Nick At Nite Orders 80-Episode Telenovela with JFP and Josh Griffith

[Wales2004]

If you mean his telling her to go with Jake over Kelly then it's technically good advice. Jake is an established agent and Kelly is using Loren to establish herself.

Eddie's intentions are all good where Loren is concerned.

Kelly is the one who seemed to be hiding something but so far she's only been about Jake and wrecking her friendship with Traci over Jake.

She may very well turn out to be genuine in terms of Loren but she is overly pushy when it comes to what Loren should wear. She comes across as wanting to turn Loren into this vamp that she isn't despite her denial. I don't even get her fascination with Jake. He is such a blah character.

[SFK]

Interesting, good to know. Yeah, the way he was telling Loren (thank you) to ditch Kelly had me a little, I wasn't exactly sure of his intentions. What's the name of the guy who was flirting with Shannon Kane's character over lunch, and I think he was also the one snooping through the blonde model's apartment?

[Wales2004]

His name is Tyler. I don't get what her interest in Tyler is supposed to be about but it's probably filler that goes nowhere. Instead of involving her with Tyler, they should have her divorce Jake and move to Chicago to be closer to her dad since they mentioned she had a job offer there. She and Jake are usless filler and bringing Kelly on to come between them shows how the writers just throw things out there to make viewers think they've written something. The extent of their interaction is baby this baby that and how he's always working. Now it includes her insisting that he has more in common with Kelly.

[Wales2004]

I know that I have a lot of nerve complaining about a bad tv show but.....

I realized a couple minutes into Monday's episode that I don't care what caricature Chloe does because she's irrelevant to the main story no matter how they try to give the illusion she matters. Her only purpose is to destroy Eddie's life even though she is being written to believe that she is somehow going to get him back. She exists in a bubble that is completely separate from Eddie and Loren so this manufactured plot point with the caricature of a reporter Lily is the only way they have of sucking Eddie into Chloe's sphere. They don't even try to make Lily look like more than a lazy version of TMZ because she's got a huge story and does not even bother to do any digging or have any investigative work done. They may gin up some viewers who want to see Chloe pay but I doubt she will pay for anything. The only other reason I can think of anyone still caring is if they hate Eddie and want to see him suffer even further.

The filler storylines have enough drama in them so they should have used their remaining episodes to focus on Eddie's conflict with the record company over his change of musical direction and trying to get Loren's music career launched.

[frequentsoapfan]

Wales2004 you put way too much thought into a teen telenovela. I watched a handful of them; two not even counting this one with the music concept and they just aren't deep at all. The songs are usually pretty crappy and they are usually full on non singers that teens adore. No one's watching for some deep multi layered story more like cheap drama that entertains for an hour.

[Wales2004]

You're right I do. Sometimes I come across a bad movie or a bad show and I end up thinking way too much about it. This just happens to be it for whatever reason.

[frequentsoapfan]

Lol you would not be able to watch a televisa telenovela currently(well this is also a partial televisa production. Now their novelas are full of bad acting, cliches, filler stories that do nothing for the main plot, with the main story usually being the same one story we've seen several times. My friend made me watch one the other day on Univision and it was awful.

[Wales2004]

I have seen bits of them here and there but I don't know whether those were directed toward teens. What I saw was actually funny though because of the overly dramatic nature of the scenes.

Maybe if HH had poked fun at itself it would be humorous but I think by their intial placement on Nick at Nite (though I stil believe Nick would have made more sense), they were hoping for a wider demo than just teens who think the main guy is cute. I am not sure how much they stuck to the original Reaching for A Star but the initial synopsis made it out to be the plot from A Star is Born where the major conflict was supposed to be from one star rising and the other's fading away. I think there whole fixation on Chloe and by default Tyler and that secret is their way of appealing to older viewers. Had they devoted half as much of their writing energy into making the first handful of episodes more attention worthy as they have to building up drama for this last quarter of their run, they might have ended up with a successful product.

You're still right. I used to have this "how I'd fix a soap" thing going and it's back but briefly. I'll just watch this thing until it's over and petend that I know how to churn out a better soap product.

I came across this review from a couple of months ago:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/10/arts/television/hollywood-heights-on-nickelodeon-with-james-franco.html?_r=2

[frequentsoapfan]

The worst ones do not intentionally make fun of themselves. I like Carlos Ponce but his acting in English I find to be better than his acting in Spanish. I liked his acting in Perro Amor but the long drawn out plots and too much filler caused me to drop that novela. And then I watched some of Dame Chocolate and that one was just cringe worthy especially the woman playing his mother in that, her screeching was awful.

One of my favorite novelas Sin Tetas No Hay Paraiso was supposed to have an English version on NBC( it's a good story based off a novel that was based of real events following a young girl's obsession with getting breast implants and money, that would work set in pretty much any country and in any language) but then NBC got a new chairman and they dropped plans for it. And that Telemundo remake Sin Senos wasn't as good and too long and drawn out.

