We inherited our housekeeper from my in-laws. Well, we didn't "inherit" her per se, but she comes to us every couple of weeks on loan from my in-laws. She has been a part of the family for many, many years, and is quite beloved by all of us.
Her propensity for watching "her shows" was well known to me - it is no secret she shares a passion for the afternoon showings of the South American soap operas and an even greater affection for some of the Greek shows. So far, however, I have been impervious to these shows, as she hasn't requested them when she is here. Until today.
Today she tried to educate me to the lifes, loves, and passions of a show called Esmeralda, a South American serial drama badly dubbed in Greek. As we watched the heavily made up actresses and actors highlighted by soft lighting cross the screen, Miss Ellie told me everything I needed to know about each one of them. Who was good, who was bad, who was rich, who was poor, who had a rich family, but was now poor, who was in love with who, who the real father of the baby is, etc., etc. Miss Ellie knows only Greek and my Greek is very poor, but I still understood the basics of what she was trying to tell me - obviously soap opera storylines are simple enough to translate.
Her expectation, I think, was that I would be instantly enthralled by the soap opera. Many females in Greece seem to be fond of such shows, including my mother-in-law and sister-in-law (well, at least I know of some Greek shows they watch assiduously), but I am not one of them. It has been a good twenty years since I regularly watched a soap opera. The storylines seem to be all the same no matter what country the soap opera is from, and they all have the same predictability.
Once Miss Ellie was out of earshot, I changed the channel to much more interesting drama - the unfolding story of the fire at the Constantinople airport on CNN. We all know truth is much stranger than fiction. And much more interesting.
4 comments:
LOL
A friend of mine got a satelite dish recently and now gets British channels here in Greece. I was there one day when Eastenders came on (a long-running soap set in London) I swear they were all saying and doing exactly the same things as they were when I last saw it twelve years ago. She tried to bring me up to speed but after the seventeenth "she used to be married to so and so and now shes with what's his name who used to be with so and so" I gave up.
It's on two or three times in the week and repeated on sundays and I know many people in England who refuse to go out or even answer the phone when it's on. What a waste.
I used to watch 'Young and the Restless' 20 years ago but have not since then..
I recently had a job where "Young and the Restless' was played in the cafeteria. One lady who got married back then in the 80s was still on the show and is still married to the same man. A 20 year marriage in Soap Operas? It seems like a first to me. But maybe 20 years in real life is only a few days in reality.
I used to watch an Argentinian soap opera religiously on Star Channel a few years ago. We called it 'Milagros' in Greece (after the main charactor) but it's original title was Muñeca Brava. I loved that show and used to record it when I wasn't home.
hahaha Mel! I can't believe you even listened to her go on about Esmerelda! I'd rather listen to the cleaning lady rattle off the ingredients in a bottle of Azax then hear about a soap opera. Unless of course, it was Coronation Street.LOL
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