I haven’t watched a telenovela since like 2007. I feel like Rebelde was the last one I saw. However, I hold on to a couple of novelas that I thought were outstanding, such as Rubi. With the years, I’ve come across a lot of talk about ’Teresa’ and I wondered why it had the same premise as Rubi. I was slightly intrigued. I learned that the story of Teresa came first back in the day, then Rubi. On social media such as tiktok and youtube, people are always comparing both. I kept saying that obviously Rubi was better because it was the one i watched. So in order to not be THAT biased, i decided to give Teresa a shot. So i just binged the entire novela in a couple of weeks. So here are my 2 cents.
Intro:
Song: La descarada- Reyli
Song: Esa hembra es mala- Gloria Trevi
With the songs alone, I will still have to give it to Rubi’s intro song. I feel like it was more seductive and more true to what the novela was going to be about. On the other hand, Teresa’s theme song felt like it would be more appropriate for Rubi. Because it was sang from the point of view of the ‘betrayed friend’. Although you can argue that the betrayed friend was Luisa and that it would be from her point of view, but that only happened towards the very last episodes, so it wouldn’t really make sense for it to summarize the entire novela as Reyli’s song did.
Furthermore, I enjoy Rubi’s intro more, especially the beginning were is says 'Una obra de …“ it makes it seem fancy and like I’m in for a special treat.
The actress
Barbara Mori vs Angelique Boyer
I know I’m going to sound like a jerk by comparing their physical appearance, but I’m going to do it anyway.
Face
They are obviously both beautiful women, but in MY opinion, Barbara Mori’s face is more seductive without even trying. She reminds me so much of Megan Fox. On the other hand, Angelique’s face is so youthful that she has to work extra hard and make over the top gestures to act out the seductress role.
Body
Although they both have fantastic bodies, they are very different from each other. Once again, Barbara’s body gives off a more sensual and natural look. Even the way she moves is a perfect embodiment of Rubi. Angelique once more has a more youthful small body, and the main thing that makes her 'hot’ is her boobs, which look really fake and it doesn’t play into the story since she’s suppose to be poor. Rubi didn’t have much of a chest, but she still managed to appear more naturally seductive. Teresa was just constantly exposing her chest to appear seductive.
Acting
Barbara Mori’s acting was excellent. She made me feel like thats how she was in real life. Everything came natural to her. Angelique’s acting was all over the place. She really had to OVERACT to put her point across. Everything about the novela in general was overacted actually. Angelique had to do over the top facial expressions to show when she was scheming, when she was talking down to people or when she was in love. She came out looking like a cartoon character as opposed to Barbara that made her character seem like a real person.
Story
I’ve already made this post way longer than i expected and there’s so much more that I want to talk about out so I’m just gonna have to shoot out random points:
Evil
I feel like they were both equally evil. They both were horrible to their families, to the men they loved and to their friends. I can’t really make my decision on who was worse. I will hand it to Teresa though that she worked and studied hard to have a degree and was an excellent lawyer. However, I’ve seen arguments that mention that she was smarter that Rubi and relied on her brains instead of her body to get ahead. But thats not true. Sure she had a degree but she didn’t get far because of it at all. She did the EXACT same thing that Rubi did, got ahead with her body provoking a rich guy. Sure she played the long game but at then end she did the same thing, not just with Arturo but with Fernando as well. She seduced him, nothing to do with her brain.
Ending
Rubi’s ending was EXCELLENT. It has stayed with me for a long time because we finally have a main character that didn’t win at the end. She got what she deserved. She lost the man she loved, she lost all her money which is what she fought the most, she lost her beauty, and she lost her beautiful body. EVERYTHING, and it was just excellent.
Teresa’s ending left me baffled. She ended up with the man she loved after everything that she did. People may argue that she changed and felt remorse for what she did, but come on. She didn’t even suffer for that long. She only regretted things because she was caught and exposed, otherwise she would’ve never changed. Also the fact that Arturo came to her after what she did to his sister is disgusting. Sure forgive her for what she did to him, but to his innocent sister? Seriously??? I get it, that they wanted for them to have a happy ending since the actors were dating in real life, but that just makes bad story telling.
Plot
It kind of gave me the impression that Teresa was going to follow a similar plot to Rubi’s in the sense that Teresa was going to stay in love with Mariano all the way til the end, and that at some point when Teresa was not going to have any more money, that Mariano would now be super rich and prestigious but would want nothing to do with her like in Rubi. Although that would’ve been a Rubi copy, it would’ve been a better route to take. Because then other elements seem pointless. Something that I do admire more from Teresa was the fact that Mariano fell in love with Aurora, because in Rubi, it felt like Alejandro, although he married Maribel, it never seemed like he truly loved her. It was more like he cared for her. So i was so ready for an awesome ending to where Teresa was trying to stop the wedding and be suffering because the love of her life no longer loves her. That would’ve been so satisfying to watch and Mariano’s wedding would also be triumphant because he overcame his temptation….however, that didn’t happen. Teresa didn’t even care, so it makes the wedding kind of pointless to the story. It really felt like 3 quarters of the novela they were building it up that triumph moment, but instead it felt like they changed the direction of story to fit in the real romance between Angelique and Sebastian. To be honest, Arturo’s ending should’ve been the same as his counterpart role in Rubi.
In Summary. I have a lot more bones to pick with Teresa, but the ones that come to mind, are probably mostly the acting, not just of Angelique but of the cast. I think many of them were new actors or something, but their acting was horrible. I can really tell who was new and who was a veteran. Having said all of this, I DID enjoy watching Teresa. I know it may seem like I’m just hating on it and like I didn’t enjoy it, but I really did. The first few episodes were really boring but after a while it was hard for me to stop. In one day I would go through 10 episdoes…..bruh, those are like 10 hours a day dedicated to Teresa. It was intriguing and interesting, especially many of the elements that were different from Rubi, such as her becoming a lawyer and her ways that she helped unmask Ruben.
In conclusion though, I do see Rubi as superior. A superior actress, a superior story and superior ending. Maybe a bit is from nostalgia but I did give Teresa a fair chance. Although entertaining, it was not what I would consider a good novela.