There's definitely good reason as to why many people think this is Sabatini's best work, even being the favorite telenovela of some of the actors in this. The best thing about it was definitely the cast and the visible amount of dedication that went into character work here. Everyone had well-defined and specific personalities, but unfortunately the characters' motivations were a little one-dimensional sometimes. This continues the trend (that I like) of Sabatini's stupid male characters as opposed to the traditional idealized heroic men of telenovelas, but Martín Echaurren takes this way too far. His character was pathetic and insufferable, and we're supposed to root for him and for the title character to fall in love with him. The cast comes really in handy to save this plot that seemed rushed and efortless: many things are introduced only to then not mean anything, many conflicts or actions are flat out nonsense and a better written script with regards to continuity and any sort of semblance of a reality would have totally helped. The main villain, Magdalena, needed a different treatment in my opinion: they needed to make her either meaner, or not as mean. The anagnorisis moment nearing the end was certainly underwhelming and it ended up feeling like Pasión de Gavilanes but without a pathos. The set design and costume design deserve their kudos as well because they rightfully took a decent amount of the budget and it paid off. I wonder if this was sort of the inspiration for Machos because there are enough similarities (intransigent patriarch, painter doing nude female portraits, father-son sharing a lover, huge painting of a father that the son sometimes talks to, sex-affecting anxiety...), which is funny considering that Héctor Noguera was supposed to play Pedro Chamorro at first. Glad he didn't because Alarcón slays this character! Cheers to DJ Katia and Amelia Cox too-
