Caray, Caray!

My experience with telenovelas started with PESE last summer. The reason for that was that it was a comedy. I had tried to watch some telenovelas in the past but was turned off by what I deemed to be excessive violence, sordidness and bad taste. PESE was quickly followed by LFMB online which again I thoroughly enjoyed. Currently besides PEAM I am also watching CI but I do confess that I did not start to watch it on a regular basis until the heroine started on her road to revenge. The earlier capítulos were just too painful to watch. They need to make more "smart" comedies.

Jarifa
 

Not a fan of narco-novelas. I like romance but with plenty of twists in the plot. Traditional/corny works for me if it doesn't take itself too seriously. Example: Fuego en la Sangre, contemporary rancho-romance with a whisper of alternate reality: there were no cell phones (except the major villain had one), no cars (ditto), plenty of horses and shower scenes! On the down side, writers who stretched our patience to the max with major lapses and extensions. So it goes!
J in Oregon
 

J in Oregon, ITA on Fuego en la Sangre. Give me characters with chemistry whom I can root for and I'll follow the plot, no matter how annoying it may get at times. FELS' lack of technology was just fine with me.

I like mystery, romance, and comedy best, but I'll watch any show where there's somebody I can root for. I'm not likely to find that somebody in a narco TN, but I did see bits of La Mariposa and found it appealing - maybe because the protagonista was not committed to staying in the money laundering biz and held her own against male higher-ups in the biz.
 

Got into tn's when I caught the last half of a rerun of CS2009 a few years ago and found it amusing. Then I watched CS93 and was hooked! Loved it! CS93 is still one of the best acted and directed stories out there. Also loved La Verdad Occulta - again great acting and tight story line. Recently have moved over to Telemundo and for the most part enjoy the drama of La Patrona, El Senor and currently Santa Diabla. So I guess my preference is for a dramatic mystery with romance. That includes the narcovelas.

Beth
 

Más Sabe el Diablo was my first full tn, and the lead was a handsome thief; 'nuff said. There was hardly anything cheesy about this tn.

The same goes for La Mariposa; no cheese please.

That's not to say I don't enjoy the others equally (i.e. Sortilegio, El Fantasma de Elena, La Tempestad, Pasion Prohibida).
 

Great topic. I do not in general enjoy the narco novelas. I, like romance with characters that deserve our support. I jus happened to see some episodes again of Amor Real and felt all over again how convincing and passionate the characters were.

I like the comedies but sometimes find them to be hard to understand and often over the top. I love novelas with a mysterious dimension. I loved La Otra so much and liked Donde esta Elena.
 

Traveling lady - thanks for mentioning Donde Esta Elisa - one of my likes.
 

I don't watch narco-novelas, for me the whole point of watching Spanish shows is the cheesiness,the love stories, the good looking hunks.
I don't have much tolerance for rosa novelas, either (the traditional, Corazon Indomable type) - I've been watching tns long enough to know all those stories by heart.

I don't know if that's a genre, but what I like is "smart novelas". Of course, the beanies are forever in use, but I need some realism to keep tuning in, or at the very least a hansom galan, the right kind of chemistry, a different type of story, a mystery etc...
Amor Bravio and Pasion Prohibida are the latest tns I've watched religiously and they are among my favorites.

Beth, Corazon Salvaje '93 was one of the best...
 

My first TN was Juan Querendon. It was funny campy. The characters were so over the top. I was hooked. Ever since I gravitate to the comedies. I loved LFMB, PESE for the comedy, for Jaime Camil, for the feminist subtext. I also loved Amorcito Corazon & Hasta Quel el Dinero Nos Separe. My favorte thing about Dinero was that there was really no villain --everyone was redeemable in the end. On the other hand AC had a couple of standout Villainesses.

I've only watched a few straight dramas but of those i have seen my favoites were Querida Enemiga & the wonderful one whose name escapes me (senior moment) with Sylvia Navarro & Juan Soler. -- That one had tight writing and terrific acting.

Güera
 

CME -- That's the terrific drama I couldn't remember the name of. I loved that show. Why aren't they all that smart?
Güera
 

Don't have a genre preference. Story line, acting and direction are what ring my chimes.

Amor Real and Alborada are my all-time favorites, but also loved Cuando Me Enamoro. And Refugio. CME had wonderful music as well. As for comedies, the only one I have truly liked was La Fea Más Bella.

