Telenovelas in the Philippines

Telenovelas are popular again in the Philippines, what with the current remake of Marimar and the upcoming Rosalinda remake, and Zorro, Betty La Fea, Letty La Mas Fea, Ugly Betty, Inocente de Ti, and Mirada de Mujer showing on Filipino television. I'm watching this show here in L.A. called Codigo Postal about a group of young teenagers in Acapulco, Mexico and I really like it because it's young, hip, and it's funny, everybody's just living their lives and dealing with friends, relationships, and parents and hanging out at the beach, the restaurant that they work for, at clubs, it's like re-living your teenage years all over again. And I just think this girl Altair Jarabo is so beautiful. It also features Africa Zavala who Filipinos will remember as the lead actress from Doble Cara (or Peregrina).



Most Filipinos think that telenovelas are baduy, but they're not, because if they were, then why would American TV networks like ABC and NBC be remaking the most popular telenovelas into hit TV shows like Ugly Betty and the soon to come Without Breasts There is No Paradise about a young woman who wants to get breast enhancement surgery to rise up in society, but ends up in the drug cartel mafia? The only thing that is baduy is the TV networks and their taste, which is, they always choose the crappiest most overdramatic telenovelas to be shown in the Philippines, so telenovelas get a bad reputation. In the Philippines, they only show like 2-4 telenovelas at once, but my gosh, here in the U.S., the selection is 30 or more at a time, and let me tell you, there's some fantastic ones in the bunch, that are well-written, have comedy and humor, that are realistic, and it's not always the poor girl, rich guy story, there's telenovelas about hip hop, and gangs and drugs, and some telenovelas have like the feel of The Sopranos, some are about the mafia in Latin America, there's some that are love stories about the gypsies and witches and magic and it's just amazing the range that telenovelas have in that there's some amazing and original storylines that they come up with, and they're executed really well, the acting is amazing, there's murder mystery telenovelas that are like you have to figure out who killed who, it's like reading a really good novela or book, it's not what Filipinos think of they just think of Marimar and that type of novela, there's all kinds and they're amazingly entertaining and original and can be cool and young and geared towards teens as well as adults, but...

I don't know why the networks choose the telenovelas they do, they always seem to choose the junk melodramatic "rich boy-poor girl" ones like the Thalia novelas, which is ridiculous because aren't Filipinos already tired of that story line seeing it a million times done over and over on Filipino teleseryes and movies, but those are the ones that the TV networks in the Philippines choose (maybe because they're more familiar with them), except for a few in which they hit jackpot like Betty La Fea, Pasion de Amor and Rubi and of course the Thalia ones, but those junk ones they choose are why they never get higher ratings. And I know it has nothing to do with money, because ABS-CBN is filthy rich, and they've bought some of the most expensive telenovelas in history to be shown in the Philippines before, like Zorro, Rubi, and Pasion de Amor. If GMA were to be smart, they would pick this telenovela to show, or QTV, or the network that showed Letty La Mas Fea, because Filipinos want to watch naked good looking Latin Americans basically, and if they showed this show, Codigo Postal, which has an almost naked actress/actor practically everyday since it's a telenovela that takes place on the beach and on beach houses and beach restaurants and beach clubs, I'm sure GMA's ratings would sky rocket because sex appeal + a good story = success for any television show in the world. Of course, they're not fully naked, since this show is geared for a general audience and teenagers, but they as sure as hell get as close to being naked as possible, hehe but that's probably why the ratings aren't so high for telenovelas, because they're really focusing on the ugly lately, I'm talking about Betty and Letty, who we love, and I loved those shows too.
And it's a better story than those corny cutesy-cutesy koreanovelas, uy, I've seen only one good one, but what great lessons those shows from Korea teach in where the man is always superior to the woman and has the last word and is free to slap her whenever she gets out of line, those are great lessons to teach young Filipinos, I'm sure. At least Spanish telenovelas have become so modern these days that it's not your always typical crying Thalia-Marimar like character, the novelas these days, the woman is in charge of things, just watch any of Gabriela Spanic's recent novelas in which she did martial arts, jumped out of moving vehicles and airplanes, and kicked the guys' butts. And at least with Spanish telenovelas, it shares the same exact values as the Filipino culture although many Filipinos wouldn't even realize it that Spanish speakers share the same values as us: pakikisama, amor propio, hiya, mukha, utang na loob, delicadeza, they're not just Filipino values, they're values that are shared by all former Spanish colonies, just travel to any Latin country, and you'll feel right at home like many Filipinos have, that's what made Spanish telenovelas popular in the first place, because Filipinos were just watching shows that were a reflection of their own culture, but didn't even realize it and reinforced the same values that Filipinos grew up with.
Of course, Filipino produced shows of quality should always be made high priority for the networks, but based on the usual ningas cogon of how most Filipino teleseryes start out great and fancy with a lot of pizzazz and special effects in the first few episodes, and end up lagging towards the end with the writers and directors putting less effort into it as time goes by, our best bets for quality television can be found anywhere.