“Rubí” arrived on Univision in January 2020 with a familiar name and a new face. The Spanish-language series is a reboot of the 2004 Mexican telenovela of the same name, and the third production in the Fábrica de sueños franchise. It ran for one season, 26 episodes, from January 21 to February 27, 2020. Camila Sodi plays the title character.
A Journalist in a Dark Mansion
The premise is a frame story. Carla, a young journalist, convinces Rubí to tell the story of her life. Rubí is a mysterious woman who lives in a dark mansion. She isolated herself from the outside world out of free will. The question of why drives the series.
That structure does real work. It gives the show a present tense and a past tense, and it lets Rubí narrate her own damage. The audience knows from the first scene that the ambitious woman on screen ends up alone. The pleasure is watching how.
Rubí Pérez Ochoa and the Cost of Ambition
Rubí is an ambitious woman of humble origins. She is determined to use her impressive beauty and female gimmicks to escape poverty and achieve fame. She does not much care whether she harms innocent people along the way.
That is the engine. Rubí is not a good person, and the show does not pretend otherwise. She is a woman with a plan and a mirror, and the plan works often enough to keep her moving. The series is at its best when it lets her win.
Camila Sodi carries the part. She has to play the version of Rubí who sits in the dark mansion and the version who schemes in the open, and she keeps both in the same body. The show leans on her face more than on dialogue, which is the right call.
Alejandro Cárdenas, Héctor Ferrer Garza, and the Men Around Her
José Ron plays Alejandro Cárdenas. Rodrigo Guirao Díaz plays Héctor Ferrer Garza. Kimberly Dos Ramos plays Maribel de la Fuente. These are the people Rubí pulls into her orbit, and the show gives each of them a reason to stay.
The cast was revealed in stages. People en Español magazine reported the cast in September 2019 and the characters in January 2020. The full roster includes Ela Velden as Carla Rangel and Fernanda Pérez Ochoa, Tania Lizardo as Cristina Pérez Ochoa, Henry Zakka as Boris, Lisardo Guarinos as Arturo de la Fuente, Rubén Sanz as Eduardo, María Fernanda García as Rosa Ortiz de la Fuente, Gerardo Murguía as Dr. Mandieta, and Jose Casasús as Socrates.
Ela Velden does double duty as Carla and Fernanda, which matters because Carla is the one asking the questions. The frame story only works if the journalist is a character and not a device. Velden makes her a character.
Leonardo Padrón and the 26-Episode Run
Leonardo Padrón wrote the series. Yolanda Vargas Dulché and Padrón are credited as creators. W Studios produced it for Televisa and Univision. The 26-episode order is short by telenovela standards, and the show benefits from it.
There is no room for the usual padding. Rubí’s schemes have to land and move on. The February 27 finale arrives before the premise wears out, which is more than most reboots manage. A longer run would have forced the writers to soften her or repeat her.
What the Reboot Keeps and What It Changes
The 2004 original made Rubí a known quantity. The 2020 version adds the journalist and the mansion, and that frame changes the meaning of the story. The old Rubí was a cautionary tale. This Rubí is a confession.
The show is a soap, and it knows it. The genres listed are soap, and the plotting is soap plotting: money, beauty, betrayal, and a woman who uses all three. The difference is that this Rubí is allowed to be smart about it.
The dark mansion is the best idea in the series. It is a physical fact and a moral one. Rubí chose it. Nobody locked her in.
The Numbers Behind the Score
The published critical score is 7.4 out of 10, from a TMDB audience score with 856 votes. That is a fair number for a show that is good at one thing and does not pretend to be good at anything else.
A 7.4 says the audience liked it and did not love it. That tracks. The series is tight, well cast, and clear about its intentions. It is not trying to reinvent the telenovela. It is trying to make one that holds up in 26 episodes, and it does.
Hard Numbers
- Title: Rubí
- Year: 2020
- Network: Univision
- Episodes: 26
- First aired: January 21, 2020
- Last aired: February 27, 2020
- Creators: Yolanda Vargas Dulché, Leonardo Padrón
- Writer: Leonardo Padrón
- Producer: W Studios, for Televisa and Univision
- Genre: Soap
- Franchise: Fábrica de sueños, third production
- Source material: reboot of the 2004 Mexican telenovela
- Score: 7.4/10 (TMDB audience score, 856 votes)
Who Plays Whom
The cast list runs long, and the show uses most of it. Camila Sodi leads as Rubí Pérez Ochoa. José Ron is Alejandro Cárdenas, Rodrigo Guirao Díaz is Héctor Ferrer Garza, and Kimberly Dos Ramos is Maribel de la Fuente. Ela Velden plays both Carla Rangel and Fernanda Pérez Ochoa. Tania Lizardo is Cristina Pérez Ochoa. Henry Zakka plays Boris, Lisardo Guarinos plays Arturo de la Fuente, Rubén Sanz plays Eduardo, and María Fernanda García plays Rosa Ortiz de la Fuente. Gerardo Murguía is Dr. Mandieta, and Jose Casasús is Socrates.
Where It Lands
Rubí earns its 7.4. The frame story is the reason to watch. A woman in a dark mansion telling a journalist why she put herself there is a better hook than another straight retelling of the 2004 original, and Padrón uses it to keep the audience at a distance from a character who would otherwise be too easy to root for.
The weak point is the middle. With 26 episodes, the show still finds room to stall, and a few of the men around Rubí exist mainly to be used and discarded. Alejandro and Héctor get real arcs. Some of the others do not.
The strong point is Sodi. She plays Rubí as a woman who knows exactly what she is doing and does it anyway. That is harder than playing a villain, and she makes it look easy.
Rubí is a soap that respects its audience. It does not moralize about its lead, and it does not redeem her. It lets her tell her own story and lets the audience decide what to make of it. That is the right call, and it is why the show holds up.
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