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Altair IV
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
Japan
110 Posts |
 Posted - 01/17/2007 : 08:49:20 AM
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Ken has been commenting a lot recently about how good the writing has been on U.S. TV recently. Well, I really wish the Japanese would pick up the technique, because the shows here just seem to be getting lamer and lamer as time goes on.
Case in point. My girlfriend is a TV junkie, and she was determined tonight to watch the newest episode of the latest attempt at "drama". It's an exciting little series with the promising title of "Temp's Dignity" ([url="http://www.ntv.co.jp/haken/"]Haken no Hinkaku[/url]), a riveting story about the trials and tribulations of a temp worker in a modern Japanese office. This week it was all about the work rivalry between the main character and one of the permanent office staff. Ho-boy!
Well, I refused to really watch it, preferring the inanity of the internet to the inanity on the boob-toob, but I did look up just in time to catch this episode's climax.
Yes, folks, they had a staple-off.
...whimper... I really do not understand what she sees in all these shows. |
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Citizen Carrier
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
322 Posts |
Posted - 01/17/2007 : 10:58:58 AM
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Oh, it could be worse. Imagine if it was stereotypically offensive AND you were funding it with tax dollars AND it wasn't funny either?
That’s Just Not Funny
Little Mosque on the Prairie.
By Doug Gamble
At a time when the U.S. mainstream media contorts itself to portray all Muslims as friendly, and those of us who are wary of the spin as fanatic nut jobs, along comes the politically correct, leftwing Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to contribute its propaganda machine to the Religion of Peace cause.
CBC-TV last week premiered an eight-part series called, believe it or not, Little Mosque on the Prairie. That sound you hear is Michael Landon, well, you know. As a TV-listings writer might put it, “A Muslim family tries to cope in a post 9/11 world in rural Saskatchewan, and hilarity ensues.”
An example of the yuks: A Muslim father, in traditional garb, admonishes his Canadian-born daughter for wearing a sexy tank top. “You look like a Protestant,” he says. “Don’t you mean a prostitute?” she counters. “No,” he says, “a Protestant.”
Please, stop, before my sides start to ache.
Given it’s the CBC, it’s hard to say which is more predictable, the lack of humor or the Christian-bashing. In Little Mosque on the Prairie, Christians and other non-Muslims are stereotyped as extremist morons. And anyone who expresses reservations about Islam is portrayed as evil, ignorant, and bigoted — especially police.
In a scene at an airport, a Muslim talking on his cell phone in the check-in line is overheard using the words “suicide” and “This is Allah’s plan for me.” Although actually spoken in an innocent context (he’s saying he doesn’t believe he’s committing career suicide by giving up his law career to become an imam) it’s perfectly reasonable that a bystander overhearing only those words would be fearful. In this show, however, such a person and the authorities are seen as fools. Meanwhile, all Muslims are salt-of-the-earth folks.
They don’t, however — at least so far — condemn 9/11, renounce global Muslim violence, call for understanding of Christians and Jews or decry the less-enlightened writings in the Koran. Perhaps they heard about the Oklahoma man who was booted out of his mosque for calling on his fellows to repudiate extremism, and feared a similar repercussion.
At least when such pap as Little Mosque on the Prairie is aired on U.S. television, it usually isn’t paid for out of our pockets. CBC programming, like Canadian “health care,” is funded by tax money. Ironic, since this is a show that might make more Canadians sick.
The show, written and produced by British-born Zarqa Nawaz, who says she wants to put fun in fundamentalism, is the latest twisted example of how 9/11 might be the best thing ever to happen to Islam from a public-relations standpoint. Prior to the attacks we seldom, if ever, heard talk about how we must be tolerant of Islam, but now it’s a major media message. It took the murder of 3,000 innocent civilians for us to be constantly told that Islam is a religion of peace. In fact, as in a bizarro world, the more Muslims who kill people in the name of religion, the more politically incorrect it has become to point out that some Muslims, do, in fact, kill people in the name of religion.
— Doug Gamble, a former writer for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, is a freelance speechwriter for politicians and corporate executives.
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Gristle McThornbody
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
Germany
186 Posts |
Posted - 01/17/2007 : 11:12:28 AM
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Please tell me this is a joke, Citizen Carrier. You got this from The Onion or a similar site, right?
Seriously, this has to be a joke.
"Hi, I'm Bob Evil!" |
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Citizen Carrier
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
322 Posts |
Posted - 01/17/2007 : 2:36:05 PM
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Nope. Found that review on National Review on-line.
Really, we live in a world were the creation and sustainment of truly awful shows like "Full House" is a reality.
Should "Little Mosque on the Prairie" really come as a suprise to us? |
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twitterpate
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Canada
1026 Posts |
Posted - 01/17/2007 : 4:17:25 PM
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Nope, it's in Canada. If I wanted to watch the thing, I just have to turn on the TV. For some reason, I've neglected to do so.
