Monday, April 18, 2011
La Fea Más Bella Post-Finale Discussions
Labels: fea-2010
It's my idea for a LFMB sequel. I call it Conceptos: 2009 (come on, the name would have made sense a few years ago).
It turns out that the Conceptos building was originally built on an abandoned hazardous waste site. A catastrophic explosion knocks Conceptos into space. Fortunately, they have a very good HVAC system, and the space suit costumes in Luigi's wardrobe department are fully functional!
Conceptos floats through space, lost. With no navigation or propulsion systems, they are doomed to wander the galaxy aimlessly, hoping for a soft landing on an inhabitable planet. Until then, they will be at the mercy of the surprisingly many civilizations and ships they encounter in space.
Tomas becomes skilled at fashioning useful things (but not as useful as warp engines or subspace radio) out of coconuts. We discover that Alicia had six semesters of medical training at a very prestigious university; she becomes their doctor. Omar and Caro convert the Vortex of Stupidity into a kitchen. Luigi helps the Conceptos crew negotiate their way through space by producing tourism commercials for all the dystopian societies they encounter. Ariel constantly tries to sabotage the Conceptos crew for personal gain.
Lety and Fernando mostly hang out and flirt with each other in the presidential office, but when the situation on a strange new planet becomes very dire, they put on a song & dance show and charm their new friends in exchange for food supplies and a course correction.
As for the cuartel, they were at La Comidilla during the fateful blast and are still on Earth, so we never see them again.
There is also a wisecracking robot dog whose just shows up midseason without explanation.
I also have an idea for a spinoff series featuring Super-Fernando and Super-Fea, but someone else will have to develop it.
What do you think, sirs?
I'm sure if you wanted to psychoanalyze him, his whole rivalry with Fern could be explained with his parents' death. I'm sure he felt inferior coming into Fernando's world himself. His family had to acclimate themselves into the Mendiola household. I think his insistence on having the presidency of Conceptos was fear that his family would be muscled out of the business; however, like I said before, none of that concern truly seemed to be about his sisters. He seemed more concerned about Marcia with Fern than Ana Leticia in general.
Alexis
As to who the dumbest person was on La Fea, it probably would be Ana Leticia but my second choice would be Extension Lety. Goodness knows, Lety in the extension walked around like she was a few bricks short of a full load.
Ariel is simply a slimy toad and will always be a slimy toad. Before the extension, I would have said that Omar came in a close second but redeemed himself in the end.
You also could argue that Aldo was a might stupid in that he persisted in his controlling manner even though that wasn't getting him to far. He also had the gall to state that he loved Lety with the same intensity as Fernando. NOT!!!! And Aldo appears to be starting his same pattern over again with the lost boy in Acapulco. Isn't that the definition of stupidity? Continuing to do the things the same way even though that way doesn't work out?
Thanks Paula, for adding the extra page. Sylvia, I'll try not to go too silent. I suspect you'll see me on Llena page until it ends. That's a frustrating show that should have been finished 50 episodes ago.
(Hospital shows are popular - if there were some way to turn Conceptos into a walk-in clinic, I think we'd have a hit. Though I probably wouldn't watch it. Not unless you cast Sergio Sendel as a misanthropic doctor with a limp. But now I'm going off topic, LOL.)
Holy guacamole, I think you're right. Considering that I used to say myself that Extension Lety was a different character and didn't count as Real Lety!
Realistically, I don't think there's any couple, regardless of differences in socioeconomic class, etc., who would still be calling one another "usted" so late in their relationship.
But dropping "usted" symbolizes the demolition of every last barrier between them - and there were so many. No matter how much love they felt, even in Cuernavaca, there were emotional and situational and societal forces keeping them apart, and as long as they felt those forces, they couldn't bring themselves to switch.
I don't think it would work that way for real people, but Gaitan was creating literature - using grammar itself to symbolize the status of their relationship.
I guess the thinking is that since everybody has sex, they needed to have something more sacred than that. So, only after the vows have been spoken and the blessing given do they make the switch. Then they can be together for real - hearts, souls, and pronouns.
I'll try to come back later with more ideas for a LFMB spin-off. Right now I've got a whole lot of nothing. Although I'd sort of be interested to see what happens with Marcia.
Thank you also for the explanations on the tu vs Ud. issue. I just thought that they probably would have used it before the wedding day...or even when they were proclaiming their love for each other (or even in the hotel room that last night). It became a "thing" and I just wondered why they kept it going on for so long.
I really liked Marta's idea for a simple, three-years-later, Modern Family type of thing. More of a low-key approach to comedy that lets the audience figure out when things are supposed to be funny, instead of using sound effects, funny faces, and particular musical themes to signal when people are supposed to laugh. That would be refreshing.
