A little more ranting and rambling about Heridas de Amor
I just posted this comment about the last episode of Heridas de Amor at the Caray Caray blog, and I agree with myself so much that I decided to post it here, too:
I think the writers of this episode (a) hated the actors (b) hated the show's producers, and/or (c) hated the audience, because this is the most idiotic ending to any show I have ever seen.
Cesar getting killed in a random car accident? Gee, why didn't George Lucas think to kill off Darth Vader that way? Just have a space ship accidentally fall on his head. And Sauron, maybe he could have tripped on a pebble and broken his neck and saved Frodo the trip to Mount Doom!
This episode made even silly "Peregrina" look like Shakespeare.
...OK, enough ranting. What did I like about Heridas de Amor?
First of all, I thought it was very well directed. The scenes didn't seem static; there was usually some weird camera angle to keep things interesting.
Also, the settings were varied -- I didn't feel that I was seeing the same handful of sets over and over. (My only gripe about my favorite telenovela, Piel de Otoño, was that almost every scene seemed to take place in a restaurant; I didn't notice the same kind of repetition in Heridas de Amor.) I especially enjoyed the scenery in Tabasco. Beautiful.
I liked the music, especially the theme song.
And of course, the main villains were great. Bertha was intriguing, and I found her believable for all her nuttiness. It was an especially clever touch to give her that dog -- I can't think of another film or TV villain who goes around menacing people with a big attack dog. Very scary.
I also liked the unholy duo of Bertha and Cesar. It was fun to watch them getting drunk and puzzling together over why no one loved them for their wicked, wicked ways.
NOW SOME MORE COMPLAINTS. I don't understand why the writers didn't do more with Bertha and Cesar at the end of the story. Is it believable that they could remain holed up in Cesar's apartment when the police were looking for them? Or that they would make no real effort to escape for days on end, even when they still thought they had access to Cesar's stolen money -- that Cesar would just sit around drinking, and Bertha would visit the hacienda to confess to all her past crimes, with no profit in it for her?
Maybe the fight went out of Bertha after Guapo raped her. But then why did she continue hanging around with Guapo? They shot Charo, and menaced Santiago together, AFTER the rape. Did Bertha give up hope and decide to commit suicide because Cesar rejected her after the rape? I can believe that, but the writers should have made it plain by having one big final blow-up between Bertha and Cesar. As it was, it seemed Bertha gave up all her evil schemes simply because she knew the show was about to end.
WHAT I EXPECTED TO HAPPEN: I thought Cesar, the more human of the the Unholy Duo, would become so attached to Bertha that he would start trusting her, and then she would (of course) betray him. Then Bertha herself would be killed by her own dog. So both villains were done in by their own "wounds of love."
Alternately, Cesar could have flipped his top, killed Bertha in one of his trademark rages, then regretted it, realized that he loved her in his own twisted way -- and then have been killed by Bertha's guard dog. Of course, all of this should have happened while they were carrying out a grand revenge scheme against everyone they threatened during the course of the show. Maybe they would have been holding Amparo hostage at the time -- after all, Bertha made some dramatic threats against Juan's family, but she never carried them out.
What I liked most about this show was that it opened up so many possibilities for future storylines, and it disappointed me that so many promises were never fulfilled.
UNEXPLAINED MYSTERIES AND UNRESOLVED PLOTS: How did Alfredo Luque survive being shot and thrown into the river? Who saved him? Why didn't he ever go to the police about the shooting?
We know Tomasa's sons disposed of Alfredo's body at Bertha's behest. Then Bertha kidnapped Nuria to keep Tomasa quiet. Tomasa's sons both died at some point. How did they die? If Bertha killed them, how? Why not kill Tomasa, too? Where was Nuria's mother during all of this? None of this makes sense.
Whatever happened to the portfolio of Alfredo Luque's designs? Did Alejandro get it back?
Who is going to inherit Alfredo's fortune? Florencia's baby? What, if anything, does that mean for Alejandro and Daira? Why did Alfredo make such an insanely complicated will, anyway?
How did Bertha manage to kill the two doctors in Germany? Why did it take the police eight months or so to release the security camera photo of her?
Whatever happened to that guy who tore up all Pamela's photographs? For that matter, what happened to Pamela's career as a photographer? After the first few episodes, her camera seemed to disappear. Too bad; I thought that was going somewhere. Marrying her off to Luciano was predictable, boring, and pointless.
