At a very young age, I just knew that I loved drama, or at least loved watching it. When my mom would put on her "adult" tv shows I always found a place in front of the tv completely entranced. Due to this early appreciation of dramatic tv shows, of course as I got older the shows I was drawn to the most were teen dramas like the O.C., Gossip Girl, 90210, Pretty Little Liars, etc.
However, when I first started taking Spanish classes in middle school and high school, I had a newfound interest in Spanish/Spanglish dramas as I wanted to immerse myself in the language more. Like a lot of people in this class, Jane the Virgin was my first step in the door to telenovelas, or shows with heavy telenovela tropes. Through Jane the Virgin, I found that I thoroughly enjoy convoluted storylines, even if they don't make sense half the time. Watching mess unfold on my screen makes television way more enjoyable for my watching experience, so shows like Jane the Virgin and Netflix's Elite were perfect stepping stones.
Telenovelas and melodramas in general, always knew how to pull me in emotionally. Rooting for the main character, picking your favorite love interest, crying late at night over your favorite character dying, and wishing death and revenge on the villain, are all to me important elements of these shows as they ignite passion from the viewers. Learning about the history behind that passion made telenovelas and melodramas so much more interesting. How it evolved from the Feuilleton, yet still kept that same element of suspense and utilizing cliffhangers is extremely fascinating and admirable to me.
Watching the clips and examples of the shows in class, sparked intrigue and recognition. I recently started Ugly Betty on Netflix, so finding out that it was based on a largely successful telenovela was extremely cool to learn, and honestly now that I keep watching the show, I 100% see the telenovela elements within the show. In terms of my watchlist, since I am already a little familiar with telenovelas or at least their tropes, I figured I would start watching the Dizi, Sen Cal Kapimi next. I loved the trailer and I realized that I have seen clips of the show on TikTok! Overall, I loved finding and learning about the historical connections about the shows I've already watched and enjoyed, and I can't wait to learn and absorb even more information -- I just know my watchlist will be ridiculously long after this class.
Hi Alicia! First off, Elite and Ugly Betty are both on my watchlist, so it's good to get a peer's stamp of approval that they will be great watches. I love how your blog post revolves around your personal experience with melodrama, and how there's this shared experience between fans of melodrama with rooting for your favorite characters and ships or crying over the show late at night. Great job!
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