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Here are three things that I have noticed are typical in Mexican TV series. Are they really characteristic or just representative of what I have watched?
1. Special effects that would look corny on American TV. Mexican TV producers seem to have a penchant for obvious special effects. For example, La Rosa de Guadalupe often features slow-motion scenes. These are not shot at a high frame-rate but instead the normal rate, making for jerky movement. I believe other telenovelas have this as well. La Familia P.Luche goes one step further, with cartoonish drawings integrated in with the normal video, which would look very bizarre on American TV.
2. Actors who do not represent the majority of the population. British TV shows feature perfectly normal-looking actors and actresses. American TV has done a lot to include minorities (blacks, Hispanics) in their TV casts, as well as somewhat plus-size actors and actresses. Mexican TV, on the other hand, very often only represents about 10 or 15% of light-skinned Mexicans. Just look at the real street-scenes at the opening of La Rosa de Guadalupe and the actual actors and actresses they use, as well as the lifestyles the actors are portrayed as living, which are similar to those of the American middle- or upper middle class rather than even the Mexican middle class.
3. Use of "amor" in show titles Rarely do the American shows which I am familiar with include "love" in their episode titles, but this is very common in Mexican TV shows, as well as other emotional terms.
As to #2, I can't agree more with you! My wife is addicted to Corazon Indomable as there isn't a singled "real" average Mexican anywhere - including servants and field hands! In addition, they all live is expensive homes with nothing but high-value furnishings.
As I watch a great deal of Hispanic TV, I have yet to see an Indio/India or halfbreed anywhere!
The one advantage of watching Hispanic TV is that the babes are one heck of a lot better looking than some I've seen on CNN or MSNBC!!!
I have not looked Mexican television in a while, but yesterday I've seen two or three shows (La Rosa de Guadalupe, Como dice el dicho) in the afternoon and it's ridiculous, all the actors are white with blue eyes!
I have seen Indians (indigenous North Americans) and one African on Mexican tv shows but they were both ridiculed for their race in at least one scene.
It doesn't bother me that the people are rich because the lives of rich people are more marketable than the lives of the average person.
Also, American television was not inclusive until recently. Ask your parents how many minorities were on tv when they were young. Ricky Ricardo and Danny Thomas. If there was an African-descent person they were a maid or some other domestic most of the time.
Even as recently as a few decades ago, there were few Blacks and the ones you saw were magically related to people who looked more European than African.
I have seen Indians (indigenous North Americans) and one African on Mexican tv shows but they were both ridiculed for their race in at least one scene.
It doesn't bother me that the people are rich because the lives of rich people are more marketable than the lives of the average person.
Also, American television was not inclusive until recently. Ask your parents how many minorities were on tv when they were young. Ricky Ricardo and Danny Thomas. If there was an African-descent person they were a maid or some other domestic most of the time.
Even as recently as a few decades ago, there were few Blacks and the ones you saw were magically related to people who looked more European than African.
Ever heard of Sanford & Son?
What's interesting about Mexican TV is that the characters do not represent the MAJORITY of the population. Shows featuring a cast of all-white people would at least be representative of the white majority in the U.S.
It's not just shows, it's the news, the morning shows and everything else. And it has been this way since I first watched Mexican TV 30 years ago in Southern California. Mexicans are so used to it, they don't notice it and think it's perfectly normal. One Mexican now living in the US made an equally good point. Why is it in movies or TV it seems like 90% of all storylines are set either in LA or NYC? Most people in the US don't have the same lifestyles or issues but to foreigners who don't get to visit the US but watch our media content would think the typical American life includes things only big city people deal with.
It happens everywhere around the world. Here in the U.S we always get that one black guy who always gets killed in scary movies? Why can't he be the survivor? And when they show the black guy, he is not even black, more like a very light skin mulatto. And what about all the movies that show rich people. C'mon now nobody can afford that $20 million condo.
I don't know if the OP addresses situation comedies, but I used to watch one (the name escapes me now) about a family crammed into a small apartment, with the bumbling idiot son married to his dad's boss' blonde daughter. The cast did not all seem of solely European descent.
I don't know about the rest of you, but all of the above appear Hispanic to me.
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