I watch TV dramas

And you should too

Now that you think of me as an old cat lady -if you did not already-, I can say my truth: I love dramas. From every country, in any language. It started with telenovelas but I have a slight preference now for historical ones, especially harem dramas. The most recurrent answer to that confession is “you watch these things”, “why?”, “it is always the same”; besides the fact that these are statements of uneducated jealousy. I can understand it is such a niche matter that only elite tv consumers and avid internet scouters[1] will truly appreciate it.

But today, I will redeem that genre. Give it all its glory.

They are cheap productions

Even though some shows have some lacking in budget, most of today's shows have budgets that would shock most of us. Empress of China, starring Fan Bingbing, had a budget of approximately 49.53 million US dollars, and Magnificent Century, more than 4.7 million US dollars. And when looking at the distribution of the costs, most of them go on sets and costumes.

The acting is bad

That mostly applies to soap operas as they use to operate in a tightly scheduled format, have a lot of characters, and most do not have a pre-decided ending, which makes the budget tinyyyyy.  A perfect example would be The Young and The Restless -Les Feux de l’Amour en français-, a soap opera of 49 seasons with the first airing in 1973. Yes, older than some of our parents.

But the “new” generation of dramas, does not operate in that fashion: the main differences between Game of Thrones and Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace, are the genre and the country of production. They both work with internationally recognised actors if not more famous in the second case.

Plus a lot of really good actors all started in meh-tv production. Would you say that Eva Longoria and Shemar Moore are bad actors? I mean, you can.

They are too long

There is not much to say but even though episodes are long, they are set in a way that accommodates that. You can skip. Most of the time, unless specific exceptions, not much is happening by episode. This means that a plot is started, developed and finished in a set of 10 episodes and there would be 4 plots per season. So doing the math, the show with 3 seasons does have 120 episodes in total. But the length of the show allows appreciation of other things than the pure pursuit of the ending: the music, costumes or acting of the “normal” moments.

They are predictable

Even though some level of predictability is to be expected, I have yet to see a thriller without murder or a romance without lovers. And if I do not see that, I would say that they are deficient in their respective categories.

They are not interesting for all reasons above

There are a few advantages to the length and predictability: the opportunity for character development[2]. The circumstances are different and quite often extreme but as a philosopher: you need to treat them as thought experiments.

What would you do, think? How would you answer, and react? Would you be moral, would that event change you? No. I wouldn’t be so sure. And before you jump back to the lack of realism, the majority of historical dramas have truth in them. And reality can be much worse if you look at what humanity is capable of[3].

They give an incredible opportunity to into human nature and its limits. That is why I watch drama, for the psychological turmoil and reflection.

[1] Most of these shows are almost impossible to find in the west. They are often censured, without dubbing, or not available online.

[2] We were all in shock at Daenerys season 8, still do not understand.

[3] If you don’t believe me look up the death of La Princesse de Lamballe