In a happy world, there would be no harm in beauty contests: what's wrong in enjoying what's easy on the eye? But of course, we live in a world where women are widely marginalised, belittled, and treated as existing for the purposes of men, so it's no wonder that feminists have often registered protests against such competitions. "Senorita '89" is a drama series whose setting is a Miss Mexico competition, and one could imagine a drama constructed by fictionalising actual happenings that would address the real issues with such events by telling an essentially true story. The programme's problem is that the plot also contains a story of a (wholly fictional) killing and a cover-up, and while this gives us a classic thriller-style plot, it somewhat undermines the wider social message, as the viewer doesn't know how much is based on reality, and what is just made-up story. The series is also rather heavy handed in it's treatment of the material, with a semi-independent character providing a voiceover that tells us what we should be thinking right from the start. It's not an awful series, but ultimately it's not a particularly insightful one either.
Review of Señorita 89