So I'm all over the map.

What I consistently like are your topics, Urban! Thanks as always.
 

Thanks, Judy.

I miss having good novelas de epocas! Those really feel like romance novels.
 

I don't have a favorite genre but I have one I hate: narconovelas. I can watch a novela where the narco plays a role, even an important one, but not a novela centered around the narcotrafficants and cartels.

I only watch a novela when it's entertaining to me, sometimes they don't even have to be good, they just need characters I'd care for in watchable storylines.

I do enjoy the period novelas alot sometimes, because they allow for different kind of stories. I like the old Ernesto Alonso historic ones like El Vuelo del Águila and La Antorcha Encendida but I know Televisa doesn't have the kind of budget needed to make those anymore.

Other period novelas I've liked are Alondra from Carla Estrada, Corazón Salvaje (1993) from José Rendón, TV Azteca's Azul Tequila from Humerto Zurita and Christian Bach.

I also really enjoy when the period is set in the 20th century, like in the early 20's in Pueblo Chico, Infierno Grande or the 40's in and the Colombian Las Aguas Mansas (the first version of FELS and PdG but it's nothing like the other two).

And period novelas don't have to be only dramas. As a child, I LOVED Baila Conmigo which was a musical novela set in the 60's, it had music, drama and comedy and it was so much fun. All the characters were likeable and in retrospective I loved that the main protagonist fell for the bad boy first but ended with the good guy and the bad boy stayed bad until the end. I've just watched too many shows that glorify those bad boys lately.

There was also a novela for kids called Aventuras en el Tiempo that I liked even though I was already at university. My mom loved it. It was about a group of kids who, along with the baddies, got sucked into a time machine that sent them to different periods of history (the independence, the revolution, the 20's, the 60's, etc.). The kids had to go home first to stop the house where the time machine from getting confiscated or something. It was fun.

Jarocha



 

I meant that the kids had to get back to the present before the house where the time machine was kept would get confiscated.

Jarocha
 

Hmm, Aventuras en el Tiempo is from 2001. I wasn't in university, I was 16 and in high school. But my mom still loved it so I still stand by my idea that even adults would enjoy it.

Jarocha


 

Like Judy, I don't have a preference for genre of novela. I enjoy them all. In addition to story line, acting, and direction, I also like to see great chemistry between the leads and among the cast.

As with the shows I love to watch in English, especialy on PBS, a novela that has a mystery at the center (La Verdad Oculta), or a period piece (Alborada), are always a (rare) treat.
 

Thanks for this topic UA.

Not surprisingly, I really like period piece TNs as I love period productions in English as well.

While I do like comedies, I don't like how they continually use dark themes (the situations Valentina has been through on PEAM are over the top and horrible for a young child and then on Gancho the evil mother of the protagonist, who was a lying liar who lied told those close to her that her daughter was the product of rape). I appreciate comedic TNs having a range but these topic are jarring for a comedy.

I have not seen narco-TNs but based on what many have said, I don't think I would enjoy the violence.

Jarifa - I'm with you on CI, I had to skip MA/MC's torment phase because it was too ghastly.

Adriana Noel - yes I would love more smart TNs. I would also like for the writers to temper galans who are at odds with the protagonista and go left in their character arc. Though I enjoyed CME, Juan Soler's character past the point of no return for me as a galan with his abuse of Renata. And the galan in Refugio was too dumb for me to be happy that the protagonista believed he was her true love.
 

These are my favorite novelas in the four years I have been watching. I couldn’t wait to see what was happening with the characters each day:
Drama: Querida Enemiga (my first with Caray Caray); Cuando me Enamoro; Un Refugio Para el Amor; Sortilegio; Amor Bravio; India; Para Volver a Amar
Period: Alborada (when it reran recently)
Narco: Munecas de la Mafia; La Mariposa; El Senor de los Cielos

Mystery: La Verdad Oculta; Alguien te Mira
Comedy: Hasta Que el Dinero Nos Separe (loved the music, and it had a funny heroine—very rare)

Dramas I thought were very well done and enjoyed: Mi Pecado; La Fuerza del Destino; En Nombre del Amor; Manana es Para Siempre
Comedies I enjoyed (had some memorable funny characters): Una Familia con Suerte (Pina and Vicente); Un Gancho al Corazon (Ximena; Beto & Connie; Nieves); Por Ella Soy Eva (Eva); Amorcito Corazon (Willy).

