WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.419 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are doing 00:00:02.419 --> 00:00:05.080 something a little different. Yeah, definitely 00:00:05.080 --> 00:00:07.500 not our usual territory. We aren't looking at 00:00:07.500 --> 00:00:10.199 a tech giant. We aren't breaking down a new scientific 00:00:10.199 --> 00:00:12.859 discovery. No, political movements. Nope. We 00:00:12.859 --> 00:00:14.900 are spinning the globe, setting the time circuits 00:00:14.900 --> 00:00:18.480 back to 2009, and dropping ourselves right into 00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:21.100 the middle of Caracas, Venezuela. But not just 00:00:21.100 --> 00:00:22.899 anywhere in Caracas. No, we're going to high 00:00:22.899 --> 00:00:26.820 school. Specifically, an urban high school that 00:00:26.820 --> 00:00:31.230 serves as the battlefield for the high -stakes, 00:00:31.230 --> 00:00:34.429 high -emotion world of the juvenile telenovela 00:00:34.429 --> 00:00:37.070 Que Classe de Amor. Which translates to What 00:00:37.070 --> 00:00:39.450 Kind of Love? And before you tune out thinking 00:00:39.450 --> 00:00:42.509 this is just about, you know... teen angst and 00:00:42.509 --> 00:00:45.170 prom dates. Hear me out. Right. We've pulled 00:00:45.170 --> 00:00:47.049 the production notes, the casting sheets, all 00:00:47.049 --> 00:00:49.070 of it. Yeah. And what we found isn't just a soap 00:00:49.070 --> 00:00:51.530 opera. It's this fascinating case study in how 00:00:51.530 --> 00:00:54.450 media builds social hierarchies. It really is. 00:00:54.530 --> 00:00:56.630 We're looking at the classic Casanova versus 00:00:56.630 --> 00:00:59.530 nerd trope. But with this very specific late 00:00:59.530 --> 00:01:02.929 2000s Latin American energy. It's a total time 00:01:02.929 --> 00:01:05.329 capsule. And to set the stage, you have to look 00:01:05.329 --> 00:01:07.810 at the pedigree. This wasn't some small indie 00:01:07.810 --> 00:01:10.310 project. No, not at all. This was produced by 00:01:10.310 --> 00:01:13.209 Venivision. with BCC Producciones, created by 00:01:13.209 --> 00:01:16.590 Benjamin Cohen. And Venevision is, I mean, it's 00:01:16.590 --> 00:01:19.090 a titan in the industry. So this was a machine. 00:01:19.250 --> 00:01:21.609 It was designed to capture a youth demographic. 00:01:21.930 --> 00:01:24.469 A demographic that was becoming a massive cultural 00:01:24.469 --> 00:01:27.049 force in the region right at that time. Exactly. 00:01:27.269 --> 00:01:30.810 So for the next 15 minutes, consider us your 00:01:30.810 --> 00:01:33.689 cultural anthropologists. We're going to break 00:01:33.689 --> 00:01:37.430 down the warring factions, the incredibly literal 00:01:37.430 --> 00:01:39.569 character names. Oh, they're very literal. And 00:01:39.569 --> 00:01:43.109 my absolute favorite part, how a boy band serves 00:01:43.109 --> 00:01:46.010 as the primary villain. It's a unique narrative 00:01:46.010 --> 00:01:48.049 device for sure. We'll definitely get to the 00:01:48.049 --> 00:01:50.569 singing villains. Okay, good. But first, we should 00:01:50.569 --> 00:01:52.930 probably establish the mission for this deep 00:01:52.930 --> 00:01:55.489 dive. We're just recapping a show. Right. We're 00:01:55.489 --> 00:01:58.609 exploring how these stories use music and rivalry 00:01:58.609 --> 00:02:01.170 to, you know, drive a whole narrative forward. 00:02:01.450 --> 00:02:03.510 Precisely. So let's start with the setting. The 00:02:03.510 --> 00:02:05.969 source material just calls it an urban high school. 00:02:06.129 --> 00:02:08.949 Yeah, which sounds simple enough. But looking 00:02:08.949 --> 00:02:11.169 at the plot summaries, it feels less like a school 00:02:11.169 --> 00:02:14.939 and more like a pressure cooker. That's the perfect 00:02:14.939 --> 00:02:16.979 word for it. Well, that's the intent of the genre. 00:02:17.259 --> 00:02:19.500 The notes describe it as a place filled with 00:02:19.500 --> 00:02:22.479 adolescents experiencing specific emotional extremes. 00:02:23.080 --> 00:02:28.659 Joys, sorrows, love, triumphs. All of it. The 00:02:28.659 --> 00:02:30.639 writers aren't interested in a realistic depiction 00:02:30.639 --> 00:02:33.759 of, like, passing a geography test. No, the school 00:02:33.759 --> 00:02:37.090 is a stage. every single hallway interaction 00:02:37.090 --> 00:02:39.789 is high drama. And that performance is organized 00:02:39.789 --> 00:02:43.289 into a kind of cast system that is delightfully 00:02:43.289 --> 00:02:45.729 unsubtle. It really is. In American shows, you 00:02:45.729 --> 00:02:48.250 get these vague cliques, right? The jocks, the 00:02:48.250 --> 00:02:50.849 plastic. The skaters, yeah. Here, the show just 00:02:50.849 --> 00:02:53.669 explicitly names the two main factions. No nuance. 00:02:54.110 --> 00:02:57.090 First up... Los Populartes. The popular ones. 00:02:57.250 --> 00:02:58.969 Yeah. Doesn't get much clearer than that. You 00:02:58.969 --> 00:03:00.469 know exactly who they are and where they sit 00:03:00.469 --> 00:03:02.789 in the cafeteria. And the leader of Los Populartes 00:03:02.789 --> 00:03:05.090 is our protagonist, Diego Padilla, played by 00:03:05.090 --> 00:03:07.490 Andres Gomez. The character breakdown on him 00:03:07.490 --> 00:03:09.550 is fascinating. It doesn't just say he's cool. 00:03:09.669 --> 00:03:12.370 It calls him a Casanova. And that's a key distinction. 00:03:12.849 --> 00:03:15.509 His defining trait isn't that he plays a sport 00:03:15.509 --> 00:03:19.349 or has the best car. Right. His power comes from 00:03:19.349 --> 00:03:20.990 the fact that he makes all the girls fall in 00:03:20.990 --> 00:03:22.789 love with him. He's at the top of the food chain 00:03:22.789 --> 00:03:25.530 because he's desired. Which makes the opposing 00:03:25.530 --> 00:03:28.189 faction so much more interesting. If you have 00:03:28.189 --> 00:03:30.750 the Casanovas, you need a counterbalance. And 00:03:30.750 --> 00:03:35.389 this show gives us Las Nerdas. The nerds. Again, 00:03:35.469 --> 00:03:37.330 the show is not trying to hide its archetypes. 00:03:37.349 --> 00:03:39.629 No, it's putting them in neon lights. And honestly, 00:03:39.789 --> 00:03:42.449 I appreciate the directness. It saves time. It 00:03:42.449 --> 00:03:45.169 does. And the leader of Las Nerdas is Alejandra 00:03:45.169 --> 00:03:47.629 Martinez, played by Asha Stambouli. And she is 00:03:47.629 --> 00:03:50.169 the classic new girl. The notes describe her 00:03:50.169 --> 00:03:53.650 as brilliant and clever. So you have this setup, 00:03:53.750 --> 00:03:56.539 right? The force of social dominance, Diego, 00:03:56.580 --> 00:03:58.939 versus the force of intellect, Alejandra. It's 00:03:58.939 --> 00:04:01.800 the unstoppable force meets the immovable object. 00:04:02.199 --> 00:04:04.280 Sort of, yeah. But usually in this kind of story, 00:04:04.379 --> 00:04:06.620 you know, think Grease. The whole thing kicks 00:04:06.620 --> 00:04:08.800 off with romance. Love at first sight. The cool 00:04:08.800 --> 00:04:11.259 guy sees the new girl. She takes off her glasses. 00:04:11.539 --> 00:04:14.020 Boom. But that's not what happens here, is it? 00:04:14.060 --> 00:04:17.120 It's much more transactional. It is. The love 00:04:17.120 --> 00:04:20.459 at first sight thing is totally subverted. Diego 00:04:20.459 --> 00:04:22.660 doesn't approach Alejandra because he likes her. 00:04:22.970 --> 00:04:25.850 or thinks she's secretly beautiful. He approaches 00:04:25.850 --> 00:04:28.910 her because he's failing his classes. He needs 00:04:28.910 --> 00:04:31.889 her help with his studies. I love that. It completely 00:04:31.889 --> 00:04:35.009 flips the power dynamic from the start. The king 00:04:35.009 --> 00:04:37.769 of the school actually depends on the outcast 00:04:37.769 --> 00:04:40.689 to survive. Precisely. It disrupts the hierarchy 00:04:40.689 --> 00:04:44.569 in episode one. He has to go to Las Nerdas for 00:04:44.569 --> 00:04:47.009 academic survival. And the source material says 00:04:47.009 --> 00:04:50.720 she slowly conquers Diego's heart. Yeah. It's 00:04:50.720 --> 00:04:53.079 not a lightning bolt. It's a slow burn that comes 00:04:53.079 --> 00:04:55.620 out of study sessions. It implies that her intellect 00:04:55.620 --> 00:04:58.279 is what actually seduces the Casanova. But this 00:04:58.279 --> 00:05:01.120 is a telenovela. It ran for 83 episodes. Right. 00:05:01.240 --> 00:05:03.420 You can't just have study dates for that long. 00:05:03.480 --> 00:05:05.879 You need friction. You need obstacles. And the 00:05:05.879 --> 00:05:08.139 biggest obstacle is usually the current girlfriend. 00:05:08.500 --> 00:05:11.060 Enter Stephanie Mendoza, played by Mayela Caldera. 00:05:11.120 --> 00:05:13.439 And the production notes are, well, they aren't 00:05:13.439 --> 00:05:15.220 very nice to Stephanie. They're pretty brutal. 00:05:15.519 --> 00:05:18.180 She's described as the prettiest and most spoiled 00:05:18.180 --> 00:05:20.709 girl in the school. But from a writing perspective, 00:05:21.209 --> 00:05:24.009 she serves a really critical function. The text 00:05:24.009 --> 00:05:26.269 says she's the complete opposite of the type 00:05:26.269 --> 00:05:28.470 of girl Diego should be with. So she represents 00:05:28.470 --> 00:05:31.810 the status quo. Exactly. Stephanie is the anchor 00:05:31.810 --> 00:05:34.910 keeping him tied to Los Popularis. She's the 00:05:34.910 --> 00:05:37.089 superficial popularity he's supposed to grow 00:05:37.089 --> 00:05:39.910 out of. If he stays with her, he stays stagnant. 00:05:39.970 --> 00:05:44.009 If he chooses Alejandra, he evolves. It's a very 00:05:44.009 --> 00:05:46.430 moralistic setup. Okay, so we have the jealous 00:05:46.430 --> 00:05:48.850 girlfriend archetype. But this is where the show 00:05:48.850 --> 00:05:52.089 takes a turn into something really special. We 00:05:52.089 --> 00:05:54.529 need to talk about the main villain because Stephanie 00:05:54.529 --> 00:05:57.029 is an obstacle, but she's not the antagonist. 00:05:57.750 --> 00:06:00.930 That title belongs to a guy with maybe the most 00:06:00.930 --> 00:06:03.930 ominous nickname in high school history, Alon 00:06:03.930 --> 00:06:07.410 Camacho. A .K .A. Oligren. Which translates to 00:06:07.410 --> 00:06:09.790 scorpion. You know, subtlety was not the goal 00:06:09.790 --> 00:06:11.939 in the writer's room. I'm just saying, if a guy 00:06:11.939 --> 00:06:14.639 in homeroom introduces himself as the Scorpion, 00:06:14.639 --> 00:06:16.379 maybe don't lend him your pencil. That would 00:06:16.379 --> 00:06:18.740 be a good call. But what drives him, it's not 00:06:18.740 --> 00:06:22.180 just, you know, evil for evil's sake. No, it's 00:06:22.180 --> 00:06:25.079 actually pretty grounded in teenage angst. It 00:06:25.079 --> 00:06:28.879 is. The source points to this complex web of 00:06:28.879 --> 00:06:32.680 jealousy. So Alan is jealous of Diego's popularity. 00:06:33.529 --> 00:06:36.029 He wants to be the king. But the real kicker. 00:06:36.069 --> 00:06:38.189 The real kicker is that he's secretly in love 00:06:38.189 --> 00:06:39.970 with Stephanie, the girlfriend we just talked 00:06:39.970 --> 00:06:42.129 about. The one who rejected him. So he hates 00:06:42.129 --> 00:06:44.370 the guy who has the girl he wants. A classic 00:06:44.370 --> 00:06:47.750 triangle, but twisted. But what really distinguishes 00:06:47.750 --> 00:06:51.610 Alon isn't his motivation. It's his method. Right. 00:06:51.750 --> 00:06:54.589 He belongs to a group called Los Alacranes, the 00:06:54.589 --> 00:06:57.620 Scorpions. And the source material notes something 00:06:57.620 --> 00:07:00.139 really specific about this group. They aren't 00:07:00.139 --> 00:07:02.319 fighters. They aren't delinquents. They're noted 00:07:02.319 --> 00:07:05.079 specifically as being composed of singers. Wait, 00:07:05.100 --> 00:07:06.180 hold on. I want to make sure I'm getting this 00:07:06.180 --> 00:07:09.860 right. The villain gang is a boy band. Essentially, 00:07:09.899 --> 00:07:13.160 yes. The antagonism is expressed through performance. 00:07:13.240 --> 00:07:15.920 That is incredible. It implies that the way to 00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:17.939 destroy your enemy isn't to fight them behind 00:07:17.939 --> 00:07:20.259 the gym, but to out -sing them. I'm going to 00:07:20.259 --> 00:07:22.100 ruin your life, but first let me hit this high 00:07:22.100 --> 00:07:24.339 note and do a spin. The stakes are serious for 00:07:24.339 --> 00:07:26.980 them, though. Ellen sets a trap. He does. The 00:07:26.980 --> 00:07:29.160 plot summary says he sets a trap for Alejandra, 00:07:29.220 --> 00:07:32.300 but the goal is to completely ruin Diego's image 00:07:32.300 --> 00:07:34.600 and reputation in this school. And reputation 00:07:34.600 --> 00:07:37.019 is everything in high school. It's currency. 00:07:37.199 --> 00:07:40.019 Exactly. If Diego's the leader of Los Populares, 00:07:40.319 --> 00:07:43.629 his image is his currency. Alan's going right 00:07:43.629 --> 00:07:45.629 for his bank account. And doing it through a 00:07:45.629 --> 00:07:48.550 group of singers suggests that public performance 00:07:48.550 --> 00:07:52.709 humiliation, diss tracks, that's the weapon of 00:07:52.709 --> 00:07:54.310 choice here. Well, let's pull on that thread, 00:07:54.350 --> 00:07:57.790 the music. Yes, let's. Because looking at the 00:07:57.790 --> 00:08:00.689 musical themes section of our records, music 00:08:00.689 --> 00:08:03.269 isn't just background noise in this show. Not 00:08:03.269 --> 00:08:05.350 at all. It's like the entire narrative is built 00:08:05.350 --> 00:08:07.300 around a musical landscape. When you look at 00:08:07.300 --> 00:08:09.860 the track list, you see this very distinct use 00:08:09.860 --> 00:08:12.800 of leitmotifs. So specific songs are assigned 00:08:12.800 --> 00:08:15.160 to specific characters? Specific dynamics, yeah. 00:08:15.319 --> 00:08:18.000 It cues the audience on how to feel about a scene, 00:08:18.180 --> 00:08:20.759 like a musical map of the relationships. Okay, 00:08:20.839 --> 00:08:22.420 give me an example. The main theme of the show 00:08:22.420 --> 00:08:25.480 is the title track, Kiklasta Amor. And notice 00:08:25.480 --> 00:08:28.459 who performs it. Manuel Larad and Aisha Stambouli? 00:08:28.819 --> 00:08:32.309 Wait a minute. Manuel Arad plays Alain, the villain's 00:08:32.309 --> 00:08:35.610 scorpion, and Aisha plays Alejandra, the heroine. 00:08:35.649 --> 00:08:37.889 Right. So the villain and the hero are singing 00:08:37.889 --> 00:08:40.350 the theme song together. It's a fascinating meta 00:08:40.350 --> 00:08:42.929 layer, right? It blurs the line between character 00:08:42.929 --> 00:08:45.169 and performer, which is really common in this 00:08:45.169 --> 00:08:47.190 genre. So while they're enemies in the plot, 00:08:47.389 --> 00:08:50.269 they're partners in the spectacle. Exactly. But 00:08:50.269 --> 00:08:52.409 look at the love themes. Alejandra and Diego, 00:08:52.629 --> 00:08:55.309 they don't get one song, they get two. Quindiria 00:08:55.309 --> 00:08:58.529 and Masala. Quindiria. Who would have said? That 00:08:58.529 --> 00:09:01.889 fits the popular guy dates nerd girl vibe perfectly. 00:09:02.149 --> 00:09:03.970 Right. Who would have guessed we'd end up together? 00:09:04.190 --> 00:09:07.710 The song title tells you the plot, and it trickles 00:09:07.710 --> 00:09:10.269 down to the supporting cast. I see a song here, 00:09:10.429 --> 00:09:13.450 Mi Niña Bonita, for characters named Tita and 00:09:13.450 --> 00:09:16.450 Manu. Then there's Enamorarte de El for Andrena 00:09:16.450 --> 00:09:20.379 and Rafa and Locoporti. For Desire and Felix. 00:09:20.620 --> 00:09:23.559 So if you hear the song, you know who is hooking 00:09:23.559 --> 00:09:25.940 up or breaking up. And you have to remember that 00:09:25.940 --> 00:09:28.879 diegetic element. Since Los Alatranes are singers 00:09:28.879 --> 00:09:32.539 in the story, music is happening inside the reality 00:09:32.539 --> 00:09:35.440 of the show. Plus, the lead actress, Aisha Stambouli, 00:09:35.559 --> 00:09:38.860 has solo tracks listed. Yeah, Estevez and Mi 00:09:38.860 --> 00:09:41.379 Central, which is used in the very first chapter. 00:09:41.909 --> 00:09:44.129 So Alejandra isn't just a nerd. She's a nerd 00:09:44.129 --> 00:09:46.830 with a solo career. It creates this interesting 00:09:46.830 --> 00:09:50.330 duality. In the plot, she's the academic outsider, 00:09:50.610 --> 00:09:54.250 but the production elevates her through music 00:09:54.250 --> 00:09:57.710 to be the star. She has the voice. I love that. 00:09:57.870 --> 00:09:59.929 OK, let's zoom out a bit. We've got the plot, 00:10:00.090 --> 00:10:02.809 the singing villains. Let's talk about the people 00:10:02.809 --> 00:10:05.330 who made this thing. Eighty three episodes is 00:10:05.330 --> 00:10:08.289 a serious commitment. It is. The show ran from 00:10:08.289 --> 00:10:12.549 April 20th, 2009 to August 14th of the same year. 00:10:12.870 --> 00:10:15.909 That is a daily grind. And to sustain that, you 00:10:15.909 --> 00:10:18.129 had a writing team led by Benjamin Cohen with 00:10:18.129 --> 00:10:21.029 Anna Teresa Sosa, Veronica Alvarez and Gamis 00:10:21.029 --> 00:10:23.809 Perez. And directed by Grazia D 'Angelo and Manuel 00:10:23.809 --> 00:10:26.669 Diaz Casanova. It takes a village to produce 00:10:26.669 --> 00:10:29.350 a daily telenovela at that pace. Speaking of 00:10:29.350 --> 00:10:31.129 a village, I have to give a shout out to some 00:10:31.129 --> 00:10:33.409 of the supporting cast names listed here. I mean, 00:10:33.429 --> 00:10:35.090 we talked about Alacran, but there's a character 00:10:35.090 --> 00:10:37.509 named Marcel Jimenez who has the nickname El 00:10:37.509 --> 00:10:40.129 Distripedor. The Ripper. In a high school show. 00:10:40.470 --> 00:10:43.529 The Ripper. I desperately need to know if he 00:10:43.529 --> 00:10:45.850 was a horror movie fan or if he just like aggressively 00:10:45.850 --> 00:10:48.090 graded papers. Or maybe he was just really messy 00:10:48.090 --> 00:10:49.850 with his notebook paper. It definitely sets a 00:10:49.850 --> 00:10:52.480 tone. And then you have Tita. played by Giannina 00:10:52.480 --> 00:10:55.139 Alves. And this one is my favorite, a special 00:10:55.139 --> 00:10:57.179 guest character, Professor Narciso, played by 00:10:57.179 --> 00:10:59.799 Samir Bazzi, who is listed with the nickname 00:10:59.799 --> 00:11:03.299 El Papi Profe. Which, yeah, roughly translates 00:11:03.299 --> 00:11:05.980 to the daddy professor, the potty professor. 00:11:06.039 --> 00:11:09.639 The Papi Profe. Even the faculty isn't safe from 00:11:09.639 --> 00:11:12.580 the melodrama. It just reinforces that idea of 00:11:12.580 --> 00:11:16.080 the school as a stage for desire. Nobody is just 00:11:16.080 --> 00:11:18.399 doing their job. Everyone is part of the romantic 00:11:18.399 --> 00:11:21.730 web. And presiding over all this chaos, the Scorpions, 00:11:21.769 --> 00:11:24.090 the Rippers, the Papi Profes, is the principal, 00:11:24.330 --> 00:11:26.789 la directora Ana Maria Sosa. Someone has to try 00:11:26.789 --> 00:11:29.850 and manage that circus. Absolutely. Now, you 00:11:29.850 --> 00:11:31.490 mentioned earlier this show is part of a legacy. 00:11:31.710 --> 00:11:34.250 When we look at the list of Venovision telenovelas, 00:11:34.250 --> 00:11:36.649 where does this one fit in? It's important to 00:11:36.649 --> 00:11:39.149 see the bigger picture. Venovision has this long, 00:11:39.149 --> 00:11:41.169 storied history. I mean, they've been making 00:11:41.169 --> 00:11:44.070 telenovelas since the 1960s. Right, like Luchasita 00:11:44.070 --> 00:11:47.649 in 1967. And then this massive explosion of content 00:11:47.649 --> 00:11:50.850 in the 80s and 90s shows like Ligia Elena, Karasusea. 00:11:51.210 --> 00:11:54.529 But those were largely adult melodramas. About 00:11:54.529 --> 00:11:56.529 wealthy families fighting over an inheritance, 00:11:56.769 --> 00:11:58.789 that kind of thing. Exactly. But in the late 00:11:58.789 --> 00:12:02.529 2000s, you see this trend shift. Just before... 00:12:02.759 --> 00:12:06.580 Que Clase de Amor. From 2007 to 2009, there was 00:12:06.580 --> 00:12:09.379 a show called Somos Tuyo. It's you and me. And 00:12:09.379 --> 00:12:11.139 that was a massive youth hit. It was basically 00:12:11.139 --> 00:12:14.019 the Venezuelan high school musical. So Que Clase 00:12:14.019 --> 00:12:17.259 de Amor was likely riding that wave. It seems 00:12:17.259 --> 00:12:20.320 so. It launched in 2009, right as the other show 00:12:20.320 --> 00:12:22.600 was ending its run. It was part of this whole 00:12:22.600 --> 00:12:25.980 cohort of 2009 debuts. Like Alma and Dammable 00:12:25.980 --> 00:12:28.519 and Los Misterios del Amor. Vanavision was clearly 00:12:28.519 --> 00:12:30.639 firing on all cylinders, trying to capture that 00:12:30.639 --> 00:12:32.759 youth demographic they primed. They realized 00:12:32.759 --> 00:12:35.159 teenagers were a lucrative market. It's interesting 00:12:35.159 --> 00:12:37.580 to see how those genres cycle. It really mirrors 00:12:37.580 --> 00:12:39.759 what was happening in the U .S. with Disney Channel 00:12:39.759 --> 00:12:41.980 around the same time. And the legacy continues. 00:12:42.179 --> 00:12:43.799 If you look at the bottom of the source list, 00:12:43.919 --> 00:12:46.919 under the 2020s, there's a 2023 title called 00:12:46.919 --> 00:12:49.779 Dramaticus. The machine is still running. So 00:12:49.779 --> 00:12:52.610 what does this all mean? We've got a study date 00:12:52.610 --> 00:12:56.149 turn romance sabotaged by a boy band and a school 00:12:56.149 --> 00:12:59.649 with the ripper and the poppy prof. Right. Is 00:12:59.649 --> 00:13:02.509 it just campy fun or is there a deeper takeaway 00:13:02.509 --> 00:13:05.980 here? I think Kate Klostea Moore. represents 00:13:05.980 --> 00:13:08.059 this moment where the genre really understood 00:13:08.059 --> 00:13:11.039 that school is just a stage. It blends traditional 00:13:11.039 --> 00:13:13.840 telenovela structures with the energy of a musical. 00:13:14.039 --> 00:13:16.259 It acknowledges that for teenagers, identity 00:13:16.259 --> 00:13:18.700 is a performance. It really is. I mean, when 00:13:18.700 --> 00:13:21.159 you're 16, you're performing constantly. You 00:13:21.159 --> 00:13:24.379 have the popularas performing coolness. The alacranes 00:13:24.379 --> 00:13:27.080 are literally performing songs to assert their 00:13:27.080 --> 00:13:30.230 dominance. Even the nerdas. are performing intelligence. 00:13:30.950 --> 00:13:34.490 The show uses these big, exaggerated tropes to 00:13:34.490 --> 00:13:36.269 talk about how we define ourselves when we're 00:13:36.269 --> 00:13:38.129 young. And it does it with a soundtrack. Always 00:13:38.129 --> 00:13:39.809 with a soundtrack. The emotions are just too 00:13:39.809 --> 00:13:42.090 big to be spoken. They have to be sung. So we've 00:13:42.090 --> 00:13:45.009 gone from a tutoring session to a full -blown 00:13:45.009 --> 00:13:48.210 sociological analysis of Venezuelan teen media. 00:13:48.710 --> 00:13:51.590 Not bad for a deep dive. That's what we do. Before 00:13:51.590 --> 00:13:54.029 we wrap up, I want to leave you, the listener, 00:13:54.210 --> 00:13:57.990 with one final thought. We talked about how rigid 00:13:57.990 --> 00:14:01.299 the groups are. The populars, the nerds, the 00:14:01.299 --> 00:14:03.759 scorpions. Very structured. It seems that way. 00:14:03.860 --> 00:14:06.740 But remember the inciting incident. The leader 00:14:06.740 --> 00:14:09.480 of the populars realizes he cannot survive without 00:14:09.480 --> 00:14:11.919 the help of the nerds. It completely disrupts 00:14:11.919 --> 00:14:13.860 the hierarchy from the very beginning. Exactly. 00:14:13.960 --> 00:14:16.620 So here's the thought. In a story where the villains 00:14:16.620 --> 00:14:18.480 are singers and the cool kids are academically 00:14:18.480 --> 00:14:21.700 dependent on the outcasts, is the social hierarchy 00:14:21.700 --> 00:14:24.980 even real? Or is it just a performance everyone 00:14:24.980 --> 00:14:27.559 agreed to put on? That's a great question. If 00:14:27.559 --> 00:14:30.120 the king needs a tutor to pass 10th grade, is 00:14:30.120 --> 00:14:32.860 he really the king? Or is he just the guy with 00:14:32.860 --> 00:14:35.139 the best hair? It suggests the whole thing is 00:14:35.139 --> 00:14:37.720 fragile, held together only by agreement. Something 00:14:37.720 --> 00:14:40.259 to think about. Thank you for joining us on this 00:14:40.259 --> 00:14:42.679 trip back to 2009. It was a pleasure to explore 00:14:42.679 --> 00:14:44.299 this world with you. We'll catch you on the next 00:14:44.299 --> 00:14:45.679 deep dive. Stay curious.