Originally posted by: -Sarcy-
I haven't called NK unique and realistic in my comment. I've rather said that the story is tight knit and the characterisations are strong. NK's core plot itself was highly dramatic (it wasn't just another love story cum family drama) so there is no way that the tracks wouldn't have drama. If a shownl starts with a premise of high drama, it should be able to sustain it throughout, else things feel too feeble and the essence is lost. Similarly, if it starts with a rom-com kind of premise, switching to high-voltage drama midway takes away from the essence of the show. A lot of times, shows start with a different genre/theme and then suddenly switch gears, that ruins the show big time. There needs to be a balance.
On Itv, every show definitely needs to go the drama way to survive in the race for TRPs. The question is how many of them do that at the cost of butchering their characters and/or losing the core premise. I didn't feel NK did that ever until almost the last 50 epis and that with one of the characters when they were already working towards wrapping the show (so not for TRPs, technically but because the makers lost interest).
As to the drama in the show being more endurable because of our favs, it doesn't work for me. When Ishqbaaz launched, I started watching it for Nakuul and his character of Shivaay. Being a Gul show, the expectation was always that he would be a rude and arrogant character - but that also has limits and they were maintained till Shivaay and Anika's marriage track. The way they handled the bride swap with Shivaay going to the lengths of humiliating Anika disgustingly, it wasn't needed and was quite repulsive for me. They butchered Shivaay's character at the altar of TRPs. Irrespective of how crackling a chemistry Gul portrayed between Shivaay and Anika after that (or however much I liked some of the other characters), I couldn't watch it a single day more because the character was dead for me. Despite that, Shivaay and Anika gathered quite a huge fan base. So what works or doesn't work for each person is different.
So I would disagree that everyone tolerates crappy tracks just for the love of the leads or that every show has illogical and unrealistic tracks.