The Inescapable Telenovela

"I'm so glad that my life is not like that!" I exclaimed to my aunt just yesterday, as a week's worth of reruns of "Juana la Virgen" played on the TV screen. It was a lazy Sunday afternoon, and I was half amused and half horrified at what I was watching, all the while curious as to the outcome of the characters' tricky lives. It was a Venezuelan telenovela (Latinamerican soap-opera) that consisted of the usual sop: two people love each other, but there are a million and one obstacles, including one being married, the other not knowing of the other's love, family members with their own agendas, a wicked stepmother, lies, jealous secret loves, etc. I think soap-operas generally have these fixed characteristics. Apart from the extremely beautiful conniving women and the charmingly ruthless lying men, the melodrama and latin tempers perhaps fascinate Finnish viewers? Or so I thought, until I read an article on the BBC about these telenovelas. (I don't think the topic would have otherwise made it to this blog, but it reminded me!)

Something I didn't know: some say that as many as 2 billion people watch telenovelas on a daily basis! That would be a third of the world's population, taken in for that one hour (at least) by the twisted lives of fictional characters that become familiar to them during this daily ritual. So, I don't think it is only the melodrama and latin tempers that draw Finnish viewers, or viewers anywhere on the globe for that matter, but the universality of the problems presented and perhaps the general fascination people have with the drama in other people's lives. And if I remember correctly, while living in South America, there were a few that drew me in over the years, so I was once a part of that 2 billion-member club. (El Árbol Azul, I still remember it. It was about school children and aimed specifically for pre-teen interests! Although I don't recall it being as morally depraved as some of the things on TV nowadays.)

But no, I am not planning to follow Juana, although if I am around when it finally ends on that 190th episode, I would not mind seeing the couple happily ever after with their baby. (But happily ever after is not to be, because the same miscreant relatives and friends are still around and I'm sure a new round of problems ripe for a sequel would be bound to show up. But I've yet to hear of a telenovela sequel.) As a tool of cultural and ideological change however, these shows would be interesting to delve into. BBC mentions controversial events and political elements as more recent trends in telenovelas, and indeed, there is much going on in Latin America that would warrant commentary. I wonder how many of them actually have been made with a political agenda? Alas, I don't want to become so hooked as to find out, but it is an entertaining research idea...