Morangos com Açúcar

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Morangos com Açúcar
Screenshot from Season 3
Genre	Portuguese telenovela
Running time	45 minutes
Starring	See below
Country of origin	Portugal
Original channel	TVI
Original run	August 31, 2003–present (renewed through Season 5 (2008))
Official website
IMDb profile

Morangos com Açúcar (Strawberries With Sugar, distributed internationally as Sweet Strawberries) is a Portuguese youth telenovela. It is broadcast daily on Portuguese TV station TVI since 2003, and has since been broadcast in Brazil and Romania. The show is set to have five seasons. In Portugal it is currently on the fourth season. It is also one of the highest rated shows in Portugal.

1 Popularity, Plotline
2 Criticism
3 Clube Morangos
4 Mass hysteria
5 Cast and Characters
6 External links

[edit] Popularity, Plotline

Morangos com Açúcar is very popular in Portuguese communities, especially amongst children and teenagers. The main story focuses on everyday life in two schools at Cascais, a wealthy seaside town outside Lisbon. Colégio da Barra (Barra College) is a private school, while Escola dos Navegantes (School of the Navigators) is a public one. The two schools often clash in sport events, but most episodes are about teenage relationships. Social issues such as drugs, sex, feminism, domestic violence and crime are often featured.

The series is heavily present on teen magazines and it spwawned lots of merchandising. It also lauched the career of singer Fernando Fernandes and the boyband D'ZRT. Both acts had multi-platinum albums.

When it comes to viewing figures, Morangos com Açúcar leads the ratings in its timeslot since its second season, with a smashing share of over 60% among young audiences (4-24). But recently, the ratings started to decreased because of the huge success of rival soap Floribella, aimed at the same public.

Each season of the show has holiday specials, Morangos com Açúcar - Férias de Verão ("Sweet Strawberries - Summer Vacation") being the longest one, on air during the whole summer. The other holiday specials are Morangos com Açúcar - Férias da Páscoa ("Sweet Strawberries - Easter Holidays") and Morangos com Açúcar - Férias de Natal ("Sweet Strawberries - Christmas Holidays"), which run for about two weeks during the respective holiday seasons.

[edit] Criticism

Morangos com Açúcar is often criticized for the criteria upon which its actors are chosen. Critics believe the actors have little talent and are chosen based solely on their looks, most of them being models. Also, throughout the seasons, several of the actors cast have had a considerable age difference to the respective characters they play.

Other criticisms are aimed at the reality depicted in the show; some argue that it does not accurately portray the Portuguese society, since most of the characters are clearly wealthier than average. The show's interpretation of the Hip hop culture is also placed under question by some critics, as are the show's views on drug consumption (argued by some to be biased and prohibitionist).

This show is accused by some critics of having poor dialogs and for being a cheap Malhação rip-off.

[edit] Clube Morangos

To consolidate the biggest brand in Portugal, TVI decided to do the variety show Clube Morangos.

Targeted to teenagers, the show has a glass wall, similar to that of TRL and it has musical acts, debates about themes like drugs, sex and abortion and the participation of the actors from the soap (many times as their characters).

[edit] Mass hysteria

In May, 2006, an outbreak of the "Morangos com Açúcar Virus" was reported in Portuguese schools. 300 or more students at 14 schools reported similar symptoms to those experienced by the characters in a recent episode. These included rashes, difficulty breathing, and dizziness, forcing some schools to close. The Portuguese National Institute for Medical Emergency dismissed the illness as mass hysteria. [1]