This particular offering shows why CBC is constantly whining about no one watching it, even though we pay for it. First of all, it symbolizes the "loony left" slant of the CBC. (Please, those of you who are left of centre, I'm not saying you're all loony. There's an equal number of loony right, but they rarely get hired at the CBC.) Middle-class white people are written in a manner similar to those villagers in a Frankenstein movie - any provocation, and they're out storming the castle of the Righteous Minority with torches and pitchforks. If they do address September 11th in any way, it will be about how hard the neighbors make the lives of the Brave Minority by assuming that any adherent of Islam has any connection to violence at all. Subtlety, thy name is not CBC.
(Case in point, if you doubt the above - compare the relative moral subtleties of LA LAW against its Canadian clone Street Legal. The former often made you go "Hmm, both sides of this case have a good point, it would be hard to decide between them". The writers of the latter would be ashamed to write something where there was not a clear GOOD (as defined by CBC) side, and a BAD side, and where BAD did not defeat GOOD with much puffery and moustache-twirling.)
Second, the CBC has zero, that is NULL, that is MIDPOINT BETWEEN 1 AND -1, ability to write comedy. They've tried for years to create situation comedies, all of which crash and burn regularly. (Their best effort, The Beachcombers, was many years ago and wasn't really a sitcom). I assume in this show they will try to not only be funny, but to be "edgy" and funny. Watching the self-consciously hip Corp smirk at its own wit in a mirror is even more painful than, say, the WB, which at least has a trace of genuine street cred.
Although there will be some amusement when the Corp, with all its good intentions, shows something that offends the Muslim community, and tries to tapdance its way out without being "insensitive". |
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Gristle McThornbody
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
Germany
186 Posts |
Posted - 01/18/2007 : 11:25:19 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Citizen Carrier
Nope. Found that review on National Review on-line.
Really, we live in a world were the creation and sustainment of truly awful shows like "Full House" is a reality.
Should "Little Mosque on the Prairie" really come as a suprise to us?
I guess it's better than Gaza Strip's Funniest Home Suicide Bomb-Making Mishaps or The Executioner's Song: The Kennedy Center's Musical Tribute to Saudi Arabia's "Chop-Chop Square" Swordsmen.
The world has truly gone crazy...
"Hi, I'm Bob Evil!" |
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zombiewhacker
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1475 Posts |
Posted - 01/18/2007 : 11:58:31 AM
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| Meanwhile, poor Altair IV is mumbling, "But... but what about stapling?" |
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Greenhornet
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
1791 Posts |
Posted - 01/18/2007 : 1:52:38 PM
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And what is "stapling" anyway? I've never "stapled" before.
"The Queen is testing poisons." CLEOPATRA, 1935 |
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twitterpate
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Canada
1026 Posts |
Posted - 01/18/2007 : 3:38:28 PM
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But were they using Red Swingline staplers, Altair IV?
Myself, I prefer my little black Swingline, as many women cherish their little black dress. |
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Citizen Carrier
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
322 Posts |
Posted - 01/18/2007 : 5:42:06 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by zombiewhacker
Meanwhile, poor Altair IV is mumbling, "But... but what about stapling?"
Actually, I didn't want to get too far away from Japanese television.
I have no experience with it firsthand, but if I were to hazard a guess I would say that it generally tries to be as "un-gritty" and inoffensive as possible. I would say this because I've found Japanese people to be about as polite as you can find. It is a culture that seems more aligned with group consensus, etc.
I wouldn't be suprised if there were no equivalents to the hilarious, but ultimately unlikeable cast of "Seinfeld" in Japanese television shows...although I remember seeing a clip of the "A-Team" with B.A. Baracus calling somebody a "fool" in Japanese.
Come to think of it, they probably get a good dose of our bad television shows in conjunction with our own. Probably lots of stuff from Miller Boyett Productions.
I pity them... |
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Altair IV
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
Japan
110 Posts |
Posted - 01/19/2007 : 11:52:57 AM
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Zombiewhacker, you must've been reading my mind. How did this thread get sidetracked so quickly? (^_^;)
Still, that "Little Mosque" show sounds atrocious. But it sounds like a different kind of bad, the insulting and unfunny kind. What I have to put up with is just plain lameness.
It's hard to describe the scene I watched clearly, because it only slowly dawned on me just what I was watching, but imagine the heroine on one side, the rival on the other, and the whole office surrounding them cheering them on as they both tried to staple together as many reports as possible in the alloted time. They really went all out to make this as "dramatic" as they could. Oh, and it wasn't just the quantity, the quality of the stapling that counted as well. Between face shots of the combatant's intense concentration and bundles of paper being passed back and forth, there were beautifully-filmed close-up shots of the staplers in action (sorry Twitterpate, I wasn't paying attention to the exact models used). You can't imagine how moving it is to watch a staple going into paper in slow motion. Apparently our protagonist lost because the last staple didn't go into the paper correctly, causing it to fall apart. The pressure must've gotten to her. She still managed to came out on top in the end somehow, but I really don't know exactly what happened next because I was in too much shock by that time to try to understand what was being said.
