The Melodram Melodrama And Stereotypes

Melodrama in our modern society has become synonymous with stereotypes. When someone switches on their television to find a soap opera or telenovela playing they expect to find a particular cast of characters, no matter what show they are actually watching. They will also expect a certain amount of plot twists that leave the audience wanting more. In this way, the melodrama’s desire to be unpredictable may be the exact thing that leaves the it being so predictable that it becomes laughable. In this way many people can no longer take the melodrama seriously. Melodrama’s date back to the days of greek tragedies, with many stories following very similar story lines to those found in modern soap opera, that have become so prevalent in modern
Jane the Virgin, follows Jane, a catholic woman who has been saving herself for marriage, after she is accidentally artificially inseminated. The show is whacky and so much fun, while also being down to earth and commenting on everything from immigration to drug laws to the culture around sex. Jane the Virgin follows the telenovela style by having extreme twists and turns but also diverts away from the style by having far more fleshed out characters and story lines. Jane the Virgin has also been praised for having characters who speak entirely in Spanish, a touch that roots the show in it’s
Without shows like these melodramas would be entirely impossible to watch seriously, but with these shows comes a new era of melodramas. An era in which they become some of the most highly rated shows on television. It is an era that few saw coming, but now that it is here it is hard to not revel in the beauty of it. Ugly Betty was able to bring a genre back to life, and for that it should be rewarded. So here is to the new age of the melodrama, may it never slip back into the realm of parodies ever