Preconceptions about telenovelas
Before going into this course, I had never watched a telenovela. For one, I did not know what channels they were on, and I also did not speak the language. Despite my little to no knowledge about them, I still had many misconceptions and preconceptions about them. Social media often took to joking about the dramatics of telenovelas, as seen with the famous "crying in Spanish" meme. This type of joke was what I based my knowledge about what telenovelas were in my mind--cheesy and dramatic shows.
The introduction of this course however showed that they are anything but the simplified version I had in my head. Telenovelas are nuanced and carefully produced shows just like any other TV shows I've seen. I am also familiar with Korean dramas, and they also have plenty of cheesiness in them. The telenovela I have picked, Rosario Tijeras, is filled with action and plot from the first five minutes of the pilot episode. We see the leading female protagonist gravely wounded, and a man desperately trying to get her to the hospital. She is able to receive care, and the man that brought her is stressfully trying to call someone while they are not picking up. Turns out that this person is his brother, and it is revealed that they both at one point loved her.
Just this opening scene establishes the drama filled show it will be. It is not a cheesy confession of love under the rain that I thought many telenovelas were. That's not to say that there is no romance, nor do I believe that romance is what makes a show cheesy or dramatic. Romance is a facet of telenovelas to display a much broader and complex story--it shows the love of two people in circumstances that want to tear them apart. I love examining media with a different lens than a consumer, and telenovelas hold rich history and depth.
A particularly interesting facet of telenovelas I did not think about before was how it ties into politics. As someone that was born and raised in Georgia, I do not have experience with political leaders interfering with broadcasts or the such as Venezuela did. It was very interesting to learn about how the Venezuelan president intercepted a telenovela broadcast, and the absolute outrage at this action. It makes me reconsider what telenovelas mean to not only me, but to the general public as well.
Your comment really about how social media really influenced your ideas about what telenovelas were really spoke to me. I have often found myself being biased towards certain things due to the affect social media plays in our lives. Throughout our lives we often go through this misconception that social media is helping us be aware of different things, but in reality it is often blinding us from something great. Like you, I was skeptical about my telenovela being a cheesy romance series, but boy was I surprised. The amount of action, adventure, love, hate, etc, that takes place is so much more than I could have imagined and without this class, I never would have known about it. I have grown to love La Reina del Sur and wouldn't be surprised if I found myself being drawn to watch more. Like you said, this "complex story" that takes place is something I never would have imagined. You think you can predict what's going to happen next, but then suddenly you're thrown in a loop and something new and even more exciting happens. The idea of these shows having such a big affect on us blows my mind because we have the ability to watch every episode in the here and now rather than waiting for the next day to come in order to see what's next. Excellent post, and I hope the rest of the semester is well for you! Good luck!
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