# La Madrastra (2022)

> A wrongfully imprisoned mother returns to Mexico after twenty years to prove her innocence and win back the children and life that were taken from her.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/130134

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 50
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama, romance
- Created by: Carmen Armendáriz
- Network: Las Estrellas
- Cast: Aracely Arámbula, Andrés Palacios, Marisol del Olmo, Marco Antonio Treviño, David Caro Levy, Ana Tena, Denia Agalianou, Martha Julia
- TMDB rating: 7.7/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt20358106/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: mild
- Tone: melodramatic, emotional, suspenseful, hopeful

## What critics say

Audiences rated the telenovela positively, appreciating its melodramatic revenge arc and the lead performance in a familiar genre format.

## Synopsis

La Madrastra (2022) is a Mexican telenovela remake produced for Las Estrellas and TelevisaUnivision, a 50-episode single-season run adapted from the 1981 Chilean original. Aracely Arámbula plays Marcia Cisneros, who walks out of prison after twenty years for a murder she never committed and returns home determined to uncover the real killer and reclaim the children who grew up without her. Andrés Palacios plays Esteban Lombardo, and Marisol del Olmo plays Lucrecia Lombardo, and their household sits at the center of the resentment and old betrayals that Marcia must confront. The engine of the series is plain and powerful: a wronged woman against a web of lies, with each episode built from confrontations, hidden letters, family dinners turned hostile and slow reveals of who benefited from her downfall. It is a single continuing story rather than a case of the week, moving steadily through one complete arc. The mood is melodramatic and emotionally heightened, with suffering, hope and rage rising together. Set in contemporary Mexico, it carries the warm, heightened register of the Latin American telenovela tradition. Fans of Yo soy Betty, la fea, Rosalinda and La usurpadora will find resonance in its blend of romance, family conflict and the long wait for justice.

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