 

So I'm a newbie when it comes to TNs, Llena de Amor was my first (which I really liked, but I only saw the second half of) a couple years ago, so I don't have much experience to go from.

Generally not a big fan of comedies, but Por Ella was great all because of Jaime Camil, who is one of my favorites. I really like edgier ones like Flor Salvaje and Pasion Prohibida. Not a fan of the narco-novelas, except that I did really like Ojo por Ojo and La Mariposa.

I looove history and historical fiction, but have not been able to get into a historical novela yet! Tried Alborada and La Pola (and a couple others I can't remember the name of), and have never been able to get invested, which is strange since I generally love period shows and films.

Overall, I'll watch just about anything that has characters I'm interested in following and/or entertained by... I'm hooked on the 3 telemundo tns right now and tune in now and again to CI.
 

Some of my favorite novelas are period novelas CS 93 was my first novela and since that I've loved that Genre. I also enjoy comedy novelas, LFMB still holds my heart in that area. Also hacienda novelas like LQNPA and smart novelas where the protas are extremely smart, figure out the villain's plot and tump them also they don't let themsleves be manipulated by the villains. An example of this would be Sortilegio and currently Mentir para Vivir which still hasn't been broadcast here.
 

Forgot to add Teresa and Montecristo (watched online) to my list of favorite dramas.
 

ARG! Forgot about Teresa... that was one of my favorites too!! It was one of my first ones too, and I remember loving Ana Brenda but hating Daniel Arenas. DA has totally grown on me since then :) Angelique Boyer really rocked that character!

 

Vivi,

So glad that you mentioned Mi pecado as a well done novela. I really enjoyed that one and seldom see it mentioned in lists of better novelas.

I don't know La Verdad oculta but will have to look for it.

TL
 

Traveling Lady- I think it's not mentioned because it was so dark with the incest storyline. But it was such a tight story, with great direction and acting.
 

I agree Vivi. I'd forgotten it but I liked it very much. And the suicide scene was very moving and beautifully filmed. An unforgettable story.
 

Great topic, UA!

I remember the very first TN I watched was La Mentira (I didn't watch its remake CME though). I didn't really watch any TNs after that until LFMB. I really enjoyed LFMB. It was definitely comedic. I remember at about the same time Mundo de Fieras was also airing and I got into that one as well.

If there was ever any TN that I would consider "violent" it would be AB. I found Teresa to be very interesting to say the least. I wasn't expecting it to end the way it did and the alternate endings were also interesting.

Some of my other favorite TNs include ENdA, LFdD, and TdA, and AdP.
--
 

You know, my problem with Narconovelas is not the violence but the idea that the main characters, whom we are supposed to root for at some point, are truly despicable people.

It's one thing to sometimes root for Teresa who, at her worst, is a scammer, manipulative and cruel person. It's a completely different one to root for people who represent heads of organizations that have caused so much damage in the cruelest of ways to so many people, some of those ways I can't even imagine.

Jarocha
 

Jarocha- I totally understand why anyone living in a country torn by real narco violence wouldn't like narconovelas. That's why I'm not surprised that we see so few coming out of Mexico, and surprised that we see so many coming out of Colombia. I can only take them in small doses and then need a break.
 

I really, really miss the novelas de época. Fernando Colunga was so very good in those: Amor Real, Alborada, and Pasión. I don't exactly know why, but I don't enjoy his modern-day roles as much. He's always good, but he just seemed to have the perfect style for other centuries.

Of modern dramatic novelas, I thought En Nombre del Amor was very good. It kept my interest all the way through, Leticia Calderon was amazing!

The only narconovelas I've seen that I'd say had a fairly sympathetic protagonist were both with women as the protagonist. That would be La Reina del Sur and La Mariposa. I really liked both these novelas.

I'd say that the ones I've seen with men as the main characters have NOT made me feel like rooting for them: El Señor de los Cielos, Ojo por Ojo, and Pablo Escobar. I enjoyed El Señor the most of these three.

I will say that I like short novelas, and it seems to me that the narconovelas, for whatever reason, do tend to be shorter. I just don't have the patience to watch something for 9 months or a year!
 

