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I love Univision’s new telenovela “Los Álamos.” It’s based on the Manhattan Project, America’s creation of an atomic bomb during World War Two. The timing makes sense, considering that the first atomic detonation took place 70 years ago on July 16 at Alamogordo, New Mexico. (Some names you simply cannot make up!)

In the meantime, we are talking a telenovela, filled with intrigues, vendettas, extramarital sex, loaded dialogue and panting louder than the bang at the Trinity bomb site. All these Chicano actors, speaking Spanish, play characters with fictionalized names: Juan Carlos Oppenhauser, Isabel Johnson, Enrico Fermi. Where do they get these names?

¡hola! A third of the scenes take place in a laboratory setting or an office adjacent to the lab. At least once in every episode, someone alludes to creating the atomic bomb, even as Roberto decides to confide in Carlota that he is secretly having an affair with Lucrecia, while Juan Carlos calculates the correct combination of polonium trigger and plutonium core needed to produce a nuclear reaction.

Spies abound with sinister names like Hermann Göring, Maximilian Froth and Count von Himmelfarb. Amazingly obtuse, the American administrators drawl, “Ya gotta take these here a-tomic scientists in all shapes, sizes and nationalities. We ain’t got time to dilly-dally. There’s a war on, y’know!”

Truer words rarely spoken.

What is with the gringo sheriff cadging barbed wire to seal off the border with Mexico? And what about the Jeep driver, a black as handsome as Harry Belafonte, dressed in olive fatigues? He speaks Spanish with a Brazilian accent so upper-class, it makes everyone else sound like slobs! However, these are only small glitches to be ironed out by episode 34 of season 3. The good news is, everyone in Mexico City sits glued to their mobile devices whenever a new episode hits the screen!

Will Isabel find true love with Pablo? Will the absentee landlord of Hacienda Tranquilidad return from the Amazonas in time to prevent Maximilian from cheating him out of his rightful inheritance while the new firing mechanism is prepped before the final, crucial test prior to placement in the bomb itself…? And will Carlota, in the midst of all this war work, forgive Juan Carlos for forgetting their fifth wedding anniversary and, instead, find solace in the arms of their Pomeranian?

And what about Miguel???

OMG, I get sweaty just writing about it! (Full disclosure: Current temperature in Maryland is 92 degrees, relative humidity 98%.)

Unlike some people I could name, I am composing this review on a Toshiba laptop. ¡viva los japoneses! Although, of course, in World War Two, they were the enemy. We dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Sorry, guys!

I like how in this latest episode, a very tall, patrician “official” in a fine dark suit has arrived from Washington, DC. He explains that they have to hurry things up a little, because otherwise the Iranians may get the bomb within a breakout time of two years. “If we don’t get Congress to sign on to an agreement to block Iran’s nuclear ambitions,” he declares, “the president will be very sore with the Republicans for screwing around with his legacy! That’s so unfair!” He then pulls Conchita into a nearby broom closet, passionately groping her private parts. So apropos! So linked to current events!

¡que te diviertas!