Passion of the Hawks: Why the Colombian soap opera is a hit on Netflix

Nostalgia or new audience for the hawks? The second season of the Colombian telenovela that had been a global rage between 2003 and 2004 premiered on Netflix: Pasión de Gavilanes. This new version launched on July 20 and has since been the leader of the ten most viewed series on the platform.

What new dangers and passions threaten the dynasty of the three Reyes brothers and the three Elizondo sisters?

The original conflict had been the Reyes brothers’ desire for revenge against the alleged murderer of their younger sister (the father of the Elizondo). All together they solved that melodrama in 188 episodes, ate partridges, beat the ratings in Latin America and rest for eighteen years. Until 2022, suspicions and Colombian-style power plays were re-activated.

Where does the new phase begin?

The football of Sparrowhawks passion 2 it is a crime that surrounds one of the children, but the massive eyes still rest on the legendary couples that formed in the first saga: Juan and Norma, Jimena and Óscar, and Sarita and Franco. Aside from slight wrinkles and renewed dye, time does not seem to have diluted the fervor for The passion of the hawks. Change format, the auditions remain.

For this reason, when this season 2 premiered on Telemundo on February 14 of this year, under the headlines of the return to TV it read: “Passion is intact! Mario Cimarro (Juan Reyes) and Danna García (Norma Elizondo) are back. Paola Rey (Jimena Elizondo) and Juan Alfonso Baptista (Óscar Reyes) are back. Also Natasha Klauss (Sarita Elizondo) and Michel Brown (Franco Reyes) ”.

Michael Brown? The Argentine actor entered the history of the genre thanks to The passion of the hawks: between Mexico and Colombia. He started in the youth academy play with meby Cris Morena, in 1993. Then it was Tommy in the second season of Chiquititasin 1996.

Three years later he went to Mexico to make more telenovelas, eventually becoming popular in 2003 as Franco Reyes, the middle brother in The passion of the hawks. Y his fame did not waver. This year, for example, he was the presenter of Fire Challenge Latin Americathe History Channel gun reality show.

What will Michel Brown feel at 46, returning to the Franco Reyes who gave him continental fame? His is a special (and revealing) participation. Originally I wouldn’t have been in Sparrowhawks passion 2, but the audience would have screamed at the sky.

understanding of the phenomenon

It is worth looking back to understand the phenomenon. On October 21, 2003, it was the first ever broadcast of The passion of the hawks, an RTI television production for Telemundo and Caracol Television. when July 23, 2004 culminated in its 188th episode, it had already become an audience milestone in Latin Americain Spain and in more than fifty countries.

In Argentina, Pasión de Gavilanes aired on Telefe in 2005 and became the most watched Colombian soap opera in local history: its inaugural episode measured 37 rating points.

From 14:00 to 15:00, the Reyes-Elizondo saga through the channel of the balls was guilty pleasure for thousands and faithful love for millions. The passion of the hawks she became the owner of siestas and revived Argentine interest in soap operas.

Every time in 2005 the curtain rang Restless beastplayed by Ángela María Forero, they renewed their hearts and tickles to discover how this mixture of romance and hate would continue, with the chiaroscuro and archetypes of the traditional soap opera (still without feminist axes).

They were three attractive and good brothers, but with a thirst to avenge Libya, their deceased younger sister. Opposite were three beautiful sisters, evil businessman’s daughters.

The setting: the Hacienda Elizondo, in the context of Colombia of the generation after the period called “La Violencia” (1920 to 1960), which led to clashes, struggles and attacks between the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party of Colombia.

Against political bloodshed

The passion of the hawks it was a form of catharsis against political bloodshed. How? It sublimates the hatreds in the family cloister. In the foundation, the three kings planned to seduce the three Elizondo to avenge their sister. Marriage as the worst punishment? Nuptial and dynastic justice?

The plot of 2003-2004 it was classical according to rather patriarchal codes, a bit rethought for the most current fiction. Of course in the The passion of the hawks Initially, the love trap in Colombian haciendas would have easily triggered: the muscular, long-haired Juan Reyes (Mario Cimarro) fell blindly in love with Norma Elizondo (Danna García).

And so the sensual and forbidden menu was served. It is also worth thinking about the supporting character of Rosario Montes (Zharick León), the exciting dancer and singer of Bar Alcalá. She has become a sexual and female icon in Colombia and now her daughter is part of the plot Sparrowhawks passion 2which ended on May 31st.

Two months later, this July 20, he went to Netflix (which had previously uploaded the original soap opera). Since then, already with 82 episodes, Sparrowhawks passion 2 does not fall from the first place among the most viewed series on Netflix.

Surely the dramatic arcs of youth must generate a lot of curiosity, but the Reyes brothers and Elizondo sisters continue to be the key to this eternal love with the Colombian political subplot.

Juan Reyes, the eldest, remains fiery and protective (though not very bright). Franco, two years younger, is the moderate of the three (although he has had his arduous love affair with Rosario Montes). Óscar, the youngest, is aggressive and ferocious.

For her part, Sara is the eldest of the three sisters: the elegant and shiny one. Norma is the sensual and unhappy, and the most violent of the Elizondo. Very different from Jimena, the romantic, reader and kind: the ideal woman according to the familiar eye of melodrama. What will the new generations think, far from those preconceptions?

As mentioned, the football of Sparrowhawks passion 2 he died.

The corpse of a professor appears and one of the descendants of the Kings is accused. The need to proving his innocence was the factor in his parents’ returnin addition to other equally powerful characters: Kristina Lilley plays Gabriela Acevedo of Elizondo, the mother of the Elizondo, Carmenza González is Quintina and Tatiana Jauregui plays Dominga.

What many are unaware of is that the The passion of the hawks from 2003 to 2004 it was a remake. It was written by Julio Jiménez, a profuse writer and author now 74 years old (who Often referred to as “The Colombian Hitchcock”), based on his soap opera the calm watersissued in 1994.

At that time it was difficult to calculate what size his famous second version would take years later. Or that, thanks to the inexhaustible consumption of streaming content, history would repeat itself for the third time for the Reyes-Elizondo dynasty.

wd