So, yes a sequel would be very nice. I feel like the producers left us hanging there at the end. Would love to have seen a better wrap-up. I've had my problems with Llena de Amor but the wrap-up on tomorrow night's show was very fitting and well done. No, I'm not giving anything away.
Julie, go for it! Write a script and submit it to Televisa. It has to be better than some of the junk their writers do.
I think we should develop a storyline where Luigi's studio is actually the secret entrance to an underground earth defense base. Quiet-spoken, tough-as-nails, silver-haired Humberto is actually the commander of the defense base. No wonder he's so stressed all the time! People at Conceptos don't even realize its existance because they so rarely see him around.
I don't know what the Dr. Who connection is because I never watched it much... oh, they had a robot dog, didn't they? All right then. The Bionic Man and/or Woman had a robot dog too, or am I thinking of Get Smart. (Maybe they all had one.)
I figure the robot dog can be Moty after a run-in with the Borg.
But no talking babies or precocious children. That's a firm rule.
So you counter with UFO... in my defense, I only ever saw half a dozen episodes of that. But it certainly is a better fit than Space: 1999 (I just wanted to physically remove Conceptos from the cuartel; perhaps I should have had the cuartel blasted into space instead). Plus, wardrobe is simplified by having all the women wear purple wigs and... whatever those uniforms are supposed to be.
I would think it'd be harder for them to stick with "usted" if it seemed awkward and more Colombian than Mexican. Imagine you were working with a British script that said "whilst" instead of "while" - wouldn't you question saying "whilst" in your American adaptation? And would you really need someone to flag all of the awkward-sounding "whilsts" and such?
That's why I thought the formal address was a deliberate choice. Even if it wasn't meant that way in Colombia - maybe they kept it in the Mexican script because it seemed to add a little something extra.
Was "What do you think, sirs?" take from something?
So now you're picking up on references that I've been making so automatically that I don't even know I'm making them. "What do you think, sirs" is from Mystery Science Theater 3000. It's what Joel said at the end of every Invention of the Week segment.
Does anyone know the site for the Spanish language La Fea blog/ discussion? I'm sure it was posted before, but I'm late to this blog and don't know where it would be. Gracias.
---Susie
Julie, your explanation about Mex v. Colombian usted makes sense. Back to the drawing board.
Diann
Remember we have always said that the main reasons they split the first time was the 'lack of trust' (Fernando seduced Lety because he did not trust her love for him). The second time (when Lety returned and did not accept Fernando's confessions) it was the reverse, Lety did not trust or Believe Fernando's story, which would have been a bit more realistic given that Lety had not gone through the extreme physical transformation that Betty did in the Col version.
So finally dropping the 'Usted' in the end (and in the Col version it is a lovely scene in the sofa in Betty's parents house) is like Julie said, the final barrier/wall that was left between them. Now they can trust each other completely and not fear being hurt or betrayed. Of course the final moment to secure that feeling is the wedding... but I believe in Col it did happen at the Pinzon household a few days before.
I also do give it to some extent to the colombian script and the influence of 'Usted' being used much more generally there.
Interesting all those stories about taking the main characters minus the cuartel and putting them out in space without external influences, but I think they are mature enough and their love is strong enough to face those external influences without it affecting them.
So do we mean to include Alicia, Tommy and their baby in outer space too? Would their baby be the one to always get them in trouble?
BarbaraM, I also saw Llena de Amor finale, when the Mexican one aired. (I started getting really impatient with the version on Univision and there were some episodes I wanted to skip.) I think the finale was well done too. I do wish we would have gotten some glimpse into the future with LFMB. I could imagine that Tomas and Alicia's kid would be a trip. Could you imagine? Tomas's idiosyncrasies, his laugh, Alicia's habit of smoothing her hair, her oblivousness, she could say, "Maaama" "Paaaapi"; seems like she could be the cause of problems for the parents.
Alexis
I had figured Alicia to end up being the doctor and Tomas to be the scientist, but I forgot about the baby. (I really do wish the real final could have FF'd into the future a little bit to see them as a family!) You're right, there will be at least one kid on the SS Conceptos even before Lety and Fern have theirs. Maybe Tomas builds the robot to keep Pancracito company.
But if the kid starts causing problems, I'm quitting the show! We can joke about bad sci-fi cliches, but precocious/meddlesome kids are the WORST! (Actually the worst would be if we had to deal with the cuartel's kids instead.)
Alexis - I wonder if Tom and Ali's child wouldn't be a next-generation feo/a. It doesn't seem as though Lety would want to enable such awkwardness in her own child, but Tomas is still dorky and Ali's learned to love his dorkiness. I don't know if it's possible for a child to inherit both his dorkiness and her self-absorbed vanity, but it'd be interesting to find out.
