Globalization of La Reina del Sur

La Reina del Sur is a show that first came to television in 2011. It aired on Telemundo, and it quickly became a hit show. It was based of the book by Arturo Perez-Reverte. It had people all across Latin America hooked. Unfortunately, it was not allowed to be aired in Venezuela due to censorship. They didn’t like how La Reina del Sur seemed to romanticize drugs and violence. When it did become readily available to the masses on Netflix, even more people who may not even watch telenovelas were exposed to it. I very rarely watch television shows outside of Netflix mainly because I can never keep up with watching every new episode when it airs. I also love having the freedom to binge watch shows rather than being left on a cliffhanger every week. In 2016, it was remade into the American version called Queen of the South. This version was very popular in America, but it didn’t take too well in Latin America. Latin Americans felt as if the role of Teresa Mendoza could’ve been better played. They believe that Kate del Castillo is the one true Teresa Mendoza, and any other version wouldn’t be as good as the first. According to the article written by Ibsen Martinez, Latin American telenovela actors and actresses often find themselves getting mobbed in places across Europe because the people there recognize them due to the globalization of telenovelas. This shows that people all across the world are watching telenovelas, even if they cannot understand the language that it was originally filmed in. It is unlikely that a Mexican telenovela would play on television in Poland, so people are going out of their way to find where to watch these shows online. Telenovelas get remade all the time in television in different countries. The most remade show in all of television history was Yo soy Betty, la fea which was originally a telenovela from 1999. This show has over two dozen official adaptations, and it probably has more shows that share similar plot lines, but they aren’t counted as an official adaptation. La Reina del Sur has only been remade one time so far, but I can see it eventually being remade over and over in many more countries all over the world. I believe that if other countries start producing their own adaptation of La Reina del Sur, it will have more people than ever before hooked. For example, Juana La Virgen is a show that I had never heard of up until 2 months ago, but Jane the Virgin is my all-time favorite TV show. Jane the Virgin is a direct remake of Juana La Virgen, and millions of Americans, who most likely also never heard of the original, are hooked on the show. I can personally say that I definitely plan to watch Juana La Virgen at some point because I love Jane the Virgin so much. If La Reina del Sur is remade in a country like France, where the majority of the population may not know it, it could attract millions of more people. Those people will more than likely also try to find the original version of the show to try and watch. I also plan to watch the American version of La Reina del Sur, because I like to see the differences that remakes have from their original version. I can already tell that I might have a bit of a bias against the American version because I love the original so much.