Stream It Or Skip It: 'All For Love' On Netflix, A Colombian Telenovela About Love, Searching, Desperation And Organized Crime - Decider

All For Love (original title: Amar y Vivir) is a remake of a Colombian telenovela of the same name that aired from 1988-90. Since we didn’t watch the original version of Amar y Vivir, we’re not quite sure what the changes are between that version and this one. The stories are essentially the same: Poor farmer comes looking for his missing sister in Bogotá, falls for a singer who helps her parents run a fruit stand, and their love gets threatened by his involvement in organized crime. What does this new version give us? Read on for more…

Opening Shot: After an opening that more or less summarizes the plot of the entire telenovela, we see a young woman walking through a marketplace, singing an original song while her friend records it on her phone.

The Gist: Irene Romero (Ana María Estupiñán) has aspirations to be a singer and musician, and she records a video in the Miracle Market in Bogotá, where her parents run a fruit stand, so she can upload it to social media. She calls her “band” Irene and the Miracles, and one of the people who back her up is her father Salvadore (Julio Sánchez). Her mother Magola (Alina Lozano) wants her to stay with the fruit stand and use her personality and talent to keep it going; she says that dreams are only for the rich. Irene thinks otherwise; besides, she sees that her father, who drinks and gambles too much, is miserable because he never was able to pursue his musical dream.

Meanwhile, Joaquín Herrera (Carlos Torres) comes back to his family farm from a 3-year stint in the military to see that his mother and sister Alba Lucía (Valeria Galvis) need a lot of help maintaining the farm. But he’s also dismayed that the fences were moved, under threat from Lauro, the local “businessman”, and his crew. Lauro has wanted to buy out the Herrera farm for quite some time, but Joaquín has refused.

Lauro’s son comes by the farm, threatening to kidnap Alba, who’s there by herself because Joaquín is repairing a neighbor’s tractor. After running them off, he goes to the town’s mayor, who refuses to do anything against such an influential family. Joaquín comes back to his farm on fire and Alba gone; his mom dies from the blaze. He helps Alba escape Lauro’s son’s clutches, and her neighbor tells him that she was on a truck going to a market in Bogotá.

Two months later, Joaquín is in Bogotá, trying to find Alba. We know where Alba ended up — let’s just say she doesn’t work in a marketplace, unless you consider a strip club a marketplace — but Joaquín still can’t find her. He meets Irene in a cafe while he’s trying to do a facial recognition search for his sister; she’s really helpful and they’re attracted to each other right away. He takes a job at the Miracle Market as a porter but doesn’t make enough to hire an investigator to find Alma. So he tries to make his way in as a mechanic in a shop that sells stolen parts.

Irene has her own issues to deal with, as she has had it with Salvadore’s drinking and the fact that he’s borrowing money from loan sharks who come to beat him up when he doesn’t pay. She wants to get him into AA but he feels he’s fine, and just says she nags like her mother does, even though he’s day drunk when a radio station comes to the market to feature her and the band, and he’s also bringing bags of stolen auto parts home.

Our Take: So, what does this new version of Amar y Vivir have that the one from three decades ago doesn’t? Better production values? Smartphones and social media? We’re not sure. But it’s certainly a classic telenovela, perhaps enhanced by money from Fox Telecolombia and Netflix. There’s a central couple, both ends of which are dealing with family strife and major issues. Both parts of the couple are charming as hell and make you want to root for them, but there will always be something that comes up that gets between them and true love.

All 69 episodes of the series, which ran in Colombia between January and April of this year, were dropped at once, so if you want to tuck in for a good couple of weeks of escapist fun, this isn’t a bad way to go. Just be ready for overdramatic music, lots of outlandish reactions to things, women in skimpy outfits, lots of fighting, and soapish production quality.

That being said, Nubia Barreto, who adapted the 1988 version for 2020, has done a good job of establishing two very strong leads in Estupiñán and Torres, and the chemistry in their first scenes is readily apparent. You know that chemistry is what’s going to fuel their ups and downs for the next 68 episodes. And the first hour establishes both of their stories well; we know Irene is going to everything she can to get her father sober, and Joaquín won’t rest until he finds his sister. The juiciness of all the obstacles that will be thrown in their way in pursuit of these things and their relationship will be what keeps people tuning in.

Sex and Skin: Any sex is implied, including what Lauro’s son does to Alba, and what happens with Alba at her “new job” in the city.

Parting Shot: Joaquín says to the guy at the garage where the stolen bike he saw was stored that he can be a mechanic for them. The guy brings him in, holds a gun to his head and says, “Do you think we hire snitches?”

Sleeper Star: There will be stories involving Irene’s BFF Rocio (Yuri Vargas) and their friend Bryan (Juan Millán), who doesn’t want his snooty college friends to know that he works for his dad at the marketplace. With 69 episodes to fill, there’s more than enough time to see what their lives are like.

Most Pilot-y Line: Again, some of the soapy production values, like slow motion shots of Joaquín being chased, are pretty cheesy. But, then again, it’s a telenovela so that seems par for the course.

Our Call: STREAM IT. All For Love is pure escapism, for sure. But you’ll be so charmed by the leads and the chemistry they have you’ll want to root for their characters to be happy. Which, this being a telenovela, isn’t likely to happen.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard and elsewhere.

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