Everything is cuter with some flowers...
Patito Feo (in English, "Ugly Duckling") is a 2007-2008 teen drama from Argentina, based, as you can imagine, on the The Ugly Duckling tale.The main character is Patricia Castro, known by the diminutive of the name Patricia, "Patito" ("duckling", and yes, she's the one ugly but with a heart of gold). She lives in Bariloche, a city in the very south of Argentina, with her mother Carmen, and once fell in love with Matías, a guy from Buenos Aires, who visited the city.
Some time later, the family moves to Buenos Aires; there, they meet Patito's father Leandro, but are were unaware of this, since Carmen tried to avoid him. Patito then enrolls in a school of arts... where Matías also attends. Problem is, Matías has a girlfriend, Antonella, the leader of a group of beautiful but mean girls. And Antonella's mother Bianca is Leandro's girlfriend, and tries to prevent him from getting near Carmen.
This series must not be confused with the tale "The Ugly Duckling".
"Patito Feo" includes examples of:
- Adults Are Useless: None of the teachers in charge of the institution seem to be able to do anything about Antonella's bullying (in fact she was only punished once, in the second episode), and they only seem to be willing to get involved in matters if it is something that bothers them. can benefit in some way. Also in episode 18, Patito was about to drown in the camp, and none of the teachers who were taking care of her noticed her until they told them, in fact it was the STUDENTS who jumped into the water to rescue her.
- On the other hand, Blanca's upbringing of her children is quite... questionable at best, and downright alarming at worst (she encourages Antonella's bad actions, turns her against Patito even though she hasn't done anything to her, and only corrects her if what she does could harm her plans).
- All-Loving Hero: The protagonist Patito is unconditionally kind and sweet, and although she has her limits, she has no problem giving a second chance to those who were mean to her in the beginning.
- All Psychology Is Freudian: Lampshaded. When Carmen goes to see a Psychologist, it was an expy of Freud himself. She was taken to a Freudian Couch, even when a common chair was just fine. And then...Carmen: So, doctor, my problem is that I love...
Psychologist: No no no no. Tell me about your childhood!- This is congruent with the situation of psychology in Argentina, where almost all psychologists are Freudian and other currents are not very popular.
- Alpha Bitch: Antonella, the girl who torments Patty.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Contrary to what one would expect, this is quite downplayed. Patito actually has many people who genuinely love and appreciate her, and it is only very specific people who reject and discriminate against her, like Antonella, her mother Blanca and her friends. In fact, it's more her shyness and Heroic Self-Deprecation that tends to hold her back.
- Beautiful All Along: Happened a couple of times.
- Beautiful Singing Voice: Because the story takes place in a kind of High School Rocks, it is not surprising that a large part of the students stand out in singing. But Patito stands out in particular for having a natural talent for singing and a beautiful voice, so much so that Antonella herself has felt threatened by this.
- Becoming the Mask: Andrés was hired to pose as Carmen's boyfriend, to shoo Leandro out. In time, Andrés falled in love with Carmen for real.
- Betty and Veronica: Repeatedly.
- At the beginning: Patito's Betty and Antonella's Veronica for Matias's Archie.
- Later: Matis's Veronica and Lucas's Betty for Patito's Archie.
- And also: Patito's Betty and Linda's Veronica for Matias's Archie.
- Breakout Character: Antonella. From Season 2, she got more focus and screen-time, due to being the most popular character of the series.
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Broken Aesop: If Antonella, the beautiful but mean girl, turns out to be the favourite of the public, and the writers choose to write about her instead, the whole "ugly duckling" tale and aesop is lost. - Call-Back: In the first season, Leandro realized that Patito was his daughter, but was unsure how and when to tell her, as Carmen was still infuriated with him. In a music contest, a judge was being mean with Patito, and Leandro jumped infuriated in her defense. The man asked why Leandro was defending her so strongly, and in an Accidental Public Confession he shouted "because I'm her father!". In the second season, Leandro had amnesia, did not remember his relation with Carmen or Patito, and the doctors advised against such reveals. And one day, there was a similar scene (in fact, with the same judge, who thought he had seen Leandro previously...), but this time it was Patito who shouted by accident "because he's my father!"
