When I finished watching my novela I was not all impressed. Honestly, I was just ready to get it over with so I could start working on my projects and papers for class. I watched Amigas y Rivales for my report and consumption analysis. I present my consumption presentation today in class, and boy is it different from the paper that I wrote about my thoughts on this novella a week ago. After reading the comments on message boards, blogs and such I have a much better liking of this novela.
I purchased Amigas y Rivales on DVD, which was produced by Televisa. It took me a while to select a novela that I thought I would like because there are just so many to choose from that I had no idea where to start. I began searching sites for popular novelas and weeded out the sappy love stories that I knew would make me sick to my stomach if I were forced to watch 20 hours of nothing but peace, love, and smooching. I ran across Amigas y Rivales on telenovela.es and thought it was the perfect match for me. It was racy, sexy, talked about real issues and had a decently attractive cast—exactly what I was looking for.
So I started watching… I was amused in the beginning by all of the horrible acting (mainly one character that I’m sure Dr. A and Robyn know who I am talking about), and trying my best to stay with the drama filled plot while working my brain to understand the Spanish. In the end, I just got frustrated and stopped caring. Even though some parts were better than others, I forced myself to finished and knocked out the report.
Then we started our consumption presentations… As everyone presented their novelas they seemed so proud to say that there’s was a success and gawked over how much they liked it. I was just listening to them talk while thinking in my head, “Man am I the only one who didn’t like her novela? Am I going to be the first one to have to report that the audience hated my novela?”
So, I started researching… I was amazed that there was so much to be said about my novela, I was shocked that people actually liked it, and I couldn’t believe that it aired in different countries! I was so bewildered by all this that I couldn’t wait to start reading comments. I couldn’t understand why people liked it so much. The men weren’t all that good looking to me, the one actor mentioned before drove me crazy and I was lost the entire time.
Turns out I missed a lot by watching the novela on DVD and not every night like the rest of the world. People who had even watched the novela air on primetime were confused when re-watching it on DVD. The actor that I thought was absolutely horrible was making everyone else crack up hysterically. I wasn’t the only one who thought the novela seemed to drag out too long, but while I had to watch it for hours at a time they had other novelas to help them make the time go by. While I was sitting at home lost with no one to answer my questions, they had hundreds of people to help clear up any confusion and to gossip with about the juicy parts.
I learned that I was not alone. The parts that I didn’t like, the audience didn’t like. When I was confused, some of them were confused. When I was frustrated with a character, they were frustrated too. After going through the message boards I realized that I just didn’t understand the culture of novelaworld when watching my novela. I didn’t get the humor, didn’t know the background behind the story, wasn’t familiar with the actors, and watched the abridged novella so I missed a lot of important parts. All that being said, I feel like I learned a lot by listening to the audience. Before I felt like an outsider for hating and not understanding my novela, but now I feel accepted into the community and I think that if I hadn’t watched Amigas y Rivales on DVD I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more. Now I know that it’s not just me. :-)
*I mainly read comments from telenovela-world.com
I purchased Amigas y Rivales on DVD, which was produced by Televisa. It took me a while to select a novela that I thought I would like because there are just so many to choose from that I had no idea where to start. I began searching sites for popular novelas and weeded out the sappy love stories that I knew would make me sick to my stomach if I were forced to watch 20 hours of nothing but peace, love, and smooching. I ran across Amigas y Rivales on telenovela.es and thought it was the perfect match for me. It was racy, sexy, talked about real issues and had a decently attractive cast—exactly what I was looking for.
So I started watching… I was amused in the beginning by all of the horrible acting (mainly one character that I’m sure Dr. A and Robyn know who I am talking about), and trying my best to stay with the drama filled plot while working my brain to understand the Spanish. In the end, I just got frustrated and stopped caring. Even though some parts were better than others, I forced myself to finished and knocked out the report.
Then we started our consumption presentations… As everyone presented their novelas they seemed so proud to say that there’s was a success and gawked over how much they liked it. I was just listening to them talk while thinking in my head, “Man am I the only one who didn’t like her novela? Am I going to be the first one to have to report that the audience hated my novela?”
So, I started researching… I was amazed that there was so much to be said about my novela, I was shocked that people actually liked it, and I couldn’t believe that it aired in different countries! I was so bewildered by all this that I couldn’t wait to start reading comments. I couldn’t understand why people liked it so much. The men weren’t all that good looking to me, the one actor mentioned before drove me crazy and I was lost the entire time.
Turns out I missed a lot by watching the novela on DVD and not every night like the rest of the world. People who had even watched the novela air on primetime were confused when re-watching it on DVD. The actor that I thought was absolutely horrible was making everyone else crack up hysterically. I wasn’t the only one who thought the novela seemed to drag out too long, but while I had to watch it for hours at a time they had other novelas to help them make the time go by. While I was sitting at home lost with no one to answer my questions, they had hundreds of people to help clear up any confusion and to gossip with about the juicy parts.
I learned that I was not alone. The parts that I didn’t like, the audience didn’t like. When I was confused, some of them were confused. When I was frustrated with a character, they were frustrated too. After going through the message boards I realized that I just didn’t understand the culture of novelaworld when watching my novela. I didn’t get the humor, didn’t know the background behind the story, wasn’t familiar with the actors, and watched the abridged novella so I missed a lot of important parts. All that being said, I feel like I learned a lot by listening to the audience. Before I felt like an outsider for hating and not understanding my novela, but now I feel accepted into the community and I think that if I hadn’t watched Amigas y Rivales on DVD I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more. Now I know that it’s not just me. :-)
*I mainly read comments from telenovela-world.com
You know what? I can relate wholeheartedly when it comes to my telenovela. Although I liked the novela I chose I felt like it was just like any other show geared toward teenagers. There was nothing new.
ReplyDeleteI was also a little uncomfortable with the fact that so many people in our class seemed so in love with their novela, while I (and now I know you felt the same way) saw nothing particularly spectacular.
I think that the passion of the fans is a huge influence on our perception of the novela. Like you said in your presentation, seeing the opinions of everyone else can change your perspective on the actors and at times can even make you appreciate certain aspects of the novela.
But, I loved your presentation and now I'm sort of interested in watching your novela, lol.
I don't know, when I presented mine I was not necessarily proud that it did well...it just happened to be successful. I was actually annoyed about how well it did and how well it was received because I thought the entire message was lost. In my opinion, it was only popular because it had dramatic aspects and beautiful women. I think there was something about the prostitution scene and drug trafficking that really intrigued the viewers.
ReplyDelete