TV Serials 101: Clash of the Titans Part 2

ATA – ANTI TELESERIAL ALLIANCE is the way to go now in the clash of the titans. I am going to put up this logo on a permanent basis on my blog until the “war” is won. It could take forever but I don’t give a damn – Logo source: Visithra

You know the issue with Tamil Serials is not going to go away that easily and in case you are not sure what I am talking about, read the so-called “Part 1” here.

Right, with “intro” all done, now take a deep breath and imagine this…

You have started your work early at 7.30 am. The time now shows 7.00 pm. You have been working for almost 12 straight hours. The day has not gone well – there were problems at customer site and the meeting with boss did not go well either. It is a crappy day. You are feeling tired, hungry and stressed out. Despite that, you are happy to be closing off for the day. You drive back home with deep thoughts on the comfort of your home. Traffic was bad and you are thinking “so, what’s new?” The CD was on but you did not pay any heed on what’s was playing.

You parked your car and you slowly open the front door. The sound from the TV was loud and as you rest your back on the sofa, you are confronted with a Tamil Serial showing a big verbal fight between 4 people. The husband is shouting at the wife, the wife shouting at the mother in law, the mother in law shouting at her son and the father in law stands there quietly like a “dungu”.

Not enough with the tension & the noise created, the director of the serial decides to “pour more oil into the fire” by adding some “suspense” alike background music. You turn around and see that the people at home are busy concentrating on the show, not realizing that you are at home!

How do you feel now? Your headache which you have been having all day long, would suddenly spike up by 10 times right?

Unfortunately, this is what I have been going through for the past 2 weeks. It is torturing yes but you know what, my brother have joined me in the crusade against Tamil Serials in the house. Yes, I have complained about it before and I will complain about it again and again. Anyway, with my brother as the new ally, we have set to wrestle back the remote and bring serenity & more importantly, sanity back to the living room.

These days, we would “announce” on what we want to watch from 8.00 pm onwards and my old relative seems to get our message “loud and clear”. There is nothing much she can do – it is one old lady against 2 young and big sized guys. Yes, it is unfair but having Tamil Serials all day long is unfair too.

When the time is up at 8.00 pm, the old relative would now leave the remote on the TV and walk away to do some work. It is non-Tamil Serials shows from then onwards until we go to sleep at 11.00 pm. We may have won the battle but the war against Tamil Serial is on-going. Our next target is to move up the time from 8.00 pm to 7.00 pm!

Yes, we are moving into the peak time of Tamil Serials – crucial because that is about the time we would come back home.

So, what is with Tamil Serials anyway?

Frankly speaking, I have nothing against it – it is a form of entertainment which is followed by “devotedly” by the women in the house. I don’t blame the people in the house for having a bad timing to watch Tamil Serials – blame it on Astro or Sun TV for wrong time slots.

But consider this question: is it worthwhile to watch the Serials on a rather excessive basis? Don’t we have good “serials” on cooking, religion (yes, we have that but Astro cramped that up on Saturdays and Sundays, sigh), travel, musical, history and comedy?

If you run through the programme list from morning to night, the varieties are there but unfortunately slotted at wrong times – when people are at work or school. If given a chance, I rather watch a cooking show right after I come from work (that will work my appetite) or a good comedy (Super 10 is one good example of a show that combines humour & music) before I go to sleep.

On the weekends, it will be great if we have something like the Discovery’s Travel in India kind of shows. My sister and my mom went to India for 3 weeks tour and they gather they have seen only a very, very small fraction of what India had to offer insight, sound and colour.

There is no benefit whatsoever in watching Tamil Serials! Wait, is there one? Ya, you may say that it is “entertaining” but how can a show on how people take revenge and be nasty to others be entertaining? One need not watch Tamil Serials to know that life is unfair, no one is perfect and that if you are lazy, you are not going to progress well in life. And don’t get me started with problems in married life either

I am amazed at how married couple on Tamil Serials can run into so many marital problems. Real-life one don’t have tons of problems like the one on the screen. Are the producers of Tamil Serials trying to create unnecessary problems among real-life married couples? If not, I am offering myself as a marriage counsellor for free of charge.

Anyway, as I said, we may have won the battle but the war against Tamil Serials is an on-going one.
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