Machos is one of the best Chilean telenovelas I've ever seen. Produced by the television company of the Catholic University of Chile (Channel 13), an important "teleseries" producer since 1981, but that in 2001 has stopped the production on account of bad ratings. Machos, with this high ratings (more than 60 points in the last episode) and social impact, saves "Canal 13" from a practically imminent bankruptcy.
It was really stunning to see themes like homosexuality, infidelity and incesto in the before conservative Canal 13. The patriarca of the Mercader family, Don Angel, is a realistic example of the machismo in the old Chilean men; and his wife, Valentina, represents the typical pressed women who deals his sons like children although they have more than 30 years old, and ignores the infidelities and lies of its supposedly correct husband.
Each of the 7 Mercader brothers is delineated in a proud way, with their virtues and defects, without falling in the so own stereotypes of the typical Latin-american telenovelas. Ariel, the homosexual Mercader, returns from Spain to destabilize the traditionalist way of life of his family, and teach them that the subsidiary love does not have conditions. To the extent that elapse the episodes, each brother will goes realizing that its father is not perfect and, after rough secrets be discovered, they will begin to face Angel, who is not another thing that the representation of the old conservative, hypocritical and moralistic order, that, little by little, goes remaining behind, increasingly diminished, in the Chilean society.
