How to say ‘Falcon Crest’ in Spanish?

Mixing soap and wine is never a good idea. “Promised Land” (10 p.m., ABC, TV-14) shows there’s more than one formula for melodrama.

Set at the opulent Heritage House California vineyards, “Promised Land” is a tale of succession without the profane edge of “Succession.” Patriarch Joe Sandoval (John Ortiz) shows no sign of slowing down. And that frustrates his ambitious daughter Veronica (Christine Ochoa), who’d like to be running things her way. She has little time for her younger sister, Carmen (Mariel Molino), who thinks Heritage could shake things up by appealing to a younger demographic.

Joe’s dutiful wife, Lettie (Cecilia Suarez), knows she’ll always be his second wife. His embittered first spouse, Margaret (Bellamy Young), has rebounded to become a powerful hotelier. This being a prime-time soap, she almost immediately falls into Joan Collins’ old Alexis Carrington “Dynasty” mold. As for Lettie, she’s got secrets straight out of “The Thorn Birds.”

There’s also a lazy youngest son who has been thrown out of a string of private schools, and Antonio (Tonatiuh Elizarraraz), the prodigal eldest son who once felt the brunt of the patriarch’s disapproval and homophobia.

Before we get ahead of ourselves, there’s an extensive subplot about migrants making their way north from the Mexican border, falling into dangerous hands and arriving at the vineyards without documentation.

When “Dynasty” debuted, it tried to introduce a subplot about a striving oil worker to counterbalance the champagne dreams and shoulder pads of the Carringtons and Colbys. Viewers didn’t like it, and the series took off only when the blue-collar elements were expunged.

Audiences didn’t cotton to class struggle getting in the way of their lifestyle-of-the-rich-andfamous fantasies — in the case of “Dynasty,” even the struggles of nativeborn white people.

So, how will “Promised Land” thread this needle? How do you make poor, illegal farm workers sympathetic? Particularly in 2022, when tales of a border “invasion” provide consistent red meat for racist news outlets and at least one major political party?

The writers of “Promised Land” have come up with an interesting approach. Let’s just say I would be revealing a narrative trick right out of “This Is Us” if I said any more.

Like any prime-time soap, “Promised Land” keeps the pot boiling with complications, betrayals and secrets. But it’s essentially harmless when it should be

provocative. For a show where everybody talks about hard work, most of the scenes are of drinking wine, not making it. And it’s woefully skittish about showcasing Latin music, cuisine or culture. When we do see farm workers toiling in the fields, the soundtrack music accompanying them is sung by. ›

A series that does not shy from demonstrating the links between music and culture, “March” (8 p.m., CW, TV-PG) is steeped in the legacy of marching band traditions at a historic Black college. In a rare departure for the CW, this is a documentary series, not a teen soap.