Did Daniel (Julio's son) fall out of love with Carola, or just fall off the face of the earth, taking his brother Angel with him?
And (I'm speaking now as an ignorant American) if Juan was so incredibly poor and low-class that Renata and all her friends recoiled from him in horror, how did he manage to become a doctor? Is medical school free in Mexico? And why did Renata treat Juan like an unwashed street urchin -- doesn't a doctor have any status at all in Mexico? If Fernanda was the best cardiologist in Mexico, why was she living in a supposedly bad neighborhood? If the neighborhood was so bad, why didn't Amparo and Francisco ever lock their front door? Is any of this true to real life in Mexico, or is it just silliness?
Another mystery: Why was a good-looking guy like Francisco single for so long? Which leads me to...
THE ROMANCES THAT NEVER HAPPENED
1. Daira and Francisco. Around the same age. Both attractive and single. She was rich; he hated rich people. She was flaky; so was he. A match made in telenovela heaven. So what happened?
2. Fernanda and Julio. Clearly even Julio could see that Rebeca was an idiot. But at the last moment, the writers decided to redeem her and get her back together with Julio. It would have been more interesting if he'd fallen in love with Fernanda and Fernanda had felt horribly guilty about the whole thing. She was so good at feeling horribly guilty, so why not?
3. Santiago and Andrea. I know he was a priest, but he spent an awful lot of time holding Andrea's hand, didn't he?
4. Carola and Joel. I didn't care what happened to Carola because I didn't like her much, but I figured Joel was hanging around in the background for some reason, and eventually he'd come out of the shadows and start gazing adoringly at Carola while she gazed adoringly at Juan. But nope, it never happened.
Or:
5. Juan and Carola. Renata could have realized finally that a nice poor man is better than a rich psychopath (Cesar). She could have gone running, like Scarlett O'Hara, back to Juan, only to find he didn't give a damn anymore because he had decided to marry Carola. That would have served Renata right.
WORST STORYLINE ON THE SHOW: Yes, as you can probably guess, I think the worst storyline was the marriage of Juan and Renata, because it was never really resolved. She finally accepted him after he agreed to move into her mother's big fancy house with her (because oops, she needed a daddy for Cesar's baby). And Juan, supposedly Mr. Nice Guy, never bothered to apologize to Carola for using her, then dumping her the moment Renata wanted him back. And these two fine people will now be raising Cesar's demon child together. And I'm supposed to find that romantic?
BEST STORYLINE: The death of Lisania. It was shocking and chilling, and it's the thing I'll remember most about this show.
The other scenes I will remember most: Bertha taunting Rebeca by eating chocolate fingers after Fabricio's kidnapping; Charo's apparently lifeless body on the kitchen floor after Guapo shot her; and Bertha stabbing herself so she could feel a "wound of love." The first two scenes were memorable because they showed just how cold and lethal Bertha could be. As for that last scene, ugh, I'd like to forget it, but I don't think I will.
That's enough of my ranting and rambling for now. Please tell me what you think.
posted by NONE @ 5:12 PM
11 Comments:
Carmen, you are more than entitled to your frustrations! (Imagine how the actors felt)
The problem with this telenovela, and others recently produced at Televisa is that they do not have a strong central writing team. HDA had 3 writers, none with tremendous talent or experience and when I had the good fortune to visit the set during the taping of some of the final scenes, I learned the worst of it: this was a telenovela concocted by focus groups. Televisa would bring in groups of viewers (and I'm guessing that there were few logic-minded viewers like you or I) and show them episodes and ask them what they wanted to see happen next. That's why stories zig-zagged without rhymne or reason. Guy Ecker and his wife spoke to our group (I had visited the set with several friends) of the frustrations to make sense of the script.
What made it worse for them (and I'm sure others in the cast) is that this novela was sold to them as something quite different. It was originally to be a remake of 'Valeria and Maximiliano,' which in turn was an adaptation of 'Gone with the Wind.' See much of GWTW in this?
I'm not sure if you've discovered the excellent forums at http://www.telenovela-world.com, but I recommend them. There you'll find people who share your pain.
Robin N
Carmel, a very well-thought out analysis. Thank you for that, it helps make sense of the whole mess.