I loved LFMB and PESE for comedy. Those were urban settings, but I like TNs set out in the country for dramas. Older ones I especially liked were Mariana de la Noche, Amarte Es Mi Pecado, and Destilando Amor. FELS got crazy, but I liked much of the cast. Love the historic ones, and would like to see Pasion again.
 

Jarocha, I totally agree with you about narconovelas... I have a really hard time seeing them as "root-worthy" as well. Occasionally I get caught up in characters, like in Ojo or in Mariposa, but most of the time I'm just bored-to-death with all the plotting and scheming and killing each other because I really couldn't care less about the characters.

Novelera, I LOVE the short novelas! I so agree, that it is hard to maintaining interest for these 150+ episode shows... give me an intriguing 3 month novela and I'm set! In the shorter ones the plot and action seem so much tighter and less rambly.
 

correction: "to maintain interest", not "to maintaining interest". UGH. I hate it when I do that.
 

Fernando Colunga is probably the most historically versatile actor Televisa has. You can put him in any period of clothing and he'd look right.

I really hate that Televisa hasn't given us a good period novela in years. CS 09 would have been a lot better if they hadn't cast Aracely Arambula.

The only narco story I watched through the end was LRDS. I liked that she got out of the game safely. The cast of that series was interesting. I did have a vocabularly problem a lot of the time, though.

I'd like to see more mysteries and something supernatural!
 

I like narco-novelas, especially if they have good looking women in them, such as Sin Senos No Hay Paraiso, Muñecas de la Mafia, Rosario Tijeras, La Reina del Sur and El Señor de los Cielos. I don't root for the druglords, I hate them, but I'm fascinated by their twisted world.

I also like modern stories with lots of mystery and murder, such as El Fantasma de Elena, Alguien te Mira, La Casa de al Lado and La Patrona.

I'm not quite as drawn to comedies, romance, or anything where the good guys are too perfect. I like the heroes to have flaws, too.
 

Great topic, UA.

I'm fairly new to the TN world. I've seen Sin Senos No Hay Paraiso, Amor Bravio, and El Senor. Currently, I'm watching La Tempestad and Santa Diabla. I'm liking Tempestad, but Santa Diabla I'm not sure about.

Generally, I don't like the narco topic...too much violence for me...but I watched every episode of Sin Senos and El Senor so I was hooked.

I really like mystery and romance so
any recommendations about great TNs I can watch online? Muchas gracias:)
 

Oh, Marta, where should we start with our recommendations?
My suggestions

La Mentira (Mexico, 1998)
Muneca Brava (Argentina, 1999, I think...)
Corazon Salvaje (Mexico, 1993)
Ugly Betty (Columbia, NOT Mexico, I don't remember the year)
O Clon (Brazil, don't remember the year)

La Mentira is my personal favorite, all the other ones are considered masterpieces in their country of origin and have been sold internationally (imagine I watched them while living in Romania, which is far far away from South America).
Enjoy!

 

Muchisimas gracias, Adriana Noel! I'll start with La Mentira and go from there!
 

Vivi: I've had the opportunity to visit Colombia and spent some time there and met really great people.

It doesn't surprise me that we see those novelas coming from Colombia but not so much from Mexico. My impression was that Colombia and Mexico are at two distant points when it comes to their situation with the cartels. They have come to an understanding of their situation in a way that we haven't yet and we are still probably far from.

I do think it's possible that a narconovela could find an audience here but I think the production would be extremely stressful and complicated, especially for those involved in the creative part.

AnotherAmy: I find that I do need someone to root for to watch a novela. It makes me watch even the silly ones. Sometimes I pass on a good novela because I just can't connect with the characters.

I also appreciate when novelas take their time to use a different urban location from Mexico City, like PEAM which is set in Monterrey or Tontas which was set in Guadalajara. I love DF but it seems sometimes that novelas make it seem like the rest of the country only has small towns or ranches and our lives revolve around haciendas.

In reality, only 21% of Mexicans live in rural areas.


Jarocha



 

The original El Clon was from 2000 or 2001. If you have La Tele Novela Network, they show more Brazilian stuff than any other network I can get. They had a wonderful miniseries from the same network called Siete Mujeres which had some very peculiar plot twists and a bittersweet ending.

