'The Family Chantel' Has Become a Telenovela

The Big Picture

• The Family Chantel has embraced its lack of authenticity and taken it to a higher level.
• The show's characters have gone from real to borderline cartoonish, resembling telenovela characters.
• The format of The Family Chantel follows the formula of a telenovela, with side characters trying to stop the main couple's love story.

Picture it: a family receives a mysterious box at their door, and upon opening it, are horrified to find it filled with voodoo-like items. The family matriarch sets the box ablaze, thinking that she’s sending a curse back, but is playing right into the hands of the two women who sent it. Later, a woman screams at her ex-husband, calling him unfaithful, before running with tears down her face into the streets of Santo Domingo. Two families are at war thanks to the broken hearts of two former young lovers. A woman betrayed, and a man hurt by years of being misunderstood. The woman goes from being naive to bitter, and the man who was once a wide-eyed boy in love is now filled with malice. Soap opera fans would love a storyline like this, and surprisingly, they're in luck. This storyline is from the reality TV series, The Family Chantel, a spinoff of 90 Day Fiance', and everything described above happened recently, in episode 5 of the final season.

The series has been dragging on for so long that, realistically, it has no further to go. Fans last year were already becoming disillusioned by the series after discovering the major plot line of Pedro Jimeno learning about his father and meeting his half-sibling was a lie. Social media detectives quickly discovered a photo of Pedro with his “newly-discovered” brother taken years before when the episodes were filmed. Even before that embarrassing discovery, fans were consumed with the idea that the show was fake. Now that it’s in its final season, it’s almost as if the producers of The Family Chantel are embracing the lack of authenticity and taking it to a higher level.

90 Day Fiance

Using a unique 90 Day Fiance visa, overseas fiances will travel to the US to live with their partners for the first time. Each couple will have just 90 days to decide to get married or send their international mate home.

‘The Family Chantel’ Cast Is Full Of Caricatures

90 Day Fiancé fans became fascinated by Pedro Jimeno and Chantel Everett’s love story immediately, thanks to a massive lie Chantel told to keep their true relationship a secret. This action set in motion a dramatic response. As seasons progressed and the drama began to heighten, it’s clear that TLC producers saw a goldmine in these two families. The second the new spinoff began, the acting was heightened to even greater proportions. Karen Everett, Chantel’s mother, who already had a large personality, took it to an even greater level on The Family Chantel. She became the primary source of comedy for the show, with her catchphrases, “There’s about to be a Thrilla in Manila,” when expressing her skepticism about her eldest son Royall’s new Filipina wife. Chantel’s sister, Winter, was a naive, quiet girl in a bad relationship. And, of course, there is Chantel, who has, over the years, slowly become as over-dramatic as her mother.

'90 Day Fiance' Offers a Deep Dive Into American Privilege

There’s also Pedro’s mom and sister, Lidia Morel and Nicole Jimeno, who play the roles of the conniving duowho work hard to tear the couple apart for their own gains. They cackle loudly like everyone in Chantel’s family. These people have gone from real to borderline cartoonish.

Was ‘The Family Chantel’ Always Meant to Be A Telenovela?

People have begun to associate daytime dramas with bad acting and over-the-top scenarios. While all soap operas are looked at like this, telenovelas go even further to extremes, which has led to plenty of fun memes online. The shocked gasps and overwrought performances border on comedy, and this is why telenovelas are some of the most popular shows in the world. Telenovelas also differentiate themselves by ending after the story arc is complete, whereas American soaps create new plot lines to keep viewers hanging on. PBS, defines telenovelas are “Romance. Drama. That’s what drives telenovelas, Latin American soap operas.” According to Nuestro Stories, every telenovela follows this format in one form or another. Nuestro Stories, whose platform is a source of Latino cultural origins, explains, “There’s a simple formula for a telenovela: a girl from humble origins meets a wealthy man; they fall in love, and many side characters try to stop them.” Does that sound familiar at all?

Pedro, a boy from humble origins, meets an upper-middle-class girl, Chantel. They fall in love, get married, and many side characters in their families try to stop them. When one looks at that sentence and thinks of a telenovela, there is no difference at all. It’s almost as if it was planned to be that way. In fact, the only difference between the show and current telenovelas is that there will be no happy ending for any of these characters.

The Family Chantel airs on TLC every Monday at 9 PM EST. Episodes can also be streamed online or MAX.

WATCH ON MAX

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