Caray, Caray!

Wow Jean...extra-great pictures! You've made my day.
 

Thanks for the pics and the recap, Jean.
I got a big kick out of Oscar and Jimena in the tub.
Oscar loves his tub, Juan loves his old truck, but what about Franco? I've haven't seen him attach to anything material.

At the party, Juan mostly danced without moving his feet much, but there was a moment when he and Norma were really dancing. He actually moved!!

What a scream - Dinorah's parents defending their sweet innocent daughter, while she's cavorting at some beach with Camba from "Zorro"!

Sarita has some serious guilt about "betraying" mommy - why else did she let Gabi keep lashing her? Sarita could beat the tar out of Gabi anyday!
 

Yes, thanks for the pictures Jean! There are lots of beautiful people on this show. How can anyone resist watching Mario when they see pictures? :)

I think I'm caught up with you all again, but can anyone tell me what episode number (according to YouTube) we're up to now?

I don't even bother watching Rosario and Armando anymore, yet somehow I think I've even kept up with their storyline! At times I feel like fast forwarding through Raquel too. She never seems to learn any lessons or take any hints about what her awful behavior brings.

I love the scenes with Juan David and Martin, they seem to enjoy each other, it's very sweet.
 

I agree, Rhonda--I don't see how anybody can resist PdG with these pictures! In fact, I just wrote a post/rant thingie about my attempts to share PdG and LT with family and friends and how nobody is the least bit interested. So frustrating! I was going to post it over at the telenovela-world forum but I will soon post it here too. (It's kinda long so I hope there is no character limit.)

I'm missing Juan today--definitely not enough of him in the storyline! Oh well, I know he will come back.
 

TRYING TO SHARE PASION DE GAVILANES

Can anybody else relate to this? Here is what happened when I have tried to share my enjoyment of Pasion de Gavilanes and other telenovelas. A month or so ago when I received my PdG DVD set, I told my husband I wanted to show him parts of it. “I’m not interested,” he said. “But I want to share this with you!” I replied. “This is important to me! It’s a good show! You’ll like it!” He said he still didn’t care, that he didn’t want to spend the time, etc. I knew he would never agree to all 13 hours, so I said I wanted to zip through at least the first two discs, mostly fast-forwarding while actually playing some of the best scenes just so he would get an idea of what it was like. “It won’t take more than an hour,” I promised. Whenever I could (like when he was eating and therefore a captive audience), I would tell him about the plots and characters beforehand, so I wouldn’t have to explain so much during the actual showing. I told him how one woman posted that she and her husband had a marathon showing of her whole DVD set and that he got so into it that he was mad when his cell phone rang. I told him how a guy on Amazon reviewed the DVD’s and said he avoids American soaps but got totally hooked on PdG. “See, there are men who watch it! You’ll like it!” I assured him. “Just two discs! That’s all I ask!”

Well he finally agreed, if only to shut me up. Here is what my end of the conversation sounded like:

“Here’s a good part. Are you watching? Now look! Keep watching. Don’t read that magazine! You’re still reading! Now watch! Are you looking? This is a good scene! Oh, you missed it! Now I have to rewind! WATCH!!! Put the magazine down! Did you see it? Wasn’t that cute? LOOK!!! Are you falling ASLEEP??? Wake up! You’re SLEEPING!!!! I can’t believe this! How can you fall ASLEEP during this???”

Seriously, this is how it went. He FELL ASLEEP. And this was during broad daylight, too. He had perked up when Jimena was stripping by the waterfall, and at one point remarked that Ruth has a nice butt. That’s about as interested as he got.

My 27-year-old son and his wife were here over July 4th weekend, and again it was like pulling teeth. I had also told them about the plot and characters in advance. “Well, pop it in and let’s get this over with,” my son sighed. We spent about half an hour zipping through disc one as I reviewed what was going on and showed some of the best scenes. Then we took a food break, and my son said he refused to watch any more, and informed me that his wife did not care at all, either. She did consent to watch parts of disc two with me because she is nice, but that was it. At least they didn’t read or fall asleep during it.

I did not even ATTEMPT to discuss this with my moody 24-year-old son.

Yet The Simpsons comes on and everyone FLOCKS to the TV, glued to the screen. Three times a day for 20 years, and they never tire of it.

