Web series these days: Amazon & Netflix Originals
Entertainment on Internet- Opening of new a creative space or So-Called Metamorphosis of Cinema
Internet penetration coupled with cheap smartphones has led to a multifold rise in Data consumption across the globe. Telecom companies want to reach everyone & smartphones wants to sell more. Today there are more than 2.5 Billion smartphone users worldwide, up 66% from 2014.
Today ‘Roti kapda aur Makaan’ has been changed to ‘Roti Kapda & Internet’ (Food, Cloth & Internet).
As a result of this dispersal, the scope of the Internet has also broadened. Being used for Mails in the year 2000 to be used for Learning, Entertainment, News & what not. Companies which were non-existent 10 years ago are major tech giants today. Today Google, Amazon & Apple hold the title of biggest brands in the world with their major revenue coming from Ads.
Ads are the byproduct of Entertainment, the more we watch stuff on the Internet the more they sell their ads. This has resulted in a new creative place in entertainment space. Now people are moving away & away from TV & Silver screen and spending more time on the Internet, glued to their Laptop/Tablet screens.
As rightly said It’s hard to reach somewhere, but its harder to stay there. To maintain the possession of customer, entertainment cos is coming up with series of episodes with gripping storyline & mesmerizing scenes filled with thrill. The story will attempt to take you to a range of emotions, trying to create suspense in every episode. With every passing episode, the story becomes darker & thrill unimaginable.
But like every creative art, this has a downside also. In an attempt to sustain the viewers driven away from television by drab soap operas & trite entertainment formats, companies have started imitating each other. With more demand & lesser digital content, series are becoming monotonous these days.
Companies have found a tail & are trying to catch it. Instead of harvesting the idea, they have started exploiting it. As rightly said by James Lowell “Creativity is not the finding of a thing, but the making something out of it after it is found.”
Following are the fronts where, in my opinion, the monotony has peeked in:
1) The Common Cast: #Sabseries mein ekhi actor
Some people are born ‘to be an actor’ & some are born ‘to an actor’. The latter works in movies & former struggle in Bollywood. Ironically, the ones revered by the audience & critically acclaimed doesn’t do well at the box office.
Even parasites can’t match up to nepotism’s speed, star kids get the movies & real actor gets the Web Series, as a result, series getting overcrowded with good actors & movies bankrupt.
As a result, we get to see the common cast in most of the web series. But thanks to Amazon & Netflix Originals at least the audience’s money is getting justified !!
2) Booze & Abuse: #Ek gaali dega toh 100 chutiye dekhenge
Yet another marketing strategy. In India, our body & mind is not accustomed to witnessing a steamy scene while still viewing a non-po*n website. But with the changing dynamics & freshly minted actors, this stereotype is breaking.
Girls roam around freely at 12, drinking shots at bars & making comments at boys. Abusing at every little thing & talking about private parts in public loudly. Girls having sex with some random guy, while flirting with other boys are some of the common scenes. I am pretty sure during that sex scene, every boy thinks “Yeh mere sath toh ni hota”.(This never happens with me).Trust me you are not the only one thinking so !!
Apparently, this is a mark of a progressive society. Strictly speaking, I am not against all this but while director giving the reins of women empowerment to this frivolous act, She/he goes a little overboard.
I believe empowerment’s definition still needs some clarity. I think empowerment is not just about women having drinks, flirting with boys & abusing each other while conversing, it has some deeper meaning. (Which I am yet to discover)
3) Feminism: #Azadi #Humanrights
You all know what happens after booze, ‘The Gyaan’ session filled with insults & philosophy in case of boys & the complaints & curse in case of girls. Some might find this objectification of women unfair but isn’t this true. This is how women are depicted in the series, always crying & ready to rebel.
At the beginning of the series you feel, you’d meet the girls who are going to be vehicles of change & would bring a fresh take on feminism. The director would take you to structural problems in society & make a story around it. The protagonist will face some real issues & would emerge victoriously.
I understand there are real issues like women not being treated equally, promotion in jobs, sexist comments, resources availability, education & freedom. But all you get in ten episodes is a mess that struggles to find its central theme. The direction would attempt to fetch your emotions through impassionate music & hearth touching visuals. It will show sobbing old story with heavy & dark voice over.
But, In the end, as a flag bearer of feminism all they would want is unlimited booze & freely flowing sex. She and her friends hate the condescending tone of men when they talk to women, but happily sort women as ‘virgin’, ‘ugly’ or ‘slutty savitri’ for simply being skinnier than them.
The trailer would tailor the content of the show to their struggle for unfair life, need to validation, in search of love, But the show would just be about intoxicated Friday nights & Jealously. They will make you feel that the solution to all your problems can be found in a bar after four tequila shots.
The protagonist will not just be unapologetically flawed but also directionless. The story would struggle to highlight genuine issues & just become a sex comedy.
4) Sex & Infidelity: # Crowd wants Po*n
Apparently, Infidelity is the new black now. Everyone is cheating their partner. I know the grass is always greener on the other side, but not everyone is pursuing greener grass. Many still want simple & structured life. Not all of us are movie stars, right !!
In tody’s web series, It all starts with insecurity, one vulnerability & the other guy kicks in. A crying shoulder is presented as a ticket to unlimited, free sex. Under the farce of insecurity, one partner is proving other’s insecurity true, by actually having intimate relations with someone else.
The Hero is cheating with heroin’s friend, The heroin is cheating with his colleague & colleague is cheating with his maid. They are all part of a larger nexus which slowly unveils during the course of series.
And of course the no-strings sex, the protagonist drowns herself in expensive booze & one night stands after long & unsatisfying workhours, though the proportion of work & booze shown in the series barely resembles the long work hour routine. I see that no one is getting naked at the drop of a hat & women are still having sex without removing their bras & bedsheets are still the biggest savior of breasts, yet the quantum & seamlessness appears odd.
I believe Sex & Infidelity needs to be presented more carefully in this amenable society, where the director puts even lesser logic while creating the movie than the audience during watching.
5) One LGBTQ Member: #Equality #Apna time Ayega
Not for nothing, the great German thinker, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, had said, “I am what I am, so take me as I am.”…The emphasis on the unique being of an individual is the salt of his/her life said Indian Supreme Court Justice Dipak Mishra on Sep.06’18.
The day history rewrote itself by scrapping Article 377, of the Indian constitution, a colonial-era law banning gay sex, ending the social pariah status of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community in the world’s largest democracy.
I have never had a friend from this community, so I have never seen the struggle & am short of an opinion about this particular subject. But I believe in inclusiveness & certain equality.
In a society where ‘condom’ is a dreaded word, Casting LGBTQ member in series will bring no change, but it will be a start, and I believe the first step towards change is familiarity. The behavior which is considered taboo by most Indian & even mental illness by some needs to be highlighted & discussed.
As they say, there is no smoke without fire, I believe this will be a step towards progressive, more accommodative & inclusive society!!
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