Half a century behind

After frying my fat cells in my cranium with five 13-episode seasons of Mad Men, the only deduction I can make is that what they are showing in the series is what is happening in 50 years later in Malaysia. In other words, some a sociological viewpoint, we are 50 years behind them, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It is a spontaneous evolution of any society where one seeming more 'advanced' society set a precedence and a yardstick for any younger ones to follow suit. In order to how what is in store for our future generation, see 'The new Beverly Hills 90210'!
Revolutionary changes happening over the 5 seasons were ladies creeping into decision making posts not mere making coffee and cleaning up, interracial unions, ladies smoking and drinking freely, extra marital and premarital flings with no qualms about its guilt and the effort of psychological disturbances in daily lives.
Gone is the era where people were more conformist to the norms set by the majority. Fundamentals held close to everyone's heart is sacrosanct no more. There are questioned. Abstract answers based on folklore and hearsay would not suffice to quench the thirst to explain and understand every non tangible subject with an objective answer. Blind acceptance is passé. The frustrated older generation who try to impart their long long learnt experience in lessons of life falls on deaf ears, not without an earful of explicits. Times are a'changing!

Before the bra burning

When I first started viewing this series after somebody's recommendation, I thought it would be about the people in the dog eat dog world of advertising.
True the setting is in the office of a famous advertising firm in New York City set in the end 50s era. From the office, the series moves into the executives' bedrooms and their private lives. Actually, it takes a nostalgic look at the bygone era when men were kings and the fairer sex were second class citizens. Cigarette smoking was a socially acceptable norm, done by men and women - pregnant or otherwise. Every frame and every room is filled with someone smoking and is hazy with cigarette fumes. The general public is still unconvinced that smoking is detrimental to health and practically everybody is a chain smoker.
Men are held up on a pedestal as the hardworking head of the family who brings the bacon whilst the women finds great joy and self imposed themselves the divine duty of staying pretty at home and cooking fresh food for their weary men. The men have a good time socially with fellow workers of either sex and having affairs while the wives do not have the guts to raise their voice but instead decide not to disturb their tired husbands.
Alcohol is consumed liberally even during office hours and after. The ugly head of stress and the fad of seeing a shrink is slowly creeping into the lives of the bottled-up wives.
The way I look it is like this. The writers came up with this story after reminiscing the good times of the late 50s and 60s when men ruled the world. Probably, they are subconsciously trying to find out where they lost it!
Just finished watching Season 1 of Mad Men, more stories to come later. This series, a period drama, a multiple award winner, is praised for its historical accuracy and ability to bring to live the ambiance and mood of the early swinging 60s. 'Mad Men' is the nickname referred to the Ad Man then - the world was not sure what their job was!.

The blurred margins of real and reel life!

The more and more we look into the mass murder of Dato Susilawati Lawiya and gang, more and more we discover that it has the making of a mini-series that is ever so popular with the public. My liaison with these serials ended long ago with Radaan's production of 'Annamalai' when I discovered that it was one craving that I should give a miss. This series were so popular when it was around that even an academician like Prof Khoo Kay Kim could not resist but gave cold shoulder treatment to his guests when they visited him during its screening time!
If one were to browse the channels on TV (be it terrestrial, cable or satellite), especially during 'non-peak' times when everyone was at work, you would  be lost for choices on the number of tele-dramas to choose from. Tele-dramas, tele-novelas, tele-serials, mini-series, soap operas, the names are varied and have evolved over time but they all refer to the same melodramatic stories filled with romance (sometimes illicit, sometimes with ulterior motives), revenge, anger, jealousy, and all the negative traits that our mothers taught us not to have!
The name soap operas came about when soap companies like Proctor & Gamble and Colgate-Palmolive first used to sponsor dramatic sequential suspense-filled radio dramas in the US. This name got stuck on the TV dramas of this similar themes. The initial soaps targeted bored housewives who were cooped in their homes. As its popularity soared, it made its way into the prime time slot and these dramas never looked back since. