Caray, Caray!

Oh yes, the virgin cliche. On one show I'm watching a male character claims to be able to smell them.

Medical cliches -- How come every situation where a character doesn't know his or her real parent is solved by a medical emergency which requires blood or an organ donation? And of course the supposed parents can't donate but the unknown parent is a match.

Then there are fake pregnancies. How do they think they can get away with that? There are two of those plots going on right now -- one in the afternoon & one in the evening.
 

Off the top of my head:

Baby swaps

Amnesia

The call of blood

Gullible person believes an outrageous lie told by a renowned liar

Our hero(ine) has something important to say, but instead of just saying it, prefaces it with a lengthy and misleading monologue which is then interrupted and cut off before the great revelation can be made.
 

Great topic UA!

The "One True Love" thing is even worse. Most of the times it's - insto presto fall in love with a glance across the room. It's rare that a TN has a couple have some kind of relationship and THEN fall in love after getting to know each other. Like in Refugio, Luciana falls head over heels for immature Dumbo who can't begin to appreciate her when the much more compatible Pato is right there.

If you're a (female) virgin, then you get pregnant the very first time you do it. This happens SO many times. Often often the poor girl has only had sex once in her life with her "one true love" yet gets pregnant and can go years (almost a decade even) with no other sex life (while she's hiding herself and her child from her "One True Love" who betrayed her - like in Tontas No Van Al Cielo.)
 

Oh right - dumb leads who always believe the liars and either don't believe or won't listen to the good people - like Julie pointed out. Especially when they believe the worst about each other right after expressing undying love and trust for each other and that they'll stay together no matter what!
 

Also... an important letter never reaches its destination.
 

The male lead gets to seek solace by having an affair(s) or marrying and sleeping with another woman while the female lead remains chaste even if she remarries (it's always a fake remarriage).
 

It's looking like one of the couples might be cousins. I know I've seen this at least twice.
 

A victim of a shooting or stabbing by the villain lies in his or her hospital bed. The villain always gets another crack at them by managing to sneak right by the hospital personnel.
 

I think I am particularly bugged by the heroine remaining sexless, while the galan falls into the bed of other women for comfort while they are broken up. Women have sex drives too!! Fuerza del Destino is the only dramatic tn I have seen that blasted that stereotype somewhat, although, Lucia did not enjoy sex with her husband as much as she did with her 1 true love. The galan on the other hand, only had sex once during their year long separation, and knew it was a mistake instantly. That was different also.

In other tns when the 1 true love switched from beginning to end (Querida Enemiga, Amor Real), the heroine did not have sex with the first 1 true love. Tontas was also diffent, because although she went without sex for like 8 years between her first 1 true love, and her second 1 true love, she did have sex with both. In Dinero, Ale had sex with Marco before she met Rafa, and then had sex with Rafa. Maybe comedies get to break the mold? In comedies (like Por Ella Soy Eva), the heroines can be older and have a "history" (past love, kids, be in her 30s, have a career) it seems.
 

Sleepy drops in the tea or the drink so the galan can't remember anything the next morning, especially that the conniving evil female did the deed.

Love this UA!
 

People screaming and wailing over a person who has been hurt, instead of immediately going for help or calling for help. Call first. Wail later!
 

Ugh! The idea of a man saying he can smell a virgin is too creepy.

I really hate the outdated attitude about virginity because it emphasizes the notion of women as being property instead of people.

Business cliches like instant mergers, splits, or takeovers affecting existing contracts just as the ink is dry on the checque also irritate me. In the real world these things take months to accomplish because of audits, taxes, legal filings, and other things.

We'll probably never be rid of this one, but how about identical twins with opposite personalities? In CS 2009 we had Regina and Aimee, in Clarisa there were Roberto and Reynaldo, El Clon had Lucas and Diego, and in Mundo de Fieras there were Gabriel and Damien (although they were separated at birth and raised in different families).
 

Thanks, UA. Great theme for the weekend.

Open doors: actors discussing deep dark secrets or otherwise vital information with doors wide open.

False brother-sister incest plots. Someone tells our lovers, falsely, that they are brother and sister. I gather that this has been a theme lately in Abismo.
 

Right, never shutting a door when telling someone a Very Important Secret. Villain is always obviously listening at the door, but no one can see him/her.

One lawyer always does all civil or criminal cases.

Only one priest in every town.

Goofy medical care:
Medicine in weird containers like a sinister looking dark bottle with and eye dropper instead of a normal prescription bottle with a pharmacy label. These medicines are always poison of some kind.

And inappropriate medical settings/specialists-orthopedists doing prenatal care.

Head injury patients or other critically ill patients treated at home or staying in an outpatient clinic for weeks.

Recovery from paralysis with a little physical therapy.
 

I've seen the incest thing multiple times before this and it sounds like something we're stuck with. The save is that now there is DNA testing that can knock that one out quickly. Far more believable than having the same birthmark.

Some of the characters in LQNPA seem to have learned their lesson about doors.

About letters: The incriminating one that gets hidden when it would suit the character more to destroy it.
 

I have to say that I don't mind the cliches, at times I find them endearing. And fun to make fun of. This is a strange hobby.
 

I love amnesia or good twin/ bad twin stories. But my favorite thing in the world is multple personality disorder. I'll watch/ read anything about that.

I don't like that the hero/ heroine blindly believes everything the obviously evil villain tells them. It makes the good guy look stupid. I'd rather they know but not be able to stop it. I liked the way they handled the priest on Triunfo del Amor, where he knew his mother was bad (so bad) but hoped for her reform.

And speaking of villains, I'd prefer they not be so one dimensional. I would prefer to actually like them, while recognizing they're making a mistake. Like Abby Ewing on Knot's Landing. When I don't like them I don't care what happens with them, like Bruno on LQNPA.
 

The galán sleeping with or even being married to sisters. How often has that happened!
 

How about the corrupt, inept police, judges, sleazy lawyers. And the one cell fits all jails with the open lobbies that also serve as interogation rooms.

Also the lack of modern devices such as cell phones, even landlines in "one-horse pueblos" as in STuD where the only phone in town was in the local store.

Not only are the medical men miracle workers on patients who have an incredible ability to heal overnight, but the transportation facilities either rival Star Trek (beam me up, Mexico City to the Hacienda and back in the the blink of one commercial break), or they rival the dark ages in using horses and hiking.

The stretches in crediblity of the settings are more than eclipsed by the sheer stupidity and lack of common scense that the protagonistas exhibit. But we basically know that we watch to improve our skills in Spanish vocabulary, and the characters do get off some good ones
 

Thanks for mentioning the phones, JayGee. FELS was notorious for that one. The word "telephone" happened twice in the series but you never saw one. Nor did anyone say "I'm calling the doctor"; it was "I'm going to get the doctor."

I suspect that was because the writers couldn't commit themselves to a specific time period for the story, which would probably have worked better as 1908 than 2008. I'd like to see them stick to one instead.
 

The evil mother/aunt/grandmother matriarch who is all-powerful all-knowing and all-seeing and thus easily manipulates the (not-so-bright) young people like puppets on a stage. They always go waaaay too far with this.
 

I often wondered during TdA (and EPDA, its earlier incarnation) why the priest didn't get his mother to a shrink.

How about the excessive cleavage or bare-midriff outfits on certain female characters? How are we supposed to believe that Gabriela Elizondo of FELS didn't object to Ximena's bare midriff and Daisy Dukes and that Rodrigo Montes de Oca of CS 2009 didn't object to the ubercleavage on Aimee?
 

the villains get to huddle and team up against a victim (usually the lead girl) while her support team has been conveniently either sent away (Pato at his surgery or Sebastian in Cafe for example) or incapacitated in some way (Mati in Refugio) so the heroine is totally crushed and kicked out, either threatened or lied to so she will not want to contact the lead male or any of her support group.
 

also one lead is made to believe they have a fatal illness (La Mentira) so they will feel bad enough they want to leave and not be found.
 

On that note, how about the idea that an absurdly virginal girl like Luci of Refugio can so easily end up with a trashed reputation? Is that even believable?
 

Emarie- I agree that I don't mind the cliches too much either, because we can make fun of them. I would have to agree that the one that bugs me the most is the good guys believing the bad guys, or just constantly being stupid and weak. If the good guys, especially the heorine and hero, were consistently smart (with a few necessary blind spots for plot advancement), I wouldn't mind the rest.
 

