After doing some research, I decided to land on the Telenovela: El Dragón, on Netflix. It was among the highest rated Telenovelas on Netflix, so I decided to analyze this specific one. Upon watching the first episode, I was very impressed! Immediately I began to think about the Telenovela (I can't recall the name of it) that Dr. A discussed in class that was filmed in both India and Brazil. In El Dragón, it takes place in both Japan and Mexico. As I watched the first episode, I tried to find any discrepancies (errors in time zones, etc.) and I couldn't find any (at least after the first few episodes!)
After watching the first episode, I tried to decipher if this was a Rosa (traditional) telenovela, or a De Ruptura (realist). I think it falls more towards the De Ruptura side. At this point, considering I have not watched the whole series, I would label it as such: 75% De Ruptura and 25% Rosa. mainly because there is some romance involved. A lot of the plot focuses on a battle of power between two parties (I believe) and trying to manage control of their designated area. This involves a lot of crime, violence, government involvement, etc. which lead me to mainly identify it as a De Ruptura telenovela.
As we discussed in class, in a lot of telenovelas there is some sort of love triangle. I have not seen any evidence yet of that in this particular telenovela. However, there is still time for one to develop. The protagonist, Miguel, is in a healthy relationship, but I can foresee there being an antagonist (not necessarily a woman) that tries to interfere with that or use his fiancé as leverage in gaining control of his grandfather's business. I am interested to see how that plays out during the remainder of the series.
The producer of El Dragón, Jorge Sastoque Roa, is the producer of many other telenovelas such as Las Buchonas de Tierra Blanca and La Bella y Las Bestias. The actual creators of El Dragón ( Arturo Pérez-Reverte and Patricio Will) are also the creators of La Reina Del Sur. I am interested to research more and see if El Dragón was as successful as La Reina Del Sur.
So far, I really enjoy this telenovela and am looking forward to watching more!
I definitely chose a telenovela that had great ratings and was obviously popular as well. I went with La Reina del Sur, but I can absolutely relate to choosing something so widely accepted. I felt like this gave me the best chance at picking a telenovela that I would be able to actually get hooked on, because so many others had been.
ReplyDeleteI also think it's really interesting that you were looking for any discrepancies, since it was filmed in such different places. I always think it's exciting to catch one, as it separates the telenovela universe from the real world. But I think it is really impressive that the majority of telenovelas work so hard and are successful in avoiding them!
I am also really noticing that with people's early blog posts, there were no love triangles appearing. It is worth taking note of that love triangles seem to come further into a telenovela than we would expect, after learning about their importance. Maybe this is to make sure the viewers are already fully hooked before introducing something that causes so many strong opinions?