The Evolution Of TV serials and their Portrayal of ‘Indian Values’ - Page 4

Actually one of the major reasons is, initially TV was only available for the urban population whereas now most of the viewers are rural.

Plus the society has become this way. Superficially modern but internally still regressive. 

Years of conditioning has taken people far from harsh realities and just like alcohol so many find escape in the strawberry dunia of serials.

The makers are taking the advantage of this fact and glorifying pain, suffering etc etc to make people feel temporarily good just like alcohol and drugs. Taking advantage of people's hormones too by covering up with romances. People forget the story and start gushing over the romance.

 And they are also taking the advantage of human nature of wanting closure and thus they start dragging making the actual concept hollow.

Originally posted by: NayaNehaD31

I liked how there was a proper flow and division of screen-presence and screen-share in the ensemble cast shows, for example, Dekh Bhai Dekh that aired between 1993 and 1994 was an epic ensemble cast show. It had comedy with drama. Real entertainer. We don’t get shows like that anymore on ITV at least. 👎🏼

Nowadays most of the ensemble cast shows revolve around just one character  🤪 and other characters are just mere props to create buzz and TRP, even though the audience likes them more than the “so called lead”. It should be noted that there’s a worldwide trend of ensemble cast shows all around the globe, yet here we are just focusing on one character throughout the episode and people end of losing interest because it’s humanly impossible to write different stories for just one character, so the writers add more negative and violence filled plot in their storylines, so that the “so called lead” could do something magical to come out as some sort of hero— just to be liked by the audience, which is ironic because the audience hates it even more! This entire thing is just ridiculous and destroys the overall message and essence of the show! 

It’s maddening how just one character ends up doing almost anything and everything and people start to dislike/hate it lol 🤪🤣

The "focus on only one character" mistake is probably my biggest complaint, and for me it goes hand-in-hand with the glorification of toxic masculinity. Do TV shows with the premise that only a superhuman can save everyone else - in a world of perpetual violent crime - encourage viewers to accept strongman personalities in politics?

In the past couple of years, I've watched two shows (Jīva Zhālā Yeḍāpisā in Marathi and Mehandī Hai Racanevālī in Hindi) that started with a good premise of a flawed male lead but ruined my enjoyment of his conflicted and unpredictable nature by not letting the other characters react fully when he did something that shook their world. The other characters, including the female lead, existed only to direct audience attention to the focal character.

On both shows, the female lead had a prior relationship with a decent man, and instead of allowing her to explore genuine feelings for two men, her ex-fiancé/ex-husband was abruptly reintroduced as a creepy schemer faking mental illness to disrupt her marriage and precipitate a declaration of mutual love between the leads. The creatives appealed to audience prejudice against mental illness by equating it with male weakness that deserves a beating from the hero.

And I also hate how guests almost always overstay in the leads' house🤣.

The characters are always extremes. Too good or too villainous .....

We need more grey characters and realists .

Character arcs are too messy and and almost no character growth happens. 

The hardworking characters never feel tired and are too perfect to make mistakes

Originally posted by: BrhannadaArmour

The "focus on only one character" mistake is probably my biggest complaint, and for me it goes hand-in-hand with the glorification of toxic masculinity. Do TV shows with the premise that only a superhuman can save everyone else - in a world of perpetual violent crime - encourage viewers to accept strongman personalities in politics?

In the past couple of years, I've watched two shows (Jīva Zhālā Yeḍāpisā in Marathi and Mehandī Hai Racanevālī in Hindi) that started with a good premise of a flawed male lead but ruined my enjoyment of his conflicted and unpredictable nature by not letting the other characters react fully when he did something that shook their world. The other characters, including the female lead, existed only to direct audience attention to the focal character.

On both shows, the female lead had a prior relationship with a decent man, and instead of allowing her to explore genuine feelings for two men, her ex-fiancé/ex-husband was abruptly reintroduced as a creepy schemer faking mental illness to disrupt her marriage and precipitate a declaration of mutual love between the leads. The creatives appealed to audience prejudice against mental illness by equating it with male weakness that deserves a beating from the hero.

Red) exactly, this is like a pattern in every other show. It's like other characters are immune to the behavioural patterns of the lead of the show like a robot. The lack of parallel tracks is also one of the reasons why a show goes down. 

Blue) the FL's first husband was dead right? And he was reintroduced through some over dramatic reveal? I didn't really follow that show even tho it looked promising.

Green) that's just to show that their lead character is some flawless individual with all the best qualities

The mental health related tracks are never properly shown on ITV. It's so pathetic that the sometimes writers just throw words like depression and anxiety like in a casual way. Like a lead/recurring character is tortured and in the process becomes mentally ill, but the wrongdoers are never brought to justice! Sends out a very bad message! 

Originally posted by: NayaNehaD31

Red) exactly, this is like a pattern in every other show. It's like other characters are immune to the behavioural patterns of the lead of the show like a robot. The lack of parallel tracks is also one of the reasons why a show goes down. 

Blue) the FL's first husband was dead right? And he was reintroduced through some over dramatic reveal? I didn't really follow that show even tho it looked promising.

