a listener's gaze and punctuating her rapid-fire speech with smiles. Tell her she could give Oprah Winfrey a run for her money as a self-empowerment guru and she laughs good-naturedly.
She certainly wasted no time in pursuing her goals. At age 7, Rodriguez joined a salsa dance company, eventually performing at events throughout the country. The experience awakened her to the actress within.
"When I was dancing onstage I just wanted the music to stop, and I wanted to talk and I wanted the lights to come up and I wanted the spotlight on me," she said. "I always felt this pull to tell stories. I wanted people to hear my heart or hear my voice and be affected by it."
Review: Writer-Directors Scott Beck and Bryan Wood’s “Heretic”
"Heretic" opens with an unusual table setter: Two young missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are discussing condoms and why some are labeled as large even though they're all pretty much a standard size. "What else do we believe because of marketing?" one asks the other.
That line will echo through the movie, a stimulating discussion of religion that emerges from a horror movie wrapper. Despite a second-half slide and feeling unbalanced, this is the rare movie that combines lots of squirting blood and elevated discussion of the ancient Egyptian god Horus.
Our two church members — played fiercely by Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East — are wandering around trying to covert souls when they knock on the door of a sweet-looking cottage. Its owner, Mr. Reed, offers a hearty "Good afternoon!" He welcomes them in, brings them drinks and promises a blueberry pie. He's also interested in learning more about the church. So far, so good.
Mr. Reed is, of course, if you've seen the poster, the baddie and he's played by Hugh Grant, who doesn't go the snarling, dead-eyed Hannibal Lecter route in "Heretic." Grant is the slightly bumbling, bashful and self-mocking character we fell in love with in "Four Weddings and a Funeral," but with a smear of menace. He gradually reveals that he actually knows quite a bit about the Mormon religion — and all religions.
"It's good to be religious," he says jauntily and promises his wife will join them soon, a requirement for the church. Homey touches in his home include a framed "Bless This Mess" needlepoint on a wall, but there are also oddities, like his lights are on a timer and there's metal in the walls and ceilings.
Writer-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Wood — who also... Read More