Viudas e hijos del Rock and Roll

Plot

Diego Lamas and Miranda Betini were two rockers who met in Villa Gesell in 1992. Miranda was the daughter of Roby, a famous radio host, but concealed that information from Diego. They had a brief romance, and arranged to reunite in their native Buenos Aires, next to the Obelisco, the next month. Sandra, Miranda's best friend, started a romance with Roby, so she rejected them both. Diego had a car accident and could not meet Miranda at the agreed time, so she broke with him and with the whole rock and roll lifestyle.

The timeskip jumps to the modern day, Miranda is married to Segundo, and Diego is about to get married to Susana. Roby dies, and Diego briefly sees Miranda at his funeral, which was broadcast on TV, and is reunited with her. Miranda and Sandra met Vera as well, another daughter of Roby, who was born out of wedlock. As widow and daughters of Roby, Sandra, Miranda and Vera share each a fourth part of the shares of the radio, alongside Roby's assistant, Pipo. Vera convinces the others to give a radio program to Diego and his friend Rama.

Diego rejects Susana in their wedding and slowly starts a romance with Miranda. Both of their mothers (Titi and Gabriela, respectively) became friends and try to influence them to pursuit it. Segundo is a closeted gay, who develops a crush on his petisero Tony. Miranda and Segundo break up in good terms, and she also helps him to discover that his true mother is María Esther, a former maid of the Arostegui raped by Emilio. Sandra eventually amends her relation with Miranda, and gets pregnant from Rama. Rama, however, stays with Vera. With the exception of Miranda and Segundo, who had their own successful jobs, the Arostegui lost all their money and their mansion, and must move to a small apartment. The last episode featured the gay wedding of Segundo and Tony.

Production

The filming started on May 2014.

Cast

Viudas e hijos del Rock and Roll is the first work of Paola Barrientos as a lead actress in television. She had a long career in theater plays, and her character in Graduados got a lot of praise. Still, she clarified that both characters are different: her character in Graduados was formal, and her character in "Viudas..." is a rebel rocker. She accepted to work in the telenovela because she had a good relation with the other actors of the cast.

Griselda Siciliani worked for Telefe for the first time. Although she worked several years at the competitor channel El Trece, her husband Adrián Suar produces telenovelas at that channel, and is scheduled to appear in cameos in Guapas, Siciliani clarified that they had no conflictive views over that. Her work is limited to 18 episodes, as she had worked a full year in Farsantes and prefers to stay more time with her daughter.

Music

The telenovela uses several references to the 1990s Argentine Rock, and uses the music both for character building and the plots. The telenovela is also set in a fictional radio. The first episodes featured as well other things from the 1990s, such as the "rolinga" urban tribe, the boom of radio stations airing rock, the popularity of Villa Gesell among the young people, and the creation of mixtapes in cassettes. The starting point of the telenovela is the death of Roby, a character played by Lalo Mir, which is described as an icon of Argentine rock.

Reception

The first episode was aired on August 18, with 24,3 rating points. It had the highest rating of the prime time on that day, over Showmatch. The public praised the similarities with the telenovela Graduados, aired in 2012, both in the initial plot and the focus on nostalgia. "Graduados 2" became a trending topic in Twitter that night.

Later on, Viudas... did not achieve the expected ratings, and had a lower success than the re-run of the Turkish Binbir Gece (translated as "Las mil y una noches"). The new time slots and the 80 guest stars did not help it to recover the initial ratings. It ended after 10 months, without living up to expectations.

Awards

Viudas... received seven nominations for the 45th Martín Fierro Awards: best daily fiction, lead actor of daily fiction (Damián de Santo and Juan Minujin), lead actress of daily fiction (Paola Barrientos), best new actor (Dario Barassi), best writers and best music theme. Sebastián Ortega and Pablo Culell were surprised by the absence of Verónica Llinás and Luis Machín, and did not attend the ceremony.

Cast