I have officially embarked on a new journey. Diving into my first telenovela has not been what I thought it would be at all. "La Reina del Sur" is a thought intriguing series that explores the storyline of a mother who was apart of a drug cartel and is now paying the price.
"La Reina del Sur" was not originally my choice of telenovela. I wanted a fun, light-hearted show but unfortunately could not find anywhere to watch one. This led me to stumble upon this series available on Netflix, but I am so glad it did.
Episode one opens with an elderly woman visiting the grave of a man. This mysterious scene was enough to draw me in. We, the audience, are quickly introduced to Maria (aka Teresita), her daughter Sofia, and her boyfriend of one year Pedro. Sofia is kidnapped in the town square by men who have been looking for Maria for years. Sofia is able to escape due to her extensive self defense training from Maria. However, Sofia was tricked by Francesco, a supposed family friend who previously saved Sofia from being hit by a car. Francesco and the other bad guys put Sofia in a crate and put her on a plane to Mexico, where Maria's godfather and (assumingely) ex drug cartel boss lives. Maria receives a call from her godfather telling her that he has Sofia and to come to Mexico to talk to him face to face if she ever wants to see her again. Francesco conveniently mentions that he is headed to Mexico for work. After receiving this call, Maria contacts Francesco and asks if she can come to Mexico with him on his private plane. At the end of the episode we see that Maria is on the same plane as Sofia.
This telenovela has many interesting parts to it. I want to dive into the production aspect of it. We learned in class today that about twenty percent of scenes are filmed in studio. However, I only saw location shots, which was very interesting to me. There were several filming styles in specific moments that caught my attention. For example, in the town square when Sofia was getting kidnapped the cameras kept switching from an overhead view to a fixed view of the man grabbing Sofia to a camera following Maria through the crowd of people as she frantically tried to get to Sofia. This added to the emotions and intent of the scene. It made the audience feel as stressed and powerless as Maria was in that moment, which was an amazing thing to witness.
My journey through examining "La Reina del Sur" has just begun but I am already beginning to see how addicting this series will become to me. I cannot wait to keep watching this storyline thicken and eventually unfold and how the different aspects of telenovelas, such as production, will contribute to my experience as an audience member.
I’m excited to see you enjoying your telenovela! I know the feeling of not being able to find one you initially wanted but same as you I’m really glad I ended up picking the one I did. I like the way you describe the production and camera angles of your telenovela. Switching from one shot to another and intentionally choosing who’s in view during a scene does an incredible job of emphasizing characters and emotions. For example, a scene where only one character is in view at a time can emphasize intimacy of a one on one conversation. In La Reina del Sur, I believe there’s a lot of action going on and production is such an important aspect to making sure all that action is captured and emphasized in a way that makes sense to the progression of the story. I’m excited to see how the rest of your telenovela pans out as your show is known for its addicting and crazy storyline!
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