Jane the Virgin is a telenovela that means it

Accidentally inseminated during a routine appointment. That is the premise, delivered in episode one, and the show commits to it entirely rather than treating it as a joke.

The register

It is a telenovela and it says so — an on-screen narrator, chapter headings, plot twists announced with relish. That framing lets the show be ridiculous and sincere at once, because the heightening is declared rather than smuggled.

The narrator is the single best element. Warm, funny, occasionally breaking to admit something is upsetting, and used late in the run for one reveal that recontextualises the whole thing.

The romance

There is a love triangle and it is a real one — both options are plausible people with genuine claims, which is rarer than it should be. The show takes five seasons to resolve it and does not cheat by making one of them suddenly terrible.

What lifts it

The family. Three generations of women, and the grandmother’s storyline about immigration status is handled with more care and specificity than the premise would lead you to expect.

Tone and commitment

Warm, funny, occasionally devastating. Five seasons — a real investment, and the fourth sags. The finale sticks the landing, which is not nothing after a hundred episodes.