"Official" Telenovela and Series (in Spanish) Reviews and Recommendations

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Andy E
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Re: "Official" Telenovela and Series (in Spanish) Reviews and Recommendations

Postby Andy E » Tue Feb 27, 2018 6:30 am

dgc1970 wrote:It's working for me in Canada with no VPN. I'm not even using a simple one like Hola.


I bet that's down to licensing. Having sold it to the BBC (I'm in the UK), I suspect they're blocking IP addresses from here. Although it works fine with a VPN and if I let the video start and then stop the VPN, it works fine after that.
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Re: "Official" Telenovela and Series (in Spanish) Reviews and Recommendations

Postby James29 » Sat Mar 31, 2018 3:54 pm

El Vato: This is a pretty good series. I watched it on Netflix. There are currently two seasons and a total of about 23 episodes. Originally it was on Telemundo in the US and the quality and acting is pretty good. It is a combination of a drama and comedy. The basic plot revolves around a singer from northern Mexico who goes to LA for a record deal with his three best friends (manager, song writer and goofy friend). They struggle, succeed, struggle again, start/end relationships, etc. I really liked the show. I usually don't have a hard time with Mexican Spanish but I found this a bit tougher than typical Mexican telenovelas because of the extensive use of slang and casual talk. It was a very good change of pace from typical telenovelas. I'll definitely watch season three when it is on Netflix. I'd definitely recommend this especially for people looking for something light hearted or about the music world or for practice with "hip" Mexican Spanish.
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Re: "Official" Telenovela and Series (in Spanish) Reviews and Recommendations

Postby James29 » Sat Apr 28, 2018 10:46 pm

I recently finished Edha on Netflix. This is a 10 episode Argentinian series about a woman named Edha (played by Juana Viale) who owns a struggling fashion company. She discovers a hunky male model and falls in love with him as he tries to solve the mystery about who burned down a factory where clothes were being illegally manufactured. The quality of the production is great. The accents are strongly Argentinian. Neflix offers the audio description feature which I love. The bad parts are that the story did nothing for me. I'm not at all into the fashion world. I do like Juana Viale, but that and the audio description feature were about all this series did for me.
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Re: "Official" Telenovela and Series (in Spanish) Reviews and Recommendations

Postby Kraut » Sun Apr 29, 2018 12:58 am

"La otra mirada" is a lavish new production and can be downloaded here in Germany. So it does not seem to be geo-blocked in Europe
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_otra_mirada
more details here:
https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... &start=330
Second episode is aired on May 2nd.

https://twitter.com/hashtag/LaOtraMirad ... e-14452%2F
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James29
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Re: "Official" Telenovela and Series (in Spanish) Reviews and Recommendations

Postby James29 » Sun Jun 03, 2018 10:56 am

I finished "Tiempos de Guerra" this week on Netflix. It is a 13 episode series from Spain about a military hospital in Melilla during a Spanish war in the 1920s. It follows a number of nurses, doctors and soldiers throughout the series and their relationships. It felt strikingly similar to Chicas del Cable. The story line never "grabbed" me. I never felt attached to any of the characters and I never felt like I was cheering for anyone. It felt kind of flat. There was an ongoing "back and forth" with many of the relationships. The lead nurse continually bounced back and forth between two men because she could not make up her mind which one was her soul mate. The same thing happened with at least three other relationships. It got old to see two people secretly kissing and then the camera moves over to show the other lover spying on them through a crack in the door and start crying. The good things about it were that it has the audio description feature which I love. The Spanish seemed extremely clearly spoken. All things considered I'd say this show was simply ok. It would be good/fine for someone wanting a good show from Spain to learn from, but you will not get anything that will put you on the edge of your seat. In terms of shows from Spain, this did not come anywhere close to Casa de Papel or El Mar de Plastico.
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Re: "Official" Telenovela and Series (in Spanish) Reviews and Recommendations

Postby Kraut » Sun Jun 03, 2018 7:37 pm

Here is a simple way to download videos + subtitles of Spanish national channels.

Paste the URL "http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/cuentame-como-paso/"

here: http://www.descargavideos.tv/changelog

Download video and subtitles. They can be used in VLC-Player.

In order to use them in Lingo PLayer, you must convert the subtitles (which are "vtt") into a "srt" file:
https://subtitletools.com/convert-to-srt-online
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Re: "Official" Telenovela and Series (in Spanish) Reviews and Recommendations

Postby James29 » Fri Aug 10, 2018 12:41 pm

I finished Dueños del paraíso today. This was a great telenovela. It is on Netflix in the US now and has 71 regular (42-44 minutes) length episodes. I generally do not like narco themed telenovelas, however, this one was different. The backdrop and general plot was typical... a drug kingpin gets killed and his wife takes over his narco empire. Of course, the widow was played by none other than Kate del Castillo. Even though it is a narco plot the story is really about the characters and their relationships and life situations. It was on Telemundo so the violence is pretty tame and there is nothing too objectionable.

There were numerous things I really liked about this novela. There were regular characters from numerous different Spanish speaking countries... Mexicans, Chilenos, Cubanos, Colombianos, Espanoles, etc. You really get exposed to all different types of Spanish. The show takes place in Miami in the late 70s so the styles and vehicles are pretty groovy. The dialogue was extremely easy for me to follow. I am pretty advanced in Spanish and generally don't have much difficulty with anything on TV, but this was just as easy as watching English for me. There are no major twists and turns that you can miss. This would be a good novela to watch if you have weak listening skills as I think the plot is easy to follow even without understanding all the dialogue.