Aha! Some very interesting comments from Robin. It certainly explains the disjointed, jerky plot style of Heridas. How sad for we viewers and how frustrating for the actors. I would say the focus group method is a dismal failure. What a waste of time and money. Leave the writing for the expert story weavers!
Carmen, would you be interested in taking over a Thursday spot with us on "Duelo de Pasiones"? We are one recapper short and you are just great! If I had been watching Heridas I would have been over here all the time, but I just couldn't stand all the yakking so I abandoned it. If you would be able to do Thursdays of Duelo please contact me at caray@mappamundi.com... Thanks!
Carmen - I love your comments, I wish I had discovered this before today so I could have been keeping up along the way. I was doing the Friday recaps over at Caray Caray for Heridas and while the show made me miserable, from a writing perspective it was perfect. I would have loved to share thoughts with you along the way. Perhaps you will join our little club for the next run. Robin - thank you for restoring my faith in professional writers. All along I thought these were real writers just doing a crap job, it's nice to know that they were just doing what someone else told them to do and trying to make the best of it.
Robin, thank you for explaining about the focus groups -- no wonder the story was so disjointed! It's a tribute to the actors that they were able to make sense of it all.
Melinama, I'm hesitant about doing the recaps for someone else's blog because my Spanish isn't very good, but I am going to watch Duelo de Pasiones, so maybe I could do Thursdays till you find someone else? I'll email you.
Wow what an incredible analysis of the show! Thank you. Like Ferro, I wish I knew about your web site before hand so I could have benefited from your knowledge/observations. You really are well thought out in your analysis. Thank you again.
Thank you also Robin for letting us know about the focus group writers. Ahhhhh! That explains sooo much! If only the writers would confer with us. Or better yet air the show first in the US so we can provide comments before mass airing in other countries. Yes!
Wait! Ive been sick! Ive seen your recaps before! You just changed the wall paper. Ok excuse me then for sounding ignorant. You rock Carmel!
Just found your recaps too, thanks to the link on caray. I'll be checking back I liked some of your pairings-although
I thought Daira had rescued Alfredo Luque from the river, that that was how they met. At one point early on when she gets to Mexico, she is kind of freaked out by being there because she remembers being poor there and doing bad stuff to survive (prostitution? thieving?). Then she finds Alfredo, saves him and they go off to Italy with Alejandro and where they have Lisania. So even if she is a rich lady, she had poor beginnings. Works even better with Francisco.
I thought Tomasas sons' drowned in the river while trying to get rid of "the body" of Alfredo Luque. Nothing is ever said about Nuria's mother so I assumed that she had died before any of this began or died in childbirth with Nuria. Not incredibly clear though.
Anyway, all gone now! On to the next one!
Carmel, I think you would be a wonderful addition to Caray, Caray! Many of us are learning Spanish which is why we recap. I think you have a wonderful style and I wouldn't change a thing for the Caray recaps. I love your vocab word additions. You are very good at being succinct and narrowing down the activity to the essence of what is happening. I think sometimes my Heridas recaps went on too long so my goal for Duelo is to be a bit more streamlined. I'm going to try anyway.
Margaret, thanks for the comments about the plot early on. I had forgotten some of that stuff.
WOW!! Interesting to find out how this one ended. I started to watch it, but gave up because I was so confused, thinking it was my limited Spanish, but now I realize the whole show was confusing. Language was not the problem.
Hopefully they won't do the focus group writing again. What a mess!!!
That's OK, Lynn -- the wallpaper on this blog was a horrible blinding pink till recently, and I'm not surprised you didn't recognize the site now that it's a bit less glaring!
Aha, Margaret, thank you for explaining that Daira saved Alfredo from the river. When the show started I understood even less Spanish than I do now, so I missed all of that. It explains a few things.
OK, I'm going to try doing the Duelo de Pasiones recaps for Caray Caray on Thursdays, and we'll see how that goes. I'm still hesitant because my Spanish is so poor, but the telenovelas are definitely helping me learn. Sylvia, I'll take your advice and keep boiling things down as much as possible.
And Cathy, I'll bet even some native Spanish speakers had trouble following Heridas de Amor! It was insanely complicated (I once made a list of the characters, and there were more than 50)!
So far it looks as if Duelo de Pasiones will be a much faster-paced show, but I remember thinking that about Heridas at the beginning, too. I guess we'll see!
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