I wonder if there's a Spanish-dubbed copy of Buck Rogers out there. I would love to hear what they did with Twikki's voice and I'd also love to know exactly how Buck's 20th-century slang, and Wilma and Dr. H's confused interpretations thereof, went over in Spanish.
I saw an old, Mexican-made cheesy sci-fi movie (Nave de los Monstruos, starring Pirropo, with singing!) on the local cable access channel's horror host show a few months ago. It was a riot. Proof that Mexican audiences aren't averse to this sort of thing, even if Televisa would never touch it with a ten-foot pole!
For those in the LA area there's an opp to get to meet her in person & see a show (I think).
Thanks for the new picture Paula!
Alexis
from what I saw at Angelica's appearance in EGS and in the Premios lo nuestro with Jaime, they are as close as ever... not sure what people mean of 'what was happening in 07' but right now they look very close.
And I dont think Jaime acted uncomfortable. I noticied lots of looks btw the two of them.
They are great friends to this day.
Diann
I do recall jaime avoiding the questions but that is very understandable... just because you two are close friends since childhood and do a novela together does not mean you are an item, but I believe audiences back then wanted them to be so they could see Angelica in love... dont recall any relationship for her back then.
Is the show translated somewhere?
Juan Soler wasn't on the show or at the celebration concert - why is that since he was such a big part of LFMB?
Also, Simon wasn't at Lety's wedding - does anyone know why?
Do you have any suggestions as to a telenovela to watch next that's more comedy than murder and mayhem?
I'd also like to thank y'all for all the recaps and comments - it has made LFMB take on a whole new meaning. Too, reading back, I wish Elizabeth (Marcia) much success with her new show but hope Jaime Camil doesn't join her - it'd seem like he'd left Lety and was cheating with Marcia...clearly, I got WAY too involved in LFMB!
Stephanie
I think it's just natural when a novela comes out, almost always they put the protagonists together in real life in the gossip columns. It's to be expected.
Stephanie,
I've never seen the Christina show translated, but I've never looked much for a translation. If you want to wait around, maybe I could write up a translation. Also, I agree, it would be kind of weird to see Elizabeth and Jaime as a couple who is supposed to be together, lol. I think anything they do will be good though. A lot of them have new novelas coming out now: if the chisme about Jaime and Elizabeth is true, Soler has Cuando Me Enamoro and then Angelica has "No me Hallo."
Alexis
Part 1 and Part 2.
IMHO Jaime went through an arrogant stage right after Fea. It was probably from too much success, too fast. But within a year, his feet were back on the ground and he seemed like a decent ser humano again.
As for the Cristina show, I'm looking at the recaps for that now - I had forgotten how at one point, it pretty much turned into the Niurka show when we wanted to hear more from the other actors. Arrrgh!!
If an actor had a scheduling or travel conflict, he would sometimes appear via satellite or in a pretaped segment. But some actors never participated at all.
In some cases, this may have had something to do with the tension between Televisa and Univision. Maybe some actors felt slighted by Univision in some way. But I don't think Soler was ever with Televisa to begin with, so I doubt that was it in his case.
I really wish Soler had done the Cristina show. I had been hoping to see how he got along with the other cast members in non-Aldo mode. I'm pretty sure that would have pleased a lot more people than the Niurka segment did.
I would have liked to see him on there as well. He and Camil would have been fun to see together. I thought it was weird that they presented Niurka with her Playboy covers, but the song was okay, not really my style. I just can't get over her nails; same thing with Ivy Queen actually, they're so long, it's creepy.
Btw, just as a random link, I was looking for music from Pimpinela (an older Argentine duo) on youtube and I found a spoof of one of their famous songs on Cantando Por un Sueno, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6rfFZHJKwY&NR=1, by Eugenio Derbez, who had a cameo in LFMB. I just share it because I thought it was funny.
La Vale and Paty Navidad also appeared on that show as their characters, and I'm sure you've all seen it, but just to post the link again if you're interested, since I'm spamming the board with nonsense. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFSiKdkBhgI
I love the song Paty Navidad sings.
Alexis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p55BhZmlYTw&feature=related
Stephanie
Anon, when there aren't any good TNs on TV, that's the time to look elsewhere.
1. I've gotten series from /www.te-lenovelas.com . Corazon Salvaje 1993 is one of the best TNs ever made. Only about 75 caps (I think), and zero filler. Certainly not lighthearted, but truly great. Or La Hija del Mariachi is very good, and though it's not comedy, it's definitely lighter than most.
2. Unfortunately most comedy TNs are pretty lame. One notable exception is Los Exitosos ... [Pells / Perez / Gomez, depending on the version]. You can probably find the whole thing on YouTube. Camil did LE-Perez and he did a great job on it. The plot line is weak because the emphasis is more on the comedy. Comparable to American Ugly Betty.