One thing that was quite noticeable about this novela was that every woman was extremely attractive. It seemed kind of ridiculous, in fact. The acting and story was well done. There were no ridiculous sub plots like there are in every other novela. There was a sub plot with high school students who could not act too well. The ending all came together quite nicely.

All things considered, this was a great novela. It was definitely one of my favorites and I highly recommend it.
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Re: "Official" Telenovela and Series (in Spanish) Reviews and Recommendations

Postby Kubelek » Fri Aug 10, 2018 5:23 pm

Malviviendo - I find it hilarious, an amateur miniseries, very slangy

A couple I haven't seen yet that have been recommended to me in the past (Castellano):
Verano azul

Los hombres de Paco
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Re: "Official" Telenovela and Series (in Spanish) Reviews and Recommendations

Postby NoManches » Wed Aug 22, 2018 3:10 pm

Metástasis: I think this was the first show I ever watched in Spanish. I watched it when I was still in between the B1 - B2 range so a lot of it went over my head. This is an EXCELLENT show if you HAVEN'T already watched the original version from the US (Breaking Bad). I have never watched breaking bad (except for the first episode) and I can have conversations with people about the show since the Colombian version is 99.9% identical. The only real differences are: the language, locations, and actors. The names of the characters are changed for the Spanish speaking audience (Walter Blanco) for example. I believe I read somewhere that even the camera angles are the same. If you have already watched Breaking Bad, then this show probably won't do it for you. If you haven't watched it, give this show a try. A quick and dirty summary: Walter Blanco is a high school chemistry teacher. He is diagnosed with cancer and needs to make money to pay for treatment. He starts "cooking" meth using his skills in chemistry and becomes very successful. The involvement with the drug world slowly changes his personality.

Por amar sin ley: This is your standard telenovela from Mexico, but more modern. Yea, it has some drama but nothing too crazy. I think there was only one or two scenes where I rolled my eyes and shook my head. It follows the life (professional and personal), of one of the top law firms in Mexico. It has some famous actors from Mexico (and Argentina: Julián Gil). I think the Spanish in this show is REALLY easy to understand and great if you are trying to work on your listening comprehension. The slang is limited and they speak very clearly. I watched it on Univision but if you don't get that channel you can subscribe to UnivisionNOW (which I recommend) and watch it from there. I think there are a total of 87 episodes and they are making a season 2.

Dogma: This shows has 13 episodes so it's good if you don't want to dedicate yourself to a full length telenovela. The description from Univison: Un investigador de milagros es reclutado para resolver una serie de casos milagrosos e inexplicables pero su compañera de asignación no es de su gusto.

I think it was a cool show that had a good mix of action, drama, and suspense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA1_TMJHKrY

El desconocido: This is a 5 part series on Netflix. Episodes range between 45 minutes and 1 hour. This is your typical narco novela with extra action and less drama. There is a romance involved and a lot of violence, but its an entertaining show and something you can probably stick out for 5 episodes. If you avoid narco themed shows, maybe you can give this one a try to expose yourself to some new vocabulary. Some of the show is hard to understand because they are yelling while shooting and stuff, but it's a good way to challenge yourself.


El Señor de los Cielos: This show I really liked, although I didn't actually finish it. I watched all 72 episodes of the first season and 42 episodes of the second season. I would not recommend it for your first, second, or even third television series unless you feel really good about your listening skills. This show has a lot of slang, a lot of it being narco slang that you won't even hear on the streets in el DF. This show has a lot of Mexican and Colombian Spanish. These characters are in almost every show so it's a good way to train your ears to certain actors. I noticed that after watching this show, I kept seeing the actors everywhere in other shows/movies. This was a good thing since my ear was already used to that particular actor. I credit this show with a lot of my progress I made in Spanish.

El Chema: I only watched 24 episodes of this show but will probably finish watching it some other time. Ties in with El Señor de los Cielos, and basically tells the story of El Chapo. I think it's a good show as far as action, good actors, and entertainment. I can only handle so many narco shows though so I had to stop watching it for a while.

EL Mariachi: I REALLY liked this show. It might be based on a movie of the same name but I'm not positive on that. A mariachi singer travels for some music event and gets confused for a sicario. In order to win his freedom he has to work for another cartel. He falls in love with a woman (played by one of my favorite actresses: Martha Higareda). This is a really fun show to watch with lot's of Mexican Spanish. It was on Netflix but they aren't showing it anymore. I've looked all over but I'm not sure where I can legally watch it. If they sold this show as a DVD I would buy it. I think I saw this when I was at an intermediate level and it really helped my Spanish a lot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICIDFd5IlO8

I've watched a few more shows that have already been mentioned here. I have a few more that I'm working on and hope to finish withing the near future.

**edit** Forgot to add El Mariachi
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Re: "Official" Telenovela and Series (in Spanish) Reviews and Recommendations

Postby Jaleel10 » Tue Sep 11, 2018 6:36 am

La Casa de Las Flores

Image

It's a Mexican series and Netflix's latest Latin American original. Finished it two days ago. I actually loved it! It's kinda telenovela-ish with lots of modern comedy elements. The characters are awesome and the plot is very colourful and clever. There are many themes that the series tries to show: sexuality, infidelity, money, mental health and most importantly, family and all the craziness that goes into maintaining one. It's only 13 episodes I think and obviously my shitty review doesn't do it justice lol but I definitely recommend checking it out. It's an easy watch, just 30 minutes per episode. I had to watch it with Spanish subtitles but the Spanish is probably very manageable if you are an intermediate+
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