- Cat Fight: Patito is the most innocent girl that may be conceived, she cannot even bring herself to think something bad of Antonella when her worst plots came into light... but Jose is not so innocent, and have no qualms into taking things to physical violence when justified.
- Clueless Dude Magnet: Due to her low self-esteem, Patito believes that no boy would be interested in her because of her appearance. However, throughout the series there have been many guys attracted to her (Santiago, Lucas, and Matias, just to give a few examples, and in Season 2 Bruno hints that he could easily like her if he wasn't in love with Antonella), even when she was still "ugly".
- Dogged Nice Guy: Santiago was in love with Patito at the beginning of the series, but unfortunately for him she was completely oblivious to his feelings and only saw him as a friend.
- Drunk with Power: When German was appointed provisional principal of the school for a couple of days, he turned it into a military base.
- Enemy Mine: Antonella, best friend of Patito? Doesn't that make it the end of the series? No, just add the new girl Tamara, even more mean than Antonella (and even evil, Antonella was just mean), turn her into Antonella's enemy, and we have new plots for months.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: Between Patito and Antonella, at the beginning of the second season.
- Genre Shift: The show which had no supernatural elements in the first season started off in the second season with a witch who cast a spell on both Patito and Antonella in order to try the Freaky Friday flip out of the blue.
- Grew a Spine: Patito starts out as a kind of Extreme Doormat, starting to cry in response to Antonella's bullying. As the series progresses, she learns to defend herself and responds to complaints by shouting in her face.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: Antonella becomes friends with Patito, then she's mean again, then they're friends again... Ah, teenagers.
- High School Rocks: A high school teen drama, where we never see the characters in an actual classroom learning anything? Music class and spare time, and that's all? Who wouldn't want to go to that high school, even if Antonella was in it?
- Ironic Echo Cut: When it was leaked that Carmen helped the Populares to write songs and organize their dance, Blanca protested, and was allowed to help the Divinas the same way. Blanca took it as an open war against Carmen... but Carmen knows about that stuff, and Blanca does not. And Patito loves her mother, while Antonella is an Alpha Bitch. The next scenes of both groups contrasted the opposite reactions: Carmen dances well, Blanca falls while attempting to dance, Carmen wants to help out of generosity, Blanca wants to help out of revenge against Carmen, Patito says "I love you mom, you are the greatest!", Antonella says "I hate you mom, you are a disaster!"
- Mama Bear: Carmen will not hesitate to face whoever and whatever in order to protect Patito. Hurting her and having Carmen find out is one of the worst things that can happen to you.
- My Beloved Smother: Carmen is an affectionate and understanding mother, but unfortunately she is also quite overprotective, and does not seem to realize that this does not help Patito's low self-esteem at all.
- Papa Wolf: Similarly to Carmen, Leandro does not take kindly to Patito being hurt, and will always jump to her defense no matter what.
- Plucky Girl: Much of Patito's Character Development consists of becoming this. She goes through many problems and difficulties that escalate more and more throughout the series, but she gradually learns to have confidence in herself and to stand up when everything goes wrong. By the final stretches she has abandoned her Prone to Tears attitude entirely and faces difficulties with her head held high.
- The Pollyanna: Despite being portrayed as a Shrinking Violet in general, when she is surrounded by her friends and trusted people, Patito is in fact quite cheerful, charismatic and even energetic, this is even more noticeable in later seasons when she leaves her shyness and insecurity behind.
- Quest for Identity: Leandro had one during most of the second season. He recovered his memory slowly and gradually.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: In a series where most Adults Are Useless or outright villains, Leandro is one of the sensible characters that exist, he happily welcomes Patito into his house, helps her to have confidence in herself, he defends her of Antonella's bullying, and encourages her to go further with your dreams. Possibly this is an unconscious reflection of his paternity.
- Taking the Bullet: Averted. Antonella saw that Carmen was about to be run over by a car, so she jumped to move her aside. But she did not do it hard enough, and the car ran over both of them.
- Uptown Girl: Patito and Carmen