3. If you have Netflix, they have the condensed versions of many classic TNs. The condensed are pretty choppy, but it's a good way to skim some of the classics.
I don't have time for another run-of-the-mill, cliche-ridden TN unless it's full of people I love. But even those can be disappointing; refer to STuD.
I assume UFCS is still in the queue after some other TN ends, hopefully in the near future (honestly I've lost track). I don't know if it's any good, but someone I like is in it, and it looks a little bit different. We'll see...
I also have a few condensed classics on DVD, but watching DVDs during primetime is tricky because my DVD player is also my recorder. If I don't get the timing right, there's an increased chance that the recording will fail. (I don't watch many things live any more; I can watch everything in just 2/3rds the time if I skip the commercials.)
I am also not watching novelas. I can't get into Cuando Me Enamoro either, maybe later on I'll catch a few episodes. I'll follow "No Me Hallo" when it comes out; hopefully it's good. I like Angelica Vale and I think the premise has a lot of potential, and the videos on the site look good. I'm kind of happy it's online (I work at nights, so I can watch during the day). I don't watch much English television, and I have a German show I'm trying to watch (I studied German for three years and have forgotten most of it).
Maybe I'll try Paula's suggestion and get a more classic TN. I never watched any version of Corazon Salvaje. Is the 1993 version the best, in your opinion, Paula?
Alexis
Marcia decides that Conceptos should buy this Columbian fashion house and sends Lety and Fernanado to meet with the owners.
There was a 1977 TN with Angélica María (Mama Julieta of Fea), and a 1966 TN with Julissa (Mama Teresita of Fea), but I don't know anything about them and I'm sure they're not available anywhere.
I'd recommend that you consider getting the complete (not condensed) version of CS-93, the one with Eduardo Polomo.
Am watching the end of MDA which I joined late but it does amuse me. There was a TWO day death scene that was actually petty well done. Have seen a preview of a new one with Paty Navidad called Zacatillo which is apparently another with comedy undertones. It is also supposedly very popular in Mexico. So I'll give it a try when Mar de Amor ends in the next couple of weeks.
I think it's pretty clear that there's no hope for a sequel series any more, but I'll bet a TV movie would be well received.
Thanks, cómo siempre!
Stephanie
Yesterday on Twitter, Jaime posted someone's tweet, asking him to recommend a book. Jaime answered, "Gladly. 30 Things Future Dads Should Know About Pregnancy. Then he pondered, "What would Heidi recommend?"
In a normal world, that would be just shy of announcing that they're expecting. BUT in late Feb, in an interview w/ Hola mag, he announced that he'd given Heidi a diamond ring. Normally that would mean they're planning a wedding. But a week later, he came out and said that just because he gave her a diamond ring, it doesn't mean they're getting married. So what does yesterday's post mean? Who knows?
I did notice that Heidi changed her twitter bio to read "ex-model." Publicity stunt? I don't think so. Para que? He doesn't have any projects coming out soon. But beyond that, I just don't know.
And the 93 version was 80 episodes. I have translated half of my dialogue files for it in the telenovela-world forum.
Btw, Ann, I also like your idea for a sequel. That would be interesting, they could have a cameo from the actors from YSBLF. Clash of the versions of YSBLF.
Alexis
Alexis
The announcement, via Google Translate
Paparazzi photos of Heidi's baby bump
Interview with Javier
Alexis
I've seen the promos on Univision for it. I'll make sure to watch it tonight...I agree it looks pretty good.
It comes out every Mon, Wed and Fri, I think. It looks like it has such potential, but the episodes are so short! The second episode was only around 5 and a half minutes. I'm not sure if they're going to make longer episodes, I hope so. I'll keep watching it since it's all online and convenient to see. I don't have a DVR, so I don't have to worry about missing it.
I'll give Zacatillo a try as well, if I can find it online.
Alexis
I read an article (can't find the link now) that this web novela will continue with the 5 eps, but they plan to show them all on Univision proper on a special at some point in the future so that you see it as one linear series... I'll re-post that link if I can find it again.
I watched the first one and liked it although I wish they'd had captioning...it made me realize just how dependent on the captions I've become to understand what's going on. I think I got most of it though. Glad to hear there are others watching!
Alexis
No Me Hallo is 30 caps of 3min each. ( It may seem like 5 because of the intro and ending of each cap) the total web series is 90 minutes played out over 10 weeks. Mon Wed Fri.
Got this straight from one of the directors in a Twitter reply from him to me :)
Diann
Very cool, thanks for the information. I was wondering how long it would be. Seems kind of like a pain for the caps to be so short, but at least it's good and it's something to pass 5 minutes. Angelica Vale is just adorable so I'll keep on watching, and on the plus side if I miss one capitulo, at least it'll be quick to catch up on.
Alexis
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