Gata Salvaje (May 2005).


Once again we delve into the world of soaps as inspiration for this page. In an effort to bring you the new and the different I will be looking at a soap not many of you will have seen, though I will probably be proved wrong on this. The soap is called 'Gata Salvaje' (Savage Cat).

'Gata Salvaje' appears to be a Venezulan soap and is of course a Spanish language TV program. For this reason it is sometines difficult for me to work out exactly what is happening but here goes anyway. The story revolves around Rosaura Ríos who has led a difficult life until she falls in love with Luis a heir to a fortune. After finding love she begins a campaign of revenge against those who have previously made her life intolerable but quickly comes to find she has bitten off more than she can chew. Her main protagonists in this area are Luis's sister Eduarda and Eva (played by Carolina Tejera). As an introduction to who is who here are a few screencaps of Eva taking aim and Rosura who knows a thing or two about defending herself and Eduarda.

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Like most soaps the storyline is long and meandering. At times weeks seem to go by and nothing seems to happen and then 20 different things happen in one episode. The most interesting development is of Eva. At first she seems to be a sidekick to Eduarda's schemeing but by mid series it is obvious that it is Eva who is the real bad girl as her actions become more outlandish and more extreme. Here is one indication of how far her character is prepared to go. One of the good girls is being held hostage as Eva tells pursuing police detectives her demands before shooting one to effect her escape.

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Shall I shoot him or shall I stab him? Eva has to decide her favourite means of execution of her ex-husband and weighs up both options before deciding. So after luring her victim to the beach Eva strikes and there is no doubt that when Eva makes her mind up to do something she will do it. Fortunately Rosura and her friend are on hand to save the victim and after one of soap's classic cat fights Eva runs off to live to fight another day.

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Despite being thwared in her attempt to kill Luis Eva is not the kind of woman who gives up. Her next master plan is to kidnap Rosura's baby. So in true cat burglar style she enters Rosura's house to carry out her plan. However things do not go smoothly and she has to batter her ex mother in law senseless before she can complete her nefarious plan. Incidently the ski mask is meant to hide her identity but to my mind it would fool nobody with her long hair flowing over her shoulder etc.. However the mother in law fails to recognise Eva until the mask is removed which shows how far one has to suspend disbelief in soaps.

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Flushed with her success Eva plans to take her final revenge on Rosura. With the kidnapped baby she plans to lure Rosura into a deadly rendezvous and this time she will be waiting with her gun.

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As is always the case things do not go exactly to plan. The rendezvous takes place but whilst Eva's attention is distracted the baby is plucked to safety. Now Eva's only plan is to escape the pursuing police and to escape justice. Reverting to her usual plan of taking a hostage Eva takes flight across the Venezulan swamp in one of those swamp boat things with the police and the rest of Rosura's friends in hot pursuit. For two intermeniable episodes this piece of the melodrama is played out. Eva does a lot of posturing but the only one to get shot is the boat driver which is rather unfortunate if you are relying on him to drive the getwaway vehicle.

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Here are the final moments of Eva, one of the best bad girls of soapdom. She finally meets her fate when she falls into the swamp and gets eaten by alligators! As I said previously, sometimes you just have to accept the plotlines without being too critical. All in all this is a outlandish, over the top soap set in Venezuala. The acting is almost uniformly indifferent or incompetent and though Carolina Tejera isn't the best actress in the world she looks good in the role of Eva.

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