Telenovelas: Just Entertainment?

Dr. A told us in our class “people eat three meals and two Telenovelas a day”. This statement has really stuck with me as I have thought more and more about viewer consumption of Telenovelas. In the beginning of this class, I thought that Telenovela’s were just a very popular form of escapism and entertainment. However, I have started to wonder if I can dismiss Telenovelas as purely entertainment since viewers literally consume them like a daily meal.

Dr. A also told us that there is a certain formula that Telenovela’s must follow in order for audiences to support the show. If the show strays too far from the formula it will fail. This is really interesting to me because it says that audiences want a particular kind of escapism and entertainment from their Telenovela. This made me question and wonder more about the Telenovelas Rupturas that break the mold of the traditional Rosa narrative.

I am interested to learn how far the successful Ruptura novelas have gone and where they fall in line with the traditional Rosa novela. I wonder if women and men are always represented in traditional gender roles in Telenovelas. I also wonder if there is room for gay characters in a telenovela and how these charcters are portrayed (We certainly still struggle here to represent non-steryotypical gay characters in our television shows). I am interested as well to look at portrayals and issues of race and ethnicity in telenovelas.

I guess my next question is do telenovelas, a form of entertainment, have the responsibility to deal with real issues that it’s viewers face? I think the shows have some responsibility because based on the popularity of telenovelas viewers must be influenced to some extent. I can also see the other side where people want to escape reality through a telenovela, so the less the show reflects reality the more entertaining it is.