yanie no hitorigoto: American series (compared to Japanese dramas)
There is SO little number of American series that I've followed. I guess my one and only ALL-TIME Favorite would be the popular sitcom, FRIENDS. I've watched all episodes of ten seasons over and over, so many times, that I lost counts and had memorized the lines without realizing it. Whenever I re-watch any FRIENDS episode accidentally at Star World channel or any other channel, I found myself reciting the lines, and knowing what lines they will say next, LOL. Me and my brothers are such big fans of this series.
What else... X-Files kana... my brothers watched it, and somehow I watched together with them too. Mulder and Scully. Loved this couple alot. But, I guess I didn't follow it as much as I did with FRIENDS. Just occasionally on TV, or whenever my brothers watch it, too.
Aaand... Smallville, that I start watching since 2006 'till now. All because of Lois Lane. I love Teri Hatcher's Lois Lane in the 1990s show Lois & Clark. And so when I heard Lois Lane character appeared in Smallville since Season 4, I decided to watch... starting from Season 4 directly. And since I totally love Erica Durance's Lois Lane character and his chemistry with Tom Welling's Clark Kent, I started to watch Smallville every week.
Recently, Smallville has started to go downhill. It makes me realized the one thing's not good in American series: different writers for different episodes and story plan changes based on fans' opinions causes story's discontinuity and inconsistency in a whole.
What I like in Japanese dramas: 11-12 episodes for 1 drama. Which of course guaranteed that there's only ONE main writer for the drama. And the episodes' number decreases the possibility of discontinuity and inconsistency.
Tokiwa Takako had once say in Bistro Smap, "What surprised me in Hongkong movie filming, the script can change all of the sudden on the filming set. In Japan, once the script has been printed, it is not allowed to change the contents anymore, right?".
During Bara no nai Hanaya press conference, the writer Nojima Shinji said, "I've finished the script for 10 episodes. So there's only the final episode left for me to write,".
From these facts, I assumed that in Japanese dramas world, they do not write stories based on the public's reactions or opinions. Just because the rating is low, they won't change the story. This is what I love from Japanese dramas. When one drama is good, it'll be good as a whole. No character changes in the middle. And the point, the meaning, the direction of the story is CLEAR and won't suddenly make a U-turn halfway.
While, Smallville is torturing me. The story doesn't entice me as much anymore, but I still love Lois Lane and her chemistry with Clark Kent, and so I feel the need to watch more of this. But I feel so worried coz I've seen other characters changed and did horrible out-of-character things, I'm worried they'll change Lois Lane too. I think it's called "character assasination"?
Another thing that sucks is the fact that Erica Durance is only signed for 12-13 episode out of 22 episodes in each season. As a fan of Lois Lane, that's a torture. And starting the 8th season, it became weirder coz Lois is suppose to be Clark's colleague in Daily Planet, but we don't get to see her in 9-10 episodes. In Japanese dramas, there's definitely no such thing, coz ALL the casts are important and needed for the plotline and they are signed for ALL episodes XD
Another pain is the shippers' battle. I come to a forum to enjoy spoilers but instead I find so many fans' arguement XD Most of which are battles between Lana fans, Chloe fans and Lois fans, coz they want their favorite girl to end up happily together with the hero, Clark Kent, LOL. I can see why... coz the writers at some points, write up stories that focuses on each couple: Clark-Lana, Clark-Chloe, Clark-Lois, which of course makes the fans believe Clark loves their favorite girls, respectively. This kind of writing is ridiculous, I'd say, and very inconsistent. And it makes Clark looks like an indecisive jerk too, sometimes.
I'm just glad that I don't have to go through these kind of battles whenever I watch Japanese dramas, coz the couples I ship in J-dramas are usually the couple meant to get together, or at least, the writers DOES pair them up. Although there are times when I support the lead with the supporting character, but since the writer makes it clear and obvious that the one he/she's pairing are the male and female leads, I didn't get my hopes high, either.
Oh yeah, I remember the time when X-FILES leads were NOT Mulder and Scully anymore. Gosh, who would want to watch that??! XDDD X-FILES = Mulder + Scully, no? I'm surprised the producer could still decide to carry on the series with different main characters XD
FRIENDS went on for 10 seasons and it was almost PERFECT in my book. But then there was one hole. It was when they made Joey and Rachel involved romantically. I HATE IT!>_< Joey falls in love with Rachel and Rachel loves him back is just not believable for me, coz they have been bestfriends for ages, and they had never had those kind of feelings at all, before. Not to mention there was the Ross and Rachel history. That Joey-Rachel plot was just plain stupid for me.
My brothers kept talking about HEROES lately. They have talked to me there are Japanese in the series and tried to persuave me to watch it. But somehow I'm still not interested. I dunno... seem like 1 American series at a time, is enough for me, haha. Got so many J-dramas to watch already, anyway XD
Indonesian dramas? Don't be silly. LOL. I never watch Indonesian TV. The time I watch TV, is only when I want to watch NHK. Haha.