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As a kid, you probably spent most evenings watching telenovelas with your family. These days, the adult you sometimes looks for their familiar plots wherever you stream your movies and series. Time changes things, but telenovelas will always have one of these six tropes.
1. Romantic montages
Telenovela could almost give Indians a run for their money with how long their romantic montages can be — the actors even sing sometimes. A woman and her man can fight for four seasons only to fall in love, have an episode-long romantic montage, and in the next episode, one of them dies. End of story.
2. Evil Women and their underlings
Is it even a telenovela if there is no sinister character trying to make the lives of the protagonist and her love interests life hell? Bonus points if she has an evil child/children ready to do her bidding.
3. Rich people falling in love with a poor people
It’s giving Nollywood because where does this happen in real life? They always have the most ridiculous meet-cutes where the rich boy hits her with his car and has to take her home. Tbh I too would like the universe to help me like that. 90% of the time, the poor person ends up being some rich man’s secret child, which is even more unrealistic. But do we keep watching? Hell yes.
4. Hospital scenes
This has to happen because someone has to either: suffer a ghastly accident, be in a coma, have acid poured on them or die, for the plot to move forward. What else will bring family members closer?
5. Big family secrets
If it’s not a secret family or child, it’s that someone or some people have treasure buried somewhere that only the chosen ones in the family can find, or you will run mad. Makes me wonder if Nigerian copywriters just copy their answer sheets and change some words.
6. Cheating
Men in telenovelas dey cheat shege! They will cheat on their wedding day, when their wife is sick or about to give birth, and will still have the audacity to be surprised when a child appears 10 years later and calls them father.
