Conversation

Every time I visit India, my parents are watching a new Tamil soap that looks exactly the same as the previous one afaict. It's always a story about an extended family that stands around saying apparently shocking things to each other, eliciting dramatic reaction shots.
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I can follow along just well enough to tell that it's always utterly tedious interpersonal drama and intrigue among people who apparently have no real lives.
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These things go on for hundreds of episodes, but air multiple times a week, so they wrap in a few years. Cheap to produce. You just need a house and a bunch of people capable of overacting and over-reacting. Occasional slaps and shit.
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Hindi is the same, but I'm glad they don't watch Hindi ones because I'd understand too well to be able to tune it out. Tamil is just tough enough for me if I turn on my computer it turns into background noise.
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Similar to Mexican telenovelas I think, though from what little I've sampled, those tend to have more sex and violence. I've also watched some Korean, and those are the only ones I've actually liked. I think because they tend to be workplace-based.
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I think this stuff is like 90% of the fiction programming on Indian TV. When I was growing up in the 80s, it wasn't so dominant. There were other kinds of shows like detective, law, medical etc. Sitcoms still seem to be around but look much worse.
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Replying to
wonder if there's an economic theory of this... state monopoly tv often produces better programming under some conditions...
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Someone else has made this point but this is traditional tv. Streaming is much better. But I am still surprised that well educated folks are addicted to these tv shows 3 hours every day. Lack of meaningful alternative recreational activities?
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I think it’s also much cheaper production cost per hour of content broadcast, so easier to fill hours of air time. Reality tv seems to be that way too - just a lot of editing work to develop or emphasize a story. And, talk shows and: in news, pundit shows