Trials without juries where the judge runs everything and sentences people like family members who hadn't even been arrested;

The amazing ease with which villains can change DNA results, fake pregnancy tests (on their home printer), or computer records;

The first sign of pregnancy is that she faints (and of course had no idea she was pregnant, since they rarely mention periods);

Patients who flatline and the doctor tells the family they're dead miraculously are recover, over and over;

Any cast member who's in an accident, the situation is always "grave";

Villains always have a ready supply of poison drops, cloroform rags, and guns;

Police are not only inept, they arrest the heroes and with scant evidence, scream at them to confess their "crimes";

People die and the wills are not revealed for 20 years, or villains change the old person's will, and force him or her to sign, often at gunpoint, but without any witnesses.
 

UA, you it sure opened a great thread. This is fine to read thru, and almost scary how many of these cliches just keep happening over and over.

I too get the most aggravated at the idea of the one true love met across the room within the first episodes, and even though the galans lately act like total idiots and viewerville screams for the 2nd fiddle to win the girl, the original couple still hook up. Just once, I would love to have a TN where it's in question from day one who everyone will really wind up with.

Yes, the inept police or lack thereof.

The miracle doctor who can solve every crisis from heart surgery to psychoanalysis and often in a small, ill-equipped hospital.

Demanding the femaile lead has to be pure as the driven snow (take out Teresa) in dramas and the galan can do just about what he wants and it's ok. I buy that in a period piece, not modern day.

The loose interpretation of religious, mainly Catholic, to allow characters to tell secrets so viewerville hears them, and the priest supposedly can't tell anyone. This secret of the confessional gets played with fast and loose--drives me crazy.

Some, like the galans are always buff and hot, well, kind of, isn't that why we watch? Would like the women's outfits to be much more realistic, fit the age and fit the role. Having a business women show up in a little girl shorts outfit or a blouse open to her navel, uh, no.
 

When an evildoer escapes a room or hacienda, all the good guys just stand around and ask, " Where could he have gone?" instead of LOOKING!
 

That whole marriage as sacrifice thing. Really? On Triunfo del Amor I could understand Maria Desamparada (you have to say her whole name) marrying Alonso because he was good and he was dying, but Max? It was uncomfortably close to that women as property thing. Sure, Alonso found your kid. But I think a Starbucks gift card would have been enough.

It's been something very small that pulls me into a particular TN. On Triunfo it was Bernarda Ituberide's crazed evil face. What a greatcharacter. On LQNPA, it was the way Rogelio looked at Ana Paula.
 

After being in the Peace Corps in a Caribbean town where there WAS only one phone in town (which many times wasn't working), and no cell phone service, that cliche doesn't bug me as much as it does others. But I do think they overuse it out of laziness, because it's hard to remake an old story with the new technology. The writers just need to think of new, credible ways, that would cause people not to communicate with each other. How about they use the common e-mail problem of the reader misinterpreting the tone of the writer, and getting ticked off and not wanting to talk to the other writer. Happens all the time in real life. Surely, there are some modern day issues they can weave in.
 

How about the baby kidnapping and giving away for adoption, or giving the baby to someone not remotely related to the baby, and the baby comes back all grown up and the person that gave the baby sees them and either doesn't beleive it is them, Leonarda in CS 2009 giving baby Juan away, he comes back for revenge. or knows the baby has come back, Rosa on Refugio who gave the gardeners, Paz and Galindo, baby Luci, and Luci comes back and haunts her.
 

Here's a pet peeve: the heroine has two suitors who are equally good, but very different. They demand that she choose. Realistically, her options are A) choose, B) refuse to choose until she's good and ready, or C) dump them both. But she typically ignores options B and C and leads us all into a spin cycle of teeth-gnashing while she tries to decide. Maddening.
 

How about the unconsummated marriage? How many times do we see that and in how many examples is it realistic?

Along with the other double standard, it would not be unrealistic for a leading man at the end of a shotgun marriage to get it on with the ladylove his mother hates, but what's with the heroine married to the villain? How did Sofia Elizondo manage to not get raped by Fernando Escandon after the ceremony?
 

UA thanks again for starting this thread.

Add me to the list of those who could tolerate (even enjoy) some cliches if the good characters were not SO STUPID. As noted, Villain A is a known liar so why do the good characters ever belief him/her?

Lack of common sense or basic reasoning skills among the good characters is another peeve of mine. How often have the recappers or commenters noted that the lead couple should NEVER have children? As Vivi noted, having the leads missing a few things is OK but falling for every ploy not matter how stupid is painful.

Jealousy - while everyone can fall prey to this, the galans in TNs are often so stupid with regard to their jealousy that they make me wish they weren't the galan. Moreover in real life if you were with someone this jealous this a sign that he will abuse you. Poor Gabriel Soto usually plays this kind of lead and becomes such a jerk you don't want the heroine to return to him. It was great in QE that his character didn't get the girl but I know that was rare.
 

Thanks for initiating this discussion, UA. I actually enjoy the cliches and look forward to spotting them. My very favorite is the call of the blood. It's stronger and more reliable than blood types or DNA. I can't recall it ever being wrong.

The most perplexing to me is probably the sanctity of the confessional. It can be so frustrating watching a priest (and occasionally a physician) squirm with tied hands while lives are wrecked and bad guys literally get away with murder.

The niftiest unlikely medical achievement was this week's kidney transplant which was apparently performed single-handedly by the village GP. All in a day's work... good job Doc!

Carlos
 

Lamada de la sangre is the one that annoys me the most. As a daughter of a narcissistic mother I am the ultimate authority on how DNA means nothing vis a vis a relationship.

The corollary to this is how when a parent suddenly doubts his blood tie to his child the years of upbringing suddenly vanish in his mind and heart, like the abysmal Augusto Castanon. Gustavo of LQNPA is the antithesis of this and -- I hope -- a trend in the right direction.
 

Can't forget if the house has a long staircase absolutely guarantees that someone will fall or be pushed down them, a real or fake pregnancy will come to an end.

One of my least favorite is the moronic character who walks in and find a dead body then immediately picks up the weapon thereby guaranteeing a trip to the carcel.

Medical scenes where the character are visiting the patient and they always are wearing a gown, or and/or a cap and mask. Oh puleeze for broken bones, heart attack whatever you only wear them when their is danger of infection .
 

Thanks for the laugh for the day

Character is drugged with those handy little capsules, powder or even booze and then incriminating pictures are taken.
 

Thanks, UA. What fun to gather all the cliches under one roof. I'm not sure anyone directly mentioned how easily the romantic leads lose faith in one another. The least little problem and their sworn eternal love is down the drain. And, it often happens over and over again before the wedding at the end.
La Paloma
 

That gets me, too.

There is no way on this earth that I would ever go back to a man who even once put my name and the word ramera, cualquiera, golfa, or mujer suela in the same thought. I hate the thought of any self-respecting woman putting up with that.
 

I am so loving the popularity of this topic.

Weekend discussions are now tagged. If you click on "Weekend" you will see all the previous ones except for Hombres de Verano, which the ladies who saw it appreciated very much.
 

About the confessional:

I've always wondered about the scenes of its abuse when villains brag about their crimes and refuse to repent. I remember a priest once saying that "If you don't repent, this isn't a confession" but the villain gloating over the unlikelihood of that priest ever repeating what he was just told. I've always wondered whether the priests are keeping silent because they can't prove the lack of repentence and don't want to risk losing the trust of the other parishioners.

I know that a priest can speak up if he hears the relevant information from an independent source, but this happens so rarely.
 

I've always enjoyed the novela hospital bandages! Sometimes, in the case of brain surgery, the patient only has a lightly attached band aid and other times the head is wrapped like a mummy.  Also, love the way the head is never shaved, the patient's hair is just styled around the bandages! This has been touched on today, but the miraculous recoveries, from a paraplegic to walking in three shaky steps is common!
 

How about the fact that it is the destiny of any child of a lead character to have a terminal illness or be kidnapped at some point (even both, or more than once)... that always has me rolling my eyes.

AnotherAmy
 

Sandy, I LOVE the "hair styled around the bandage" comment ;) I've always thought that was hilarious!

AnotherAmy
 

This one got broken in CME, but the villain never bites the dust at the hero(ine)'s hand. It's always an accident, police gunfire, natural causes, suicide, or being done in by another villain. FELS was a perfect example of a novela where the villain should have been killed by the hero in self-defense, but that did not happen.
 

I just got to put my 2 cents in on this......

How come all the leading ladies in TNs have "Big Boobs".... not just TNs, Even on the News Programs Game Shows, ETC. (Vivi, Judy B. you guys know I had to bring this up).

And Oh Yes...Big Butts too.

I am not mad at them, I am just saying......
 

Regarding courtroom scenes in TNs: The reason you never see a jury is because Mexico don't use juries!

It's too bad. That would be a fabulous way to get 12 superstars in for cameo appearances.
 

Telemundo's series typically take place in the US, so their courtroom scenes are also wrong: Their courtrooms do not look authentic and the trials should be oonducted in English.

