Morangos com Açúcar

I saw the first season of Morangos com Açucar when I was quite young. And I'm not gonna lie, I did end up watching it throughout. You had decent actors and a great soundtrack.

However, I stopped there. If you look at this show now, you will see a bunch on untalented (but attractive) actors and producers working hard to reenact everyday situations of real students, so that they can relate with the show. Is that really entertainment? This is aimed at teenagers, they say, but anyone with half-a-brain will notice all the clichés, all the mistakes and all the amateurs in this "show". So, in the end, people watching this show are the twelve and thirteen-year-olds of Portugal and even younger kids.

I am truly hoping that this trend will end soon so that teens can get back to their real life rather than wasting their time with this junk.

That is all true. I agree that the series is most of the times too sugary and simple and yes, there is not too much place for real acting. You have to remember, however, that the show is being created for teenagers and not for refined connoisseurs of the ambitious cinema. The concept is to have a catchy pastime that will brighten up people's lives. It shows colourful and fine lives of young people striking with idealization but also does not avoid teaching what is right and wrong to do. Emotions, of course, play the leading role and the spectator is given a feeling of amusement, though empty, still enjoyable. In my opinion the idea of Morangos Com Acucar is a really successful one because it gives a fresh setting to classical soap operas that became trite long ago. The "factory" of actors and musicians also does not have to be reprehensible. After all not everyone gets the first role in a blockbuster and here many beginners are at least given a chance. I am not a teenager but I enjoyed watching the series and I am sure, not only being influenced by the popularity of the show in Portugal, that many people do as well.

OK, I just wanted to say that I have never seen a soap opera as bad as this one, I've seen the first episode and I got sick, all I wanted to do was to turn off the TV and throw up! Here's the story of the first season, just for you to know how bad are these screenwriters... A girl that finds her boyfriend making out with another girl. She goes to the beach and, although she doesn't know how to swim (I'm taking a guess, because how the hell does anybody drowns when the level of the water is almost by its knee?) she goes into the water and starts to drown (all of this because of her boyfriend... Sweet love...). She is rescued by a surfer who is nude and, by chance, is in the same school as her and, by chance, is in the same class as her!! What are the odds?!BAD BAD BAD!!! And attention, that was just the first episode! After that, obviously, they fall in love, star to date, get mad at each other, the boy apologises to the girl, they date again, and the circle repeats itself like 20 to 30 times, just enough to keep the Portuguese youth glued to their TV sets(I only know all of this because my friends kept telling me the story every single day. After the first episode, I just refused to see any more of that). Meanwhile, something happens and the girl goes to Brazil, and the boy goes after her, and at that point the soap opera just turns a complete chaos, almost apocalyptic. They break up 30.000 times in two episodes (or so it seems), and then they're about to get married, but afterwards it's not quite like that I don't know why. If you want to know the end of this wonderful story, ask someone who is over 5 years-old and lives in Portugal, because I missed the "grand finale" and, honestly, I don't wanna know! End this, please, and I'll rest my case.

God, let me just say that reading this it's just hilarious... People, if you don't like it just don't bother to watch - that simple...yeah. Remember, it's made for young teenagers, they just want some entertainment, stories that reflect today's problems with some flair, some fantasy, some 'happily ever after'. Just let them be, let the models/actors have fun, develop a new skill and make money. Yeah they're not the best actors in the world, at least it's a chance for someone to have a break into the acting world. Or at least they gain money, always good. The stories? Kinda in a loop, yeah. It's on season VI and it's kind of the same story, but the problems of today are there, just like the problems of last year were there. Jesus... it's a soap opera.. Me? i'm 20 and i still watch it, because it's addictive and really funny for me (yeah, i like to make fun of the silly situations, that's my prerogative).

"Morangos Com Açucar" only functions with cliché lines and cliché situations. Season after season, the storyline remains the same only with new actors, replacing the previous ones with identical characters.

The basic plot suits the basic actors and the even more basic audience.

Every ten minutes, some political/social message is said without having a direct relation to the situation. Two characters may be having a discussion and out of thin air, the subject of recycling is brought up. Once there was a dialog between a main character and an extra, solely for the purpose of indicating to the young audience that smoking is harmful to our health.

The editing is beyond any doubts, the worst I've seen. Part of the problem is the fact that certain scenes were written and shot without the writer and director applying something called "logic". I've seen a boat chase in which they've actually shot the scene alternating between a static and a moving boat.

Another poor thing which is a result of a poor script and editing, is the fact that characters speak in a specific order, without overlaying the others:

A - "Did you know that he stole the money?"

B - "Really?"

C - "Is that so?"

D - "This is bad..."

E - "Are you serious?"

F - "That can't be..."

And every time a character speaks, there's a close up paired with an annoying post production sound. How annoying...

In four seasons, there is only one good thing I've seen in this show: at some point we could relate to the female antagonists and protagonists.