Mega Serials

Now, for those who are new to this term, here is the definition and few notable characteristics!!!

  • Mega Serials are defined as the television plays that have to last at least till your grand daughter's graduation day in business school.
  • Mega Serials are divided into episodes, each one lasting thirty minutes with twenty minutes taken away by the advertisements of the sponsoring companies.
  • Mega Serials usually have good or moderately rated stories to begin with, but the director and the script writer's job is to make sure that the once nice story is twisted and twirled and confused and flopped big time by the end of the fourth year!!!!
  • Mega Serials usually begin with one story and every character in the family will each have a story line, each line with many sub stories. This is the only formula used to gear up interest in the audience.
  • It is possible to wrap up a mega serial as abruptly as you close the door on the face of a less friendly storm. There would be so much happening in the story line ( Okay, that is to say, many parallel stories would be each trying to resolve a twist on its own ) and the director would close the story suddenly. All those years of wait to see what happened to each of the sub stories would turn into utter disappointment.
  • It takes a lot of patience to watch the lady villain either very devilishly dressed or neatly dressed for all occasions at all times of the day per the story.
  • It is not possible to ignore the fact that a character who starts acting in the serial as a college girl, in her real world, graduates from college, falls in love with someone, get married, has two children; and in the serial story still is trying to resolve the hopelessly complicated love story in her serial life!!! We must not mind how she has changed over the years in her looks. What matters is she is still in college second year caught up in the same love story complication that was given to her when the serial began.
  • It is perfectly okay to miss a whole month or may be even a whole year of a mega serial, since the story would not have moved more than two pages in the real story line if it were a book. You can always start following the story immediately.
  • When there is a change of artist for a role for some business or personal reason, they put it upfront saying : This person will, henceforth play the role of Mr. A. And it would take a while to get used to the new face in the old role with the same voice!!!
  • And almost always, there is no joy in the mega serial scripts and nothing correct or at least dreamy is shown in any of the serials.
It is okay to dream of a perfect world at least in a TV serial. It is possible to encourage people to think positively just by showing nicest model lives that we must have and ways to achieve that... How many story writers think about it? How many directors think about it?

Now, it is easy to say that all the stories have morals and it is up to the viewers to decide what they want to learn from a story. Agreed. But do you think the people who don't have the privilege of education and exposure to the world to the extent of analysing what is right and wrong, will understand that a serial is just a story and that they have to take the hidden good sense in it?? Almost always No.

As mega serial directors, it is possible to direct a very positive story, with less focus on violence, with more focus on the social issues, and more focus on how we want our lives to be rather than stories that seem to exaggerate the already existing issues in a common man's world.

We all know that the world is a challenge to be living in, but why don't we also try to paint the possible beautiful things, wonderful opportunities and excellent chances of survival through the most accepted medium today, the Mega Serials???

And finally why so the serials have to be Mega Serials?? Why not short stories, that run for say a few months?? or say maximum a year's time if they must prolong the serials for a reason I wont want to understand?

Finally, at the end of a serial ask someone who has been watching it from day one, She will say, it was good in the beginning, but later, with so many sub stories there was a tiring need for the director to twist the story here and there.. I didn't enjoy it much, but watched it as I wanted to know what happened to the main story line!!! Amazing answer, but so true!!! Curiosity takes the better of boredom as well!!!

Will the serial directors and script makers think??

Comments

Casey said…
Hahaha - Nicely said! It is absolutely true - most folks are hoping tht the main story will be revived at sm point and end up feeling badly cheated! I always preferred short, crisp, 13 episode-serials that managed to hold your interest. I always felt bad tht they ended but thts how you feel wen you finish a good book too. I guess that was before the time of the mega serials.

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