… 2/2 wanting to be together but not being able to. The finale showed the lack of development around their story, their conflict was easy to solve so they didn’t need a lot of time focusing on them and that’s why it feels sort of anticlimactic. Anyway, even with its shortcomings, I’m happy they took a step forward to show inclusion and I feel everyone tried their best with what they had. Also I’m so happy we got Maca and Barbara, they’ve been truly a gift.
I would disagree that the sole reason Juliantina was so good was the actresses, the writing and setup early on was amazing. And at quite a few parts later too. Admittedly, the actresses elevated those scenes, I can’t imagine how some of those lines would have sounded from different people, but they did cast these two, they did let them play off each other as they did, they did let them improvise and then included those takes.
But I do think you’re totally spot on in that their storyline was somewhat limited by having a lack of conflict. Well. This is what we thought would happen that week after the breakup, right, we were like, well, they’re going to be kept separate now because there’s no plot for them while they’re together, they can’t figure out their dads this early. But then they questioned Camilo, they had that great set of scenes at Silvina’s house, we really thought maybe they’d somehow continue the whole series like that. *sigh* They were doing so well.
BUT then they had to bring in the other conflict. You could see how forced it had to be to even get the Sergio story going, as if Juls would simply turn and leave at seeing Lucho, or Val wouldn’t just chase her down and be like, dunno what you think but it wasn’t that. Although, again, as if Juls would even think that. I mean, it’s possible that she would, all the things that happened can be believed of their characters, but while in the earlier parts of the show they would have gone for the most direct, believable route, here they definitely did not. You always had to stretch characterization a bit to accommodate actions. It was a lot of plot leading the characters, I suppose. The opposite of which was so appealing in the earlier arcs. The writing was unreal before, how much they avoided unnecessary drama when they could just talk.
A lot at the end was precipitated more by plot, why Val couldn’t just call Juls, a lot of that whole final ep, pretty sure they arrived at the TV confession first, and then were like, how we can we get these two to that place…okay, we’ll make it a media scandal and…we’ll add weight to it by having them stay apart because Juls’s life is under threat (also, wtf, Beltran was threatening her??) Like what was Val really saying in the kitchen scene, what was her reason for staying away? Juls’s safety or her own family? And since when did she care what her family…but anyway, yes, so, the plot needed certain things to happen, and their conflict is really so tame, like, neither is going to willfully hurt the other, they both clearly wanted to be with the other, so just pull out some fake high stakes stuff to include a grand gesture in the finale.
Ultimately, what defined the finale was more what it didn’t have than what it did. But it didn’t wreck the characters, it didn’t ruin their dynamic, it didn’t make it impossible for them to be together, by death or permanent separation. I can blame their planning but I don’t really blame them for a lot of the decisions they took along the way or the motivations behind them. They wanted to keep these two likable and healthy and destined and I can’t dislike that. Maybe if there’s a spinoff or even just a new project by the same team, they’ll have learned what works and what really didn’t and we can look forward to that.