Univision premiered Televisa’s new telenovela series, “Like La Leyenda”, on Oct.14 with high hopes of repeating the success and phenomenon that “Rebelde” (2004) achieved, but the new series failed to do so with their cast, plot and music.
“Like La Leyenda” had the potential to become very successful by including a diverse cast and promise to talk about many real-life topics that many young adults experience with.
The telenovela had everything to prosper with today’s youth with its digital and social content, but it did the complete opposite of that.
The main problem was that the series does not have a stable plot.
In the first episode everything escalated too quickly with the topic of drugs, partying and sexual content.
The characters were not formally introduced along with their unrealistic personal backgrounds that seemed to clash in their circle of friends.
The plot is very boring with no excitement and lacked originality-alone with the character’s personalities.
The characters did not bring anything fresh to the table but instead, demonstrated to the audience how spoiled and troublesome they are, in which many teens today cannot relate.
Another problem in the series was the diversity in the main protagonist cast members.
For a Mexican production, some of its cast members had other Latin American and international accents that were not suitable for its setting.
It is understandable that “Like”‘s creator and executive producer, Pedro Damian, tried to aim for the telenovela to an international audience, but it felt the producer tired too hard for the content to be inclusive.
“Like” did not had many native Mexican actors in the cast, but instead it included other actors mainly from other countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Spain and Japan.
While including all of these different nationalities maybe exciting, but the execution of this production did not work.
Diversity in Mexico does not really work like that, in-comparison with other diverse countries, such as the United States.
The chemistry between the characters did not feel natural and the acting was dreadful.
Everything in the series felt unoriginal and unappealing for today’s youth.
“Like La Leyenda” series follows the social and personal lives of thirteen young high school students attending the prestigious Life’s Institute of Knowledge and Evolution (Like) in Mexico City.
The series is a new version of the successful telenovela and musical group “Rebelde” in which was an international phenomenon in which is still loved by many youth today who grew up with it.
In this new version, three former “Rebelde” cast members are included in the series by playing the roles of professors in which for many fans of the original series can be excited for.
Many Millennial and most of Generation Z Latinos remember and grew up watching “Rebelde” after school and including listened to its music with much love.
This “new RBD” was a major disappointment and is a complete garbage for those who grew up watching the original.