Serious boobage is fashionable, whether we like it or not.
 

Mustn't overlook how hilariously underdressed some women characters who live and work on ranches are. Consider Cyn in LQNPA with her crop tops and navel revealing jeans. Also makes her look like a primer for anorexia. On CA also set on a ranch practically every women on he show is constantly wearing Daisy Dukes sometimes with knee high boots even while working with and riding horses. Absolutely hilarious and so inappropriate particularly when tied to a tree with a poisonous snake slither over her feet.
 

Sandy in TN I agree about the bandages. I remember watching La Mentira years ago. Demetrio had a head wound at some point and there was bright red "blood." They didn't bother to change the bandage because the blood was in the same spot and it was still bright red. It should have been grey by that point. lol!
 

Gringo reminded me of this one over on Refugio:

Gringo says: "What would happen if Gagme gets pregnant before pea brain realizes that he threw a beautiful diamond away?"

Unfortunately this is a common cliché, and as such needs to be added to UA's blog post. Basically - the galán's ex-fiance, ex-girlfriend or so-to-be-ex wife becomes pregnant (it's either someone else's kid or a fake pregnancy) and so he "does his duty" and decides to make a family for this kid-on-the-way. In the meantime, the heroine discovers she is in fact (really) pregnant by the galán, and in an act of supremely mis-guided sacrifice, hides the information from the galán and goes off to have and raise the child without him knowing, reasoning somehow, that the other child deserves the father more.

Triunfo de Amor (which was a total farce) used this exact scenario. Us TN watchers, unfortunately, tend to expect this very popular cliché.
 

The big boobs thing: American English language TV is just as bad about using women's cleavage to attract the viewer. Something I always assumed was to stop a guy channel surfing. At least the Spanish TNs are more equal-opportunity, as they provide plenty of eye candy for the ladies as well. Something you rarely see on English-language programming.
 

What about the male villains often looking like Snidely Wiplash, the Frito Bandito, or Oil Can Harry (the latter one came from Might Mouse for those old enough to remember that)? Dark hat, long mustache, long coat?
 

Because some of them actually seem to be channeling Snidely Whiplash. My first novela -- Madres Egoistas -- had Alberto Mayagoitia, who must have grown up on Dudley DoRight cartoons.
 

The fainting pregnancy notice. Unless there is something in the Mexican water that actually makes women faint, you'd think someone would have put a stop to this nonsense by now.

And the drunk galan gets a girl pregnant? I mean these guys are studs and all, but come on! If he's drunk enough to pass out, he's not getting anyone pregnant even by choice.

Consoms. I know the good girl is always a good Catholic, but just once I'd like to see some mention of birth control. I was shocked that Gus in LQNPA said something about it, so that's one. Out of like 10,000. Not good.

Kelly
 

Good stuff, guys. I'm now thinking about next weekend's topic.
 

Urban

These have been great how about things we like about novelas or cliche characters God knows there are plenty of those.
 

Have to add, how about the mother telling her daughter her father died, when he is alive and well and in front of them, and only reveals it when the father makes a sexual move on the daughter.

How about that same mother then thinking she does not deserve the love of her child because she "sinned" and although raised the child on her own, is not good enough for her now?

Why does the good girl have to go through such bad things and can only get their licks in at the end of the TN?
 

Excellent thread UA

I get really tired of the "village gossips" "brujas" etc. Examples include: Refugio (gossipy ladies in the norteno town, Gagme and her friends etc) Destilando Amor: (Fedra, Isadora, Sofia and Minerva). You know what I mean, they all gossip and plot to separate the galan from his "true love" and other schemes to get money, power, whatever. The other thing about all these gals is that everyone else falls for all of their scheming and manipulating. They usually get their comeuppance toward the end of the novela.
sfchicabonita
 

Great thread, UA. And speaking of CS09, what was with the IDENTICAL TWINS having different colored hair? In modern life I could see it, but I have a hard time buying hair dye in pirate-ridden Veracruz.

The cliche that annoys me the most is all of these otherwise virtuous characters keeping secrets because of a misguided desire to protect someone else -- even to the point of lying. I would hate it if my friends did that to me.
 

There are two cliches that drive me crazy: one is that people lie when telling the truth would solve everything, and vice versa, [But I guess the novela would end in just half a dozen episodios], and the other Novelera touched on -- leaving a very ill patient in an open hospital room with no attendant anywhere near by so that the villain can have another crack at killing the patient . . .

Anciana