Yo soy Betty, la fea

I must confess. I despise soap-operas. I hate their characters, and their plots and over all, I hate the fact that there is only one and one retarded story which have told in a zillion different ways usually ending with the same moronic flair. I hate that stuff. If Mexican or Venezuelan, I hate it even more. It came as a surprise to me then, when I found myself actually enjoying one episode of this Colombian soap-opera. I have seen it a couple of times and although I am not "hooked" per se, I find it charming and witty. But why is it good? Well, that's easy, it's not because it is a good novella, it's because it is a comedy disguised as a novella.

This is the latin american soap-opera fenomeno. The ratings for this soap-opera in every country has been over the 42.0 every where, and the closing chapter (in those countries where it has finished) has rated over the 50.0. Politicians, newspeople and the guy in the street, they all got together to watch this truly fabulous TV-program, and forget everydays worries, to laugh with the adventures of Betty and their colleagues. This is not a traditional soap opera, in which you need to be beautiful to have success. In this one, the viewer identifies himself with Betty and all the girls in the "Cuartel de las feas" (The ugliest ones headquarter), in their challenge to probe the world that beauty has nothing to do with success and love.

I am not the type of person who sits in front of the TV to watch soap opera all the afternoon, actually I hate with passion soap operas, they are dumb, cheezy and boring, but this one is so different... I started to see it in Ecuador, just because there was nothing on tv that night, I saw the first episode, and I loved it! It's not the typical soap opera when the maid falls in love with the owner, then she has an affair with him and gets pregnant, then she finds out that she is the real owner of everything, then goes crazy and gives away the baby (she got pregnant with the boss) and then she tries to find that baby, and blah blah blah The main characters are Armando Mendoza (Jorge Abello) and Betty (Ana Maria Orozco) the boss and the secretary of a fashion company, they are great in their roles, and so is the supporting cast. We still have the "Cinderella" plot here, but it is so well written that you don't even realize! It's hilarious, sometimes a little sad, and it's always smart, what else can you ask in a soap opera???

We are in Israel like novelas. we have a channel that only play novels -Better and worse like "la usurpadora". when betty came no one thoutht that it could succeed here, and it came instead of "Los Buscars De Siempre" which was a great novela so it was a big shoes to get into and the fact that it's colombians didn't help too. But - all the israel's people like it! We like Betty, Armando and Berta, like the music, Hugo and all. We laugh every episode many times. I say it's the best novela in the world.

OK, as a rule telenovelas are fun to watch, at least for a few minutes, because they are always so bad! There is only one plot from which all telenovelas spring and the acting is almost always completely overblown. Betty La Fea, in contrast, is actually a good novela, which is a rare thing. Most of the actors are pretty good and, above all, Ana Maria Orozco does a brilliant job playing Betty. This is a funny show and I would definitely recommend it. I watch it daily to keep up with the Spanish I learned while living in Peru and I have even managed to hook my roommates on the show, though none of them speak or understand Spanish.