Now, to be fair, I think the show is supposed to have a bit of tongue-in-cheek in it, but even so it just didn't seem to jive with the overall feeling of the series to me. It's still the most ridiculous scene I've seen here in a long time. |
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Altair IV
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
Japan
110 Posts |
Posted - 01/19/2007 : 12:29:15 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Citizen Carrier
I have no experience with it firsthand, but if I were to hazard a guess I would say that it generally tries to be as "un-gritty" and inoffensive as possible. I would say this because I've found Japanese people to be about as polite as you can find. It is a culture that seems more aligned with group consensus, etc.
A lot of of it is like that, but a lot of it is just plain juvenile by western standards. There's also a lot of toilet humor and putting people into embarassing situations, and it can be really mean-spirited at times. And I've seen some late-night cable softcore stuff that's downright sick. There's a real perverted undercurrent to this "polite" society. On the other hand, the insult-based humor so common in American sitcoms is mostly missing. It depends a lot on just what the target audience is. The percentage of local talk and variety-type stuff is much higher than the west, which consists mostly of canned series.
Take the show that's on the tube right now, for instance. It's the middle of the night here and we have a risqué talk/humor show in which the hosts have collected half a dozen attractive women, who are now being asked to bend over and flash the camera so that you can see their underwear peeking out from their jeans. This is real high-quality stuff.
quote:
I wouldn't be suprised if there were no equivalents to the hilarious, but ultimately unlikeable cast of "Seinfeld" in Japanese television shows...although I remember seeing a clip of the "A-Team" with B.A. Baracus calling somebody a "fool" in Japanese.
Come to think of it, they probably get a good dose of our bad television shows in conjunction with our own. Probably lots of stuff from Miller Boyett Productions.
I pity them...
Actually, when it comes to imports, it's really only the most popular of the western shows that make it over. They're usually delayed a season or two from the US broadcast however, probably due to the translation time necessary. when I first arrived the big shows were things like ER, the X-Files, and Friends. Now the biggest seems to be '24'. West Wing and Desperate Housewives have also been on. The problem for me is that I've never really had much interest in that type of TV drama anyway, so there still isn't much for me to watch. I get my fix mostly from the Discovery Channel, the Cartoon Network, and AXN, an international channel that broadcasts a lot of syndicated US shows, both old and new. But again things are often delayed and limited. Thank goodness for cable. And they've started showing new episodes of Mythbusters again. Yay!
By the way, I think I've finally figured out what it is about Japanese television acting that's so wrong. A lot of people say the acting is just bad or unprofessional, but I've come to the realization that that's not the real problem. I think the acting is generally very good for what it is, but what it is is stage-acting. It's toned down and modified for the media, but in the end it's pretty much the same style you'd see in a live production. Whereas television actors in the west try to depict their characters as realistically as possible, here everything has just a little bit of exaggeration to it. Facial expressions and displays of emotion are very obvious, entrances from "offstage" always seem perfectly-timed, the actors are always positioned on the screen in just the right way. It all leads to a slightly unnatural feeling which throws western viewers off. Movie acting may be better, but unless the director and actors are really good, you'll probably see some of the same even there. |
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Citizen Carrier
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
322 Posts |
Posted - 01/19/2007 : 3:10:13 PM
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Still, it could be worse. You could be presented with an unending stream of Bollywood productions where actors break into elaborate musical/dance numbers for absolutely no discernable reason whatsoever.
There but for the grace of God, etc., etc.
As far as variety shows, does anybody remember a few years back when they ran promos for "Monday Night Football" that would say:
THIS is Monday night television in Japan: [cut to scene of a Japanese man on a stage spinning plates on sticks for an audience]
THIS is Monday night television in Germany: [cut to scene of a woman answering a door, some German dialogue, and an avalanche of canned laughter]
THIS is Monday night in America: [slow motion Hail Mary pass to wide receiver with dramatic sports instrumental music playing in the background]
I don't mean to sound "Ameri-centric" or anything (actually, I know I do!), but I'll take door number 3. |
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John Doe
Diocesan Ecclesiarch of the Sacred Order of Jabootu
USA
91 Posts |
Posted - 01/19/2007 : 10:27:58 PM
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Japanese tv is just plain weird. They had a show based around a guy who would walk up to people on the street and scream at them. Also, as noted alot of their shows include women flashing their underwear. The typical Japanese male apparently has a hardcore panty fetish.
my eyes!! the goggles do nothing!! |
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Sardu
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
1126 Posts |
Posted - 01/19/2007 : 11:05:29 PM
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The whole panty flashing thing is definitely cultural. I'm not sure how it relates to phallic tentacles though.
"Meeting you makes me want to be a real noodle cook"
--Tampopo |
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Flangepart
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
2329 Posts |
Posted - 01/22/2007 : 10:17:03 AM
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Ah. Wondered when that would come up. Inspired by too many perverts hanging out at the fish market, maby?
Just how would a German sitcom translate? I mean, with out expectations of shouts of "Raus!" and "Achtung!" and such...
Marvin the Paranoid Android to Buzz Lightyear "Too infinity and beyond-i've been there, its rubbish!"
"Hoody Hoo, i waste 'em with my cross bow!" Bob Herzog- KDOT
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