I dearly wish that network would rerun Hombres de Honor, which is the only Argentine novela I've ever seen.
 

UA, do you have La Tele Novela Network? I'm in NY, Time Warner Cable, and I haven't noticed that network, or is that online?

Muchas gracias for the info!
 

First one I ever watched was Salome with Edith Gonzalez. Also Rebecca, El Privilegio de Amar, Te Amare in Silencio (with Big Ed Yanez). And Gata Salvaje.
Then there was a dry spell, I didn't watch again until I caught an episode of FELS, and I was hooked! Now I'm restricted to Telemundo TNs as that is the only Spanish Channel I get.
J in Oregon
 

I love novelas with good ensemble casts and a strong, believe able female protag. However, I tend to like the venganza ones because of the moral dilemmas the protag faces when she is acting the vengeance out. That's why loved La PATRONA, and am weirdly attracted to Corazon Indomable now that Maricruz is getting to the vengeance and am watching Santa Diabla now. I can do without the Televisa forced impactada faces camera tricks in CI, but Ana Brenda and the galan make a good couple.

I loved La Fea Mas Bella-Jaime Camil is a national treasure, and if Telemundo poached him from univision I'd be happy. I liked what I saw of Soñadores, El Juego de la Vida, and Abrazame Muy Fuerte-for Cesar Evora and Victoia Ruffo-Aracely was annoying in that one and should've been with Jorge Salinas' character in my view-but I loved Maria Isabel.
I loved the bits and pieces about indigenous culture, and even the delaying tactic of lenghtening the protags' European honeymoon to make the novela longer in that one and I loved that Adela Noreiga's character left thee galan when he cheated and only went back after he got shot and near death for three days and her Dad begged her to go back with him.
 

Marta, it's on the Spanish Premium Tier, Channel 861.
 

UA, thank you so much! I actually have the Spanish Premier Tier and didn't know I had La Tele Novela Network. Gracias!
 

They will eventually show the original Mujeres Asesinas again. It's so perverse!
 

Right now on UniMas my mother and I have been watching El Noveno Mandamiento with Francisco Gattorno from AV and AdP. Ana Patricia Rojo is also in it. It's almost over, but its pretty good.
--TF
 

anything with horses!

that's why i like the period pieces (well for the costumes too). and someone said it above, the hacienda novels, if that's a genre. that's why i started with Corazon Indomable, but now that it's all casinos, pilots and sheiks, i don't like it as much. where's the monkey!?

when oh when will they rerun Pasion? i feel like i've been waiting all my life. it was ending just as i began watching my first novela (Fuego/sangre), and it's when i was going thru a big ol pirate phase.

mai tai
 

Telenovelas are stuck in an awful rut. There are lots of themes for stories beside romance & sex. Give me something different from the rut ["animal mating season" (originally of deer), c.1410, from O.Fr. rut, ruit, from L.L. rutigum (nom. rugitus) "a bellowing," from pp. of L. rugire "to bellow.""}

Enough of 2 brothers after 1 woman, 2 sisters after 1 man, mistaken/unknown parentage, whore-mongering male protag w/ evil novia (supported by evil vieja), whore-monger who pursues Cinderella who isn't supposed to mind his using women as a latrine. The convention whereby the male protag has to get shot (stabbed, etc.) can also be done away with. At least from time to time the hero ought to be able to beat up the villain. I am tired of mansion that have servants, rich vs poor with hardly any middle class. Why do we always have to have stories about rich people?

There are many other subjects of novels & movies. I like variety.

I would like to see realistic legal operations, court room drama, no nonsense about someone "refusing to give someone a divorce." We can dispense with the idea that a woman would take vengeance on a man by refusing to let him know he impregnated her (disdaining child support).

Just IMHO, Enoch
 

Oh yes,
we can also do something besides have an evil woman trap a man by drugging him into her bed so he wakes up in the morning compromised. And we can dispense with the false-pregnancy claim as well as losing the non-baby & blaming it somehow on Cinderella. I have seen enough of misplaced/stolen babies, and kidnappings. Also we can omit repetitions of scenes via flashbacks & 5 verbal recountings of it verbally. And how about omitting persons doing very intimate things without locking or even shutting doors & being barged in on.
-more IMHO Enoch