Original telenovella
Does anyone think this should follow the storyline of the original series?Louis is presumed dead,Alex and Andrea get together,Louis returns and feels betrayed,he tries to get revenge and the brothers become enemies.
shareFrom what I've heard, it DOES follow the original storyline. That's why they don't have writers, but "adapters". The adapters have "Americanized" some of the dialog, etc but have kept it in true telenovela form. This is one reason why I don't think the critics "get it". Original telenovelas are known for melodrama, cheesy dialog, etc. That's what makes them fun! Some of the reviews I've read are comparing apples to oranges. I think a lot of people are not familiar with what a telenovela is......I know I wasn't. I don't think the network did enough publicity to that effect before they premiered. But I do think they will catch on, at least that's what seems to be happening with Desire.
shareI strongly disagree. Yes there are some novelas which are extremely melodramatic, and "cheesy" as you call it but for every popular one that is over the top there is a sucessful one that even with an unbelievable story has believable acting, decent motivation for the characters, and definitely better cliffhangers per episode.
I don't know how many novelas you have actually seen in recent years or perhaps what variety of them you have seen but for every ridiculous but fun hit novela like "la Madrastra", and "Mariana de la noche" there are other sucessful ones like "Rubi", "Amarte es mi pecado", and "amor Real" which were much less campy than what you are describing. I understand why people describe novelas as you have but I don't understand why they don't also relate that the genre has more depth than one who is not exposed to them for an extended period of time would like to believe. It is not all lost in translation and if the producers would purchase more expensive, quality scripts (particularly ones from Mexico where the majority of novelas sucessful and unsucessful are made) instead of a cheap,fairly sucessful ones from Colombia like "Mesa para Tres" the end result might be better. I think any criticisms and praises people have labeled on the boards are fair for the most part because in any language or culture quality is quality. The acting of some of these actors (not all)is not melodramatic in many cases it is just poor. Plain and simple.
Novelas are not just what you see from clips on "The Soup" or as punchlines on the latenight talkshows.
Wow, I'm amazed! A post that is actually intelligently written....I enjoyed reading it. So much better than "he's hot", "she's not hot", "i love the show", "i hate the show", and the best one: "i hate the show because all the characters are italian"....Anyway, to be fair, I have NOT seen that many telenovelas so you're correct there, but I understand the concept and how they are different than a regular soap or repeating series. I agree about the acting, too, but there are some good actors also. I think Eliana Alexander who plays Rita Thomas (the boys' mother) is good, along with the mob guys. Also Penelope (Jessie Ward) and Claudia (Kristen Kerr), although their parts are small I found them very believable. I think the ones they made the "stars" here could have been chosen a little better. Michelle Belegrin (Andrea) seems very unnatural and monotone in both expression and delivery. Nate Haden and Zack Silver (Louis and Alex) I think are getting a little better, or maybe I'm just getting used to them. I also think the bad dialog is inhibiting peoples' judgment of the acting, but if you compare the dialog to some of the original novelas, bad dialog seems to be a requisite for a telenovela. I hope you keep posting here, it would be nice to discuss the show more with you.
shareThanks for the complement Bondium.
I agree with you that the standards of the average posts here on imdb are pretty low. Freedom of speech is great but reading spelling errors, grammar mistakes, and empty opinions like "he's/she's hot", and "I love the show because the scenery is pretty " can get tiresome to read. I understand shows like these are guilty pleasures but to see people not base their preference for a program on something other than the superficial is a bit disconcerting.
I don't watch Desire very often because the story and the violence is a bit too outlandish for me, but I do feel that the acting is slightly better than Fashion house which I watch more often (to see how bad it will actually get) but suffers from having weak acting, poor pace etc. but still imo has a halfway decent storyline going for it. Anyway hopefully we will post in the same thread in the future.
Just want to clarify that the whole "adapters" bit is misleading. These shows were written, not merely adapted. Most of the writers involved don't speak Spanish and they were shown all of five minutes of the original novela. So instead of "adapting" the originals beat for beat and "Americanizing" things here and there, for each episode the writers were given a page of storybeats which they then had to turn into 45 script pages. They were also given a little leeway to make up their own beats. Crafting 45 original pages out of a one page beatsheet is writing, not adapting.
shareThere seems to be a lot of misinformation about the shows, and My Network TV in general. Everything I've read (reviews, etc.) says to the effect of "they don't even have writers, just 'adapters'". Also, I spoke to three people in the last week who had no idea of what My Network TV was, never heard of it, what channel was it on, etc. If they want this network and shows to succeed, they'd better re-think their marketing and promotional ideas. Case in point, I know of someone down in Florida who has relatives in the Miami/Cuban district (one of the targeted audiences for this new network) and had said to me in the summer that this group was very excited and anticipating watching the new telenovelas because they were based on the original Spanish ones. But in mid September, I spoke to my friend in Florida again and I asked her how her relatives were liking the shows. Her response: "I still don't know what channel it's on.......I can't find it anywhere". I sincerely hope someone from the network is following this stuff.
shareThe MNTV channels should be on either the old UPN or WB channel for whatever market. The last I heard, MNTV was available in 75% of the major US markets, but that they were hoping to cover 100% asap. I'd be really surprised if Miami was not in the orignial 75%. Ultimately, though, which markets MNTV ended up in had to do with whether the old UPN or WB station owners wanted to switch to the CW or MNTV.
share