Don’t just say it, prove it
With so many teleseryes currently telecasting on local screens, the popular program type’s relative strengths and weaknesses are becoming much more obvious. On the plus side, daily drama shows captivate viewers due to their loudly and lividly melodramatic plotlines, huge and ponderous themes, matter-of-life-and-death conflicts, heartfelt romances, rich-versus-poor squabbles, and over-the-top performances.
On the other hand, the program type’s flaws are similarly up there for all to gawk at. One problem that’s getting worse is drama series makers’ belief that all they have to do is say it, and viewers are implicitly supposed to believe it—even if the pieces of “evidence” or “proofs” that are presented are too nominal or specious to be taken seriously!
This is obvious in the many series that go for “coincidence” or “fate” to explain why their lead characters keep conveniently bumping into each other—in a metropolis of 15 million residents.
Instead of coming up with well-written scripts that make such “intersecting” lives logical and believable, they just too easily and breezily do it—and expect viewers to pick up the illogical pieces and try to make some sense out of it.
Another version of the problem is evident on “Forevermore,” where the resident matapobre family is supposed to be super-rich, but the evidence presented of its “vast” holdings is solely lacking. Yes, it runs a rather modest hotel, but it talks big about its power and pelf—which are not all that evident onscreen.
Easy way out
Good TV-film directors are supposed to believably create their own “universe” onscreen, but some of our megmen take the easy way out and require us to take their tales merely at word-value.
Many of local drama series’ limitations are the result of their exceedingly demanding taping schedules, with some series having to tape 30 or even 40 sequences in just one very long working day—and night! As a result, many shortcuts are taken, facts are stated rather than proved, and the key element of believability flies out of the window.
Relevant moments
Time constraints are also part of the reason that teleseryes love to advance their plotlines not by dramatizing relevant moments, but by simply having the lead character talk about his or her problems with friends or relatives!
That’s why we get so many sequences in which the lead just talks or cries on the nearest friend’s shoulder to express how confused or hurt he or she is by the latest dastardly blow at hand. This ploy is facile and convenient, but it makes local drama series passively verbal and verbose, rather than dynamically visual, and that’s not a good thing.
It also adds too many supporting characters, whose main or only reason for being is to provide a ready ear to hear, or shoulder to cry on, for the series’ leads! Viewers deserve less knee-jerk and more creatively dynamic storytelling, don’t you think?
Now tell that to our erring TV people so they’ll know that we know that they aren’t doing a good job.