Green) that's just to show that their lead character is some flawless individual with all the best qualities

The mental health related tracks are never properly shown on ITV. It's so pathetic that the sometimes writers just throw words like depression and anxiety like in a casual way. Like a lead/recurring character is tortured and in the process becomes mentally ill, but the wrongdoers are never brought to justice! Sends out a very bad message! 

@blue

Makers think that if they use these words, audiences will be more sensitive towards the lead characters.

But unfortunately they forget that these are more than just mere words.

@green 

The wrong doers even if exposed or brought to justice are again back to doing the same thing because the lead character being a ‘good and pure soul’ has forgiven them against all the atrocities committed against the leads, which I think is extremely ridiculous and sends out extremely wrong message.

No Indian Tv Serials Today Only Focus On Showing Two Sisters Fighting For A Guy And Getting Married To Him Many Times

Because That's What The Indian Viewers Seem To Love

Shows Like Kumkum Kundali Bhagya Drag On For Years To Come With No End In Sight

Why?

Because The Indian Viewers Love Them

😔

Originally posted by: NayaNehaD31

Yes it is so disgusting like every other show is basically a weird nonexistent third angle love story with little to no romance in it. Lots of family drama and kitchen politics 🤪

What I dislike the most is the glorification of various crimes: child abuse, child endangerment, and crime against women tops the list. 🤓

Add polygamy to that😆

Even worse thing is that these shows get highest viewership

Originally posted by: mango.falooda

apparently they no longer exist. not sure why any woman in tvland would consider marriage based on the MLs out there. better to be single no? but no, perfect bahu always tolerates it all. 🙄🙄🙄

The only entertaining thing that comes out of it is the catfight between sautans🤣

I haven't watched any of the shows being discussed by others in this thread. I don't browse enough to find the best of current TV offerings, so it's mostly my fault that I perceive a decline in the quality of what I watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVXssKgFgnE&list=PLu-K45j6-YpCtXdn-JHDT8hPpV-6j4uJn&index=302

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liqy0EZ4xqc&list=PLu-K45j6-YpCtXdn-JHDT8hPpV-6j4uJn&index=303

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjiLjfgsVNM&list=PLu-K45j6-YpCtXdn-JHDT8hPpV-6j4uJn&index=304

A decade ago, the Marathi show Uṃça Māzhā Zhokā had a story arc about marital rape. The creatives managed to tell this story in a nineteenth-century setting but make it relevant and progressive even in the context of India's laws in 2013. They dared to show a grandmother desiring intimacy and refusing to be a mere sexual object, and yet the portrayal was in good taste, without any gratuitous sensationalism.

Since then, instead of TV shows acknowledging the diversity of human intimacy, such as gay couples, older couples who benefit from vasectomy etc., the trend seems to be towards homogeneity and trivialization of nonconsent. Marriages take place forcibly but the supporting characters blithely insist on intimate rituals. He must carry her into the temple ... they must tie their legs to each other's and circumambulate the shrine ... they must both bite the same sweet at the same time ... she must give him a bath. Supporting characters get negative background music if they suggest that an unhappy marriage or unwanted pregnancy should end; they get positive background music if they insist that "she is HIS wife now," dress her up in family jewelry, and tease the couple about babies. Sure enough, the pair falls in love because family elders know best. They have another marriage ceremony and the whole town pranks their consummation.

On Hindi serials, there seems to be a disturbing fashion of the male lead getting up close to the female, deliberately taking off his clothes to make her uncomfortable, making suggestive remarks ... and it is passed off as banter. He's just being ṭaporī. In one scene, the female flutters with terror as the male flies into a destructive drunken rage, and in the next, she trades saucy remarks with him as if nothing happened. This sort of dissonance makes it impossible to grasp who the characters are, let alone cheer for their pairing.

Originally posted by: NayaNehaD31

Blue) the FL's first husband was dead right? And he was reintroduced through some over dramatic reveal? I didn't really follow that show even tho it looked promising.

You're referring to Mehandī Hai Racanevālī, and "promising" is a too generous description for a show that squandered its potential by constantly redefining every character and relationship. Yes, the first husband Mandar was declared dead and came back alive in a plot awash with coincidences, contradictions, and forgotten clues.

I only noticed Mehandī Hai Racanevālī because the actor playing Mandar was Ashok Phal Dessai, who was phenomenal as the lead on Jīva Zhālā Yeḍāpisā. As the man whom the female lead had chosen to marry after four months of courtship, in contrast to the male lead who falsely bragged that she was in sex photos with him and forced her to marry him after terrorizing her for three months, and as the beloved son/brother of seven of the supporting characters whose lives were ruined by the male lead, Mandar's return should have been dramatic, with him feeling disillusioned by his family's tragedies and the female lead feeling genuinely tempted by him and his family. Instead, it was a flop: the male lead chased Mandar with a gun, they played tug-of-war with the female lead's arms, and the family fought about who owned the female lead.

https://www.indiaforums.com/fanfiction/1763

I found the loose ends and poor characterization of Mandar's story so frustrating that I wrote a fan fiction to fix it all.