I still remember the first time I saw Mentiras, The Musical (2009–), a jukebox musical featuring Mexican hits from the 80s. I was so young, the year was 2011, and my theatre group was visiting Mexico City. Our itinerary included a play, but you can’t imagine the disappointment of a bunch of teens when we found out we were watching a musical called “Lies” based on some old Mexican songs. “It’s going to be such a waste of time — that’s like for some middle-aged women!” we protested. But, surprise, surprise! Not only did we love it, but we became huge fans for life. I’ve since remained an admirer of the stage play, and I’ve had more than a few chances to watch it (I even played Lupita in a small production in my hometown).
With all that, you’ll understand how excited I was to have a first look at this beloved story once it was adapted into an Amazon original series. And, oh surprise, this version gives us a bi character too! But just how good is its representation of bisexuality? Let’s talk about it! This article contains SPOILERS for both the musical and the show, so if you don’t want to get spoiled about important plot twists, I recommend watching either of them before continuing. If you’re also here for the first time, take a look at the article that started it all to understand our rating criteria better, here. You can also read our Bi Media entry about this show.
Ready? Without further ado, let’s begin!
Mentiras: The Series (2025) is set in Mexico in the 1980s. The story begins with four different women being informed of the death of Emmanuel Mijares (Luis Gerardo Méndez), a family man with a mysterious personality — and, as we’ll discover, a man of many facets. These women then meet at his funeral, only to be informed that they’re the main suspects in his murder investigation, forcing them to try to get to know each other while figuring out what really happened. As they share their own stories, they begin to realize that they’re all tightly linked to Emmanuel. First, there’s Daniela (played by Belinda), who is Emmanuel’s first love and wife, and we then meet Yuri (Regina Blandón), Daniela’s best friend and Emmanuel’s lover. Dulce (Diana Bovio), as we learn, is a novice nun who, after babysitting Daniela’s brother, met Emmanuel and became his hidden second wife. And last but not least, we meet Lupita (Mariana Treviño), who was Emmanuel’s secretary and mistress. So, it seems like Emmanuel showed each of them a different facet of his own life, adapting to their expectations and connecting deeply with all of them.
The plot goes back and forth between past and present, unraveling their life stories and explaining how Emmanuel managed to keep his four loves a secret from one another. The story is full of suspense, betrayal, surprises, deception, and yes… a lot of lies. All of it as we enjoy spectacular musical numbers of iconic 80s hits like “Castillos” (1983), “Pobre Secretaria” (1983), “Baño de mujeres” (1990), “Detrás de mi ventana” (1993), and many others.
For this analysis, we’ll center on Yuri’s story. Yuri and Daniela have been best friends since childhood. The first to meet Emmanuel is Yuri, who helped him out during a test in middle school. We see their relationship blossom in a way that seems to go beyond a friendship — that is, until Emmanuel meets Daniela and is instantly smitten. Deciding to be a good friend, Yuri steps back so her best friend and Emmanuel can date. However, Emmanuel maintains a strong connection with Yuri, and they eventually have an affair. But after Emmanuel and Daniela’s wedding, Yuri tries to distance herself, moving to the U.S. When she eventually returns to Mexico, her deep love with Emmanuel rekindles, and it’sn’t until Daniela gets pregnant that Yuri tries to end their secret relationship for good.
Near the end of the series, in a tense moment after all women confessed their true desires and mistakes, it is revealed that Yuri is also in love with her best friend, Daniela. This shocks everyone and adds a new twist to the story. Daniela doesn’t take it well, accusing Yuri of making it all up to shift blame onto her. Later, Yuri and Daniela have an honest conversation where Daniela apologizes for being so harsh, and Yuri explains her love for Daniela in more depth, and they end up forgiving each other once they can share their truths.
What I liked:
This adaptation is incredible as far as production design goes. The transition from the stage to screen is seamless, managing to add details that would be impossible to convey in a theatre production. We get deeper backstories for each character and explore their motivations further. Surprisingly, one character who didn’t shine much in the musical, Yuri, is brilliantly developed in the series.
She is the whole package, a character with aspirations, dreams, but also flaws, and guilt about the past. Yet she’s not the villain of the story, and she explains her actions with raw honesty and humanity. In the show, we learn more about her personal life, and we see her guilt over having an affair with Emmanuel. After her love for Daniela is revealed, she openly admits to being in love with both, never doubting her feelings despite the stigma that bi people faced at the time. I find it incredibly important for a Mexican production that they decided to include bisexuality, which is still something rare, even though the bi community is so large.
What I didn’t like:
Oh boy, here we go. I’m going to keep it real with you all.
Portraying Yuri as a bi woman is one of the series’ key changes to the story. In the musical, we learn that Yuri’s affair with Emmanuel was a ploy to get him to break up with Daniela, who is the one she truly loves. In that context, Yuri has been interpreted as a lesbian, since her interest in Emmanuel wasn’t remotely genuine. If the series wanted to innovate by exploring bisexuality, it could’ve done a much better job at representing it.
In fact, for most of the series, I thought they were making Yuri into a straight woman, and I was furious about it. We only ever see her relationship with Emmanuel and her love for him, with zero hints of her attraction to Daniela until the big reveal. This contrasts sharply with the musical, where clues about her love for Daniela are sprinkled throughout. In the show, however, it feels like her bisexuality is just a plot device to make the story more dramatic, while reinforcing harmful bi stereotypes.
In the series’ context, Yuri is untrustworthy, disloyal, and unfaithful. She justifies her actions by claiming she was “confused” for loving both a man and a woman at the same time. And, honestly, I don’t understand how Daniela could ever forgive her, considering Yuri slept with her husband, with genuine attraction and interest in him. While it’s true that Daniela treated her terribly as a friend, that doesn’t excuse Yuri’s actions. Especially since she claims to be in love with Daniela. How could she do that to someone she holds dear?
Also, while we understand that Yuri is a bi woman because she is attracted to people of both sexes, the term “bi” is never used. In the 1980s, the term “bi” and bisexuality by extension were already common parlance in Mexico, and Yuri, a smart, philosophical, cultured lawyer, should have been aware of it. If the goal was to make her character more relatable, they could’ve explored her sexual self-discovery and educated the audience more while doing so. Instead, we only get a line, “I’m in love with a woman and a man at the same time”, as the sole definition and justification for her misdeeds. It almost feels like the reason Yuri makes mistakes and is disloyal is because she’s bi.
The Rating:
The screen adaptation of Mentiras excels in many production aspects, and Yuri is a well-defined, deeply layered character. As a fan of the musical, there’s a lot I didn’t enjoy, especially how the series loses the original’s message of female empowerment. I get that adaptations don’t have to be identical, but I think it’s a huge mistake to strip away the musical’s essence and core message.
Yuri is a well-defined character, a powerful bi woman, and one worth celebrating, as we have few examples of bi people on Mexican television. However, it would’ve been a dream come true if they’d represented her bisexuality well — it’d be grand if this musical I love so much could now include good bi rep. Maybe Mexican producers still have a lot to learn about this topic to give us better bi characters and stop promoting harmful stereotypes. But as they sing, there will always be better times.