Tuesday, November 13, 2018

The plateau in Telenovelas

After listening to the presentations on consumption the last 2 weeks, I realized that there are in fact plateaus in certain telenovelas. I found it interesting to notice that while telenovelas traditionally don't have seasons, in modern day TV, some telenovelas are so good they do have seasons.

In Al Otro Lado del Muro, I noticed that in the middle of the season, things were getting stagnant and repetitive. In typical TV shows this is normal, but after learning about telenovelas, I really expected the writers to get creative. Because it is a show within Telemundo, they produced the show in bulk before the season aired so when consumers got impatient with the plot, they had no other options but to let it run its course.

I find it interesting, however, that in shows like La Reina del Sur, there are sequels despite it being a telenovela. After thinking about it, I can see how some shows suck viewers in and lead to other seasons. Plot twists tend to hook the viewers rather than the same repetitive events happening. Additionally, after listening to Paula today in class, I found it interesting that real life issues tend to grab attention because they become relational.

In this case, both shows I mentioned do have realistic issues taking place in them, but I think that La Reina del Sur focuses more on narcotrafficking while the issue of the border and wall between the US and Mexico in Al Otro Lado del Muro fades out amongst the two stories.


4 comments:

  1. Recuerdo cuando nosotros hablemos sobre producción y telenovelas y como ellos usan los espectadores por los resultas o acciones en una telenovela. Hay más éxito cuando ellos pueden ver que ellos quieren ver. Con telenovelas como "al otro lado", no es posible por cambios y esto es porque no son revisiones buenas. En mi opinión, pienso es interesante como una compañía como Telemundo es creando un programa dependiendo en los espectadores. Es mucho más trabajo por una telenovela pero hay más éxito en la proceso.

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  2. Hey Adaire,

    I really enjoyed your post. As a viewer of telenovelas and television, I never really thought about what happens behind the scenes when shows become stagnant. I just simply stopped watching them. But after taking this class, I've began to wonder what happens behind the scenes when this occurs. Is this a manifestation of writers block? or is the show truly have no direction to go in that it already hasn't taken before? It's also interesting to see how shows cope with it. Show going stagnant can also be an indicator of tensions between the cast and writers or the cast and producers. In the example of El Senor de los cielos, the main actor was demanding too much money so they simply wrote him out and hired different actors to take his place. However, moves like these can be detrimental to the show and producers and writers must be aware of the protentional effects of these changes and how the effect the entire show as well as the audience who watches them

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  3. I remember talking about production and how Telemundo produces its telenovelas. Telemundo creates and shoots an entire telenovela, then puts it out to air. However, I believe that some get more seasons not just because of customer reviews, but because of viewer numbers that bring revenue to the company. For example, La Reina del Sur was Telemundo's most popular telenovela ever before El Senor de los Cielos came out. It makes sense that even years later they would want a second season and many seasons for El Senor. For Al Otro Lado Del Muro, there wasn't nearly as large of a viewing and following.

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  4. Los escritores y productores de telenovelas son basicamente obligados a tener un número específico de episodios para mantenserse en consonancia con el modelo de negocio de la telenovela para que los distribuidores compren los derechos de su programa. Debido a esto, estoy segura de que entre el estreno, la mitad de la novela y el finale, los escritores tienen bloques de escito y mesetas mientras esperan escribir sobre los puntos más interestantes de la trama. En mi telenovela específicamente, Sin Senos Sí Hay Paraíso, noté que los primeros 15 episodios fueron muy interesantes, los siguientes 15 fueron muy aburridos, y los siguientes 10 fueron súper interesantes ya que se acercaban a la mitad de la temporada. Dudo que los escritores muy talentosos tengan este problema a menudo, pero también debemos tener en cuenta que pueden ocurrir muchas cosas inesperadas al producir una telenovela. Por ejemplo, en Amara Muerte, los finales de los episodios se modificaron porque el director terminó el primer episodio antes de que necesitaba terminar. Este es un ejemplo de cómo puede occurir una meseta un una telenovela porque si el episodio no termina con un suspenso, la audiencia se puede aburrir.

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