TIME WAS when local telenovelas felt tired and redundant, prompting us to hope that the desultory trend had just about run its course. Alas, we were wrong: Telenovelas are as popular as ever, and continue to dominate the prized prime time evening slot.

This is quite amazing, since local viewers used to be known for their short attention span, with program trends lasting only a couple years or so.

Well, telenovelas have been ruling the TV roost for more than five years now, so it looks like, for all the right and wrong reasons, they really do have ?legs.?

Daily ?fix? for free

What accounts for their unique appeal to local viewers? First, they provide sort of ?movie-like? entertainment daily or nightly ? and for ?free!? They aren?t really without psychological cost, of course, but they?re definitely cheaper than the P150 a pop that we have to plunk down to watch a new film at the malls.

To make them more appealing and competitive, telenovelas now top-bill big stars. In the two newest shows, for example, ?Magkaribal? and ?Endless Love,? their combined stellar credits include Dingdong Dantes, Marian Rivera, Dennis Trillo, Gretchen Barretto, Bea Alonzo, Angel Aquino, Janice de Belen, Erich Gonzales, Enchong Dee, Mark Gil and Derek Ramsay.

In addition, production values have gone up, and so have shooting or taping budgets. Despite the added costs, however, new series still end up making a lot of money and boosting their mother network?s cumulative ratings. This is of utmost importance on TV, since the most popular channels get the biggest advertisers, so commercial ?image? is everything.

A recent survey notes that viewers love watching them because they provide inexpensive escape from their problems and boring lives, give them their daily ?fix? of melodrama, and sometimes tell ?inspirational? stories that impart positive values.

Guilty pleasure

Not surprisingly, however, the negative notes are in the majority. Some viewers admit that watching telenovelas is a guilty pleasure ? like munching on a fat slice of lechon with its crunchy, yummy skin that you know isn?t good for you.

They acknowledge the fact that some telenovelas tell stories that are all too similar and predictable. They also turn some people off with all their shouting, crying, slapping and fighting scenes, characters forever on the vengeance trail, sibling rivalry to the max, and excessive lack of realism, in favor of too much fantasy and skin-deep concepts of beauty, sexiness and appeal.

Despite these obvious drawbacks, telenovela viewing has become a group and family affair ? and this is where it gets problematic. Adult viewers can separate the real from the unreal, and positive from the negative values depicted, but kids can be adversely affected by the questionable and excessively graphic scenes they watch.

As a result, some parents limit their young children?s televiewing on point of duration and type of program that?s OK to watch ? and telenovelas often end up on their list of ?questionables.?

We hope that more parents follow their example, because nothing less than their kids? psychologically healthy development could be at stake.

More trending notes: Have you noticed, telenovelas have become so popular that some ?real? people are now behaving like telenovela characters, especially in dire intervals in their lives? For example, have you watched news items on TV about women beaten up by their husbands who report the dastardly deed to the cops ? and harangue their erring hubbies with ?dialogue? as colorful as the intricate insults hurled by combative characters on TV?

And what about the mothers of rape victims, who slap and hit the guilty deflowerers, all the while screaming in colorful and ?quotable? language exactly like a telenovela?s ?confrontation scene? script? Stop the telenovela trend, we need to get off!