For the record, when I first started watching La Traicion and Victoria, I showed my daughter-in-law some of Telemundo, and she was not impressed at all with Hugo or Alcides, but really liked Jeronimo on Victoria. However, she did not want to actually watch Victoria (or LT). After making her view PdG, I asked her if she liked Juan any better than Hugo/Alcides and she said yes. But again, not enough to watch. I have told a few friends about these shows and they expressed no interest, have never heard of them and don’t care to watch any telenovelas. I emailed pictures of Juan and Norma, and Hugo, Alcides and Soledad, and Jeronimo to an online friend and she said they were cute, but does not want to see any more photos or view the novelas. And she likes TV, cute guys, and romance stories! Yet she has no interest in this, even after seeing Mario. Nobody wants to hear more, borrow my DVD’s or tapes, nothing. What is WRONG with people??? Lol. It sure would be nice to find a real life friend who shared my interests. If it weren’t for online message boards, I would feel like I’m the only one in the world who cares!
 

thanks for the post. Definitely getting interesting
 

Thanks for the post Jean, and thanks for the You Tube links to the "missing links" from the last few episodes. I'll have to take a peek.

I had hopes that we'd be spared some of the carnage when Sarita's shirt stayed on for the lashing, but seeing blood through her blouse was still pretty disturbing. Gabi definitely beats Ester for worse mother. She may not be as evil as her equivalent in FelS, but she's still a terrible mother. Luci from Guapos may be slightly worse (no violence, just wrenching her kid from the woman he loves and marrying him off to a mafioso's daughter, then announcing to the world in a drunken rage that he wasn't her husband's son), but Gabi's straight out of the middle ages!

Cindybin, don't feel bad. I couldn't get my husband to watch Zorro, and that had swordfights! Many of my friends make fun of my TN addiction, but we all have our quirks. Unless you speak Spanish, or are willing to read subtitles (which are not always right), TNs are not quite as fun. I personally have no issues with subtitles (I prefer to listen to the actor's actual voices, as opposed to dubbed ones) but there's a difference between the occasional foreign flick and watching over 100 hours of telenovelas.

Oh, and I caught another actor from "Zorro" today. The head of the institution where they took Hortensia was the same actor that played Olmos. He's taller when he's not a hunchback.
 

I think Fernando definitely just got the idea to propose to Gabriela when he saw all the Elizondo wealth slipping away from him as he headed for that door. He’d always suspected her feelings for him were more than admiration, but when she finally gave in to her daughters’ wishes and attempted to give him the heave no, he knew he had to play a big card fast. It’s pretty comical how giddy he is in the upcoming episodes regarding her acceptance, and her blind love of him is equally pathetic and sad. I can’t listen to “Amor Prohibido” in the background without wretching.

The “rescue fiesta” was another favorite moment of mine. Who doesn’t love a good kitchen party? Norma & Juan were too cute. I love watching Mario trying to act like he can’t dance, because from what I’ve seen in other novelas, he’s actually a fantastic dancer.

I want to see the Fruit Sons find some nice girls to make them happy. I keep thinking Ruth would be great for one of them, but I don’t see Antonio going anywhere so we’ll see.

The whipping scene with Sara & Gabriela was horrible to watch, but I give all the props in the world to Natasha Klauss for a scene incredibly well played.

I love how Franco has matured into this self-confident, honorable, protective yet reasonable man. Anya, as far as a material attachment to identify with him, that’s the kicker: he doesn’t have one. He's the actual owner of all the Trueba assets, but (and maybe BECAUSE he is) you’ll hear him say at different times in the future how he’d be fine with losing it all if he could keep the important things… love, family, etc. His attachment is using what he has for the benefit of others - their cars, houses, jobs, doctors, etc. Such a sweetie…

As for Armando & Rosario, what I found so frightening about them is in that duel scene, I kept thinking that this really isn’t fantastical at all. As twisted as that was, we hear in the news all too often about such dysfunctional relationships taking tragic turns. Reminded me of when in “La Tracíon” Alcides said of Soledad that if she wasn’t for him, she wouldn’t be for anyone. Gave me chills. The problem here is, with Rosario’s recommitment to her hubby, her energy toward Franco now goes from recapture attempts to revenge. It’s not going to be pretty for him & Sarita. (Of course not, this is a telenovela….)

I haven’t posted much lately due to my having OD’d on PDG on YouTube over the holiday weekend and having moved way beyond where the TV broadcast currently is. Being unsure where the broacasts end each day, I'm afraid I'll slip & spoil things before they're shown.

I’m in a bit of a hurry to finish the novela due to a notice on the YouTube blog page about them having just been court-ordered by Viacom to delete any of Vcom's copywrited material. These purges are cyclical, recurring every now & then and when I lost my favorite “La Fea Más Bella” videos during one of them, I was heartbroken. Since I don’t have any other access to PdG, I’m going to be in a hurry to finish it before it too possibly disappears, but I intend to keep checking in.