[Wales2004]

This show has been my introduction to him. His is one of the three parental characters I like.

I saw some of the episodes to be aired this week and the one for next Monday already and even though I still don't like the amount of time devoted to Chloe's secret, I am good with the way it played out.

I would love to see the original telenovela but all they have online are Lorena singing and scenes from the sequel. I am guessing that Eduardo didn't have singing parents and his mother wasn't accidentally killed by his gold digging girlfriend.

I think this experiment had the potential to be a lot better but it fell into the wrong hands. If James Franco goes with his plans to develop a telenovela project with Steve Burton, I hope they learn from this one and produce something much better starting with determining the target audience and grabbing their attention out the gate.

[frequentsoapfan]

All I know is in the original Lorena was an ugly girl(a very overused plotpoint in Mexican novelas) and Eduardo was a singer and actor, but instead of a producer trying to cast him for a movie remake Eduardo was filming for a telenovela. His mother was still alive working with his goldigging girlfriend to sabatoge Lorena's career.

Eddie's micromanaging of Loren's career is very very annoying. It's almost as bad as that hairpiece Grayson McCouch started sporting(I'm hoping that was intentional to show us how his character's life is spiraling out of control).

Televisa's telenovelas only ever fall into four different categories; working class drama(poor girl falls in love with rich man), historical romance ,teen drama(drugs,sex, pregnancy), and pop music dramas. If if they don't fall in those categories it was likely a remake of another countries novela.

[Wales2004]

Thanks for the info. You are super informative. I read that Lorena was ugly and underwent some sort of pop star transformation. I figured in this adaptation the whole Chloe business was their very own idea of intrigue and drama. The way that they've dangled it like some sort of carrot for so many episodes is an indication to me that it's something they thought would play to older viewers.

I was wondering about Grayson McCouch's hair but I wasn't sure. His hair hasn't distracted me as much as his exaggerated movements. The way he pours a drink is so over the top. I can't tell what he's going for in terms of his acting choices How about Don for Father of the Year?

I don't mind Eddie micromanaging because I know he's trying to look out for Loren and it's upt to her to speak up to him and everyone else. I don't really get Kelly though. Maybe it's me but she sort of seems devious in a way. I agree with Eddie in terms of her seemingly trying to turn Loren into something she's not but Loren needs to be the one to let her know. That scene with the the record guy (Chico Benymon) was ultra silly, expecially when Kelly referred to the style he was pushing as cutting edge. It was a sale on cliches.

I may be the only one to think so (outside of the fangurls) but considering that Eddie was totally whipped by Chloe a few weeks ago, I think they did a decent job of getting him together with Loren in terms of making his strong feelings for her plausible.

[frequentsoapfan]

I found it funny Chico Benymon wa sthe record guy because his character on Half and Half worked at a record company as well. And the last season of Half and Half featured that talent search. Kelly's just a thirsty bitch eager to make it to the top.

While I'm not a big fan of their romance they did do a pretty good job developing Eddie and Loren's romance. I mean you already knew it would happen but at least they didn't just have him one day be with Chloe the next day fall in love with Loren.

McCouch is starting to get really campy towards the end and I have no clue why. I did absolutely despise Adrianna before but she's softened a little since the pregnancy though I still don't like her.

[Wales2004]

I don't know if it's poor editing or just how Chico Benymon speaks but there are a couple of instances where his words seemed incomplete to me (in yesterday's and what I've seen of today's show). I guess I never paid that much attention to him speak before.

I have found Eddie annoying at times--especially early on with his blind devotion to Chloe. Maybe I would not have had Chloe been presented as initially likeable in some way so that it was clear what he saw in her but she wasn't. The character seems so different in relation to Loren but it's because they took the time to show their relationship progress so he didn't have to verbally sell his feelings for her. I know they were designated destiny in the making but I do happen to like them together anyway.

I would have made Loren a freshman in college and Adrianna could have still been there because her dad bought her way in. They could have still gotten their tweens and teens to watch.

You are so right about the softer Adrianna but I still don't like her either. She does garner sympathy purely for bieng Don's spawn.

How does the Traci/Jake/Kelly dynamic work for you? I find them the least interesting in terms of filler mainly because Brandon Bell might work as the driven agent but not the suave charismtaic type. He can try to sell his character as the best flirter but I fail to see why either woman would be gone over him in any way. Unless Kelly is merely trying to manipulate him, I don't get her professed attraction to him.

Even though I don't like Tyler, I think Justin Wiczynski has done a good job selling that character's love for and heartbreak over Chloe and his self-destruction.

[frequentsoapfan]

The pacing with Traci/Jake/Kelly is my problem they paced it so slow to the point where I had decided Kelly was only after Jake's job than two weeks later she's kissing on him. And for all the bitching about work Traci is very involved in her work as well. From what we've been told she built her own business from the ground up. And we never saw Jake be all charming around Kelly for her to fall for him, only with Traci.