Fall Latino Shows Previewed at Upfront: 'Cristela,' 'Jane the Virgin,' 'The Messengers' and 'American Crime'
The fall Upfront TV shows debuted this week with much more diversity from TV shows that starred black actors and comedians, shows with an actual all-star Asian cast, to shows that also starred Latinos.
The Upfront presentations mark the debut of fall 2014-2015 TV shows that ABC, CBS and NBC, among others, reveal to their audiences as well as advertisers. Our focus will be on four TV shows that have either Latinos/Latinas starring in them or are part of the cast ensemble.
There are two Latina comedies debuting in the fall: "Cristela" on ABC and "Jane the Virgin" on CW. "Cristela" is based off the act of stand-up comedian Cristela Alonzo. The character Cristela is in her sixth year of law school, and she is finally on the brink of landing her first big (unpaid) internship at a prestigious law firm. The comedy here is that her pursuit of success is affected by her traditional Mexican-American family.
Cristela is stuck in between two cultures: the old culture that she is trying to modernize at home with her working-class family and the traditional American culture that she is trying to embrace in her professional career. Cristela also stars Carlos Ponce.
Speaking of high jinks and family problems, enter "Jane the Virgin." It is about a young and devout woman who discovers that she was accidentally artificially inseminated. How does that happen? Jane is based off of a Venezuelan telenovela. It sounds crazy good.
Now enter something of biblical proportions. You all remember Diogo Morgado from "The Bible" TV series that eventually became a full length feature-film "Son of God" -- Morgado played Jesus. Now, Morgado, the Portugal-born actor, will be starring alongside a diverse cast of The CW's "The Messengers."
"The Messengers" centers around a mysterious object that crashes on Earth, and a group of seemingly unconnected strangers die almost instantaneously from an energy pulse the object emits. But, then they are re-awakened to find out that they have been deemed responsible for preventing the impending apocalypse.
And finally another ABC show: "American Crime." It has a diverse cast with a Latino family at the center. Benito Martinez from the Golden Globe-winning series "The Shield" stars in this crime drama -- along with Timothy Hutton and Felicity Huffman. The show is about the lives of people in a murder trial with significant racial motives and how they are all changed during the legal process.
Fall TV is looking pretty great.
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