Throughout the entirety of the semester, I have been watching, Al Otro Lado del Muro. Al Otro Lado del Muro is a telenovela created and produced by Telemundo that first aired in February of 2018 and ended in May of 2018.
“Al Otro Lado del Muro” follows the journeys of two women from Mexico into the United States. The telenovela covers many topics such as immigration, marriage, politics, trafficking, and more.
In the beginning of the telenovela, each episode was binge worthy with captivating tales of the struggles and triumphs surrounding the main characters Eliza and Sofia. The first portion of episodes also took place as a flashback into 2007, so I was eager to get to the present to see the lives of all the characters in America. However, it took about 18 episodes to get to present times. By then, I was a little bit annoyed by how long it was taking. The show had somewhat become a little stagnant in my opinion.
Because I really liked some of the characters, I continued to watch the show to see how the lives of my favorite characters ended up. In the end, I was pretty happy with where everyone ended up. I was happy to see Eliza marry Andres, Sofia and Joel get together, and Jennifer, Carmen, and Ernesto end up in jail.
Overall, this telenovela was intriguing, stagnant and exhilarating. However, I do believe that the writers could have done more to keep the story less stagnant in the middle of the series. I also have a different perspective on migrants journeys from Mexico into the United States. I’m glad that I chose to watch this telenovela for class and am excited to start watching another one.
Maya
ReplyDeleteAs we are watching the same telenovela, I have to agree with your analysis of the show over the pacing. The first half of the telenovela was exciting and fast-paced as we watched Sofia and Eliza cross the border with their families and heart-wrenching as we watched Sofia take the fall for Ernesto's crimes and give up her daughter. Then ending was also exciting as we watched all the different stories come together in some way and also seeing how all of the protagonist's problems were resolved. I have to agree that the middle of the telenovela and at times felt like it dragged. As we discussed in our consumption presentation, the telenovela experienced a drop in viewership which I can definitely understand as the series dragged during the middle where Sofia lived as Alejandra and while Jennifer was befriending Rodrigo. It took the telenovela a while to pick up the pace. Because Telemundo uses a production model where they produce the telenovela all at once and wait, there was really no way for the writers (or anyone at Telemundo really) to speed up the telenovela or do anything really. I think this highlights why it's important to listen to the audience and use the original production model where writers and producers are still writing so they can make changes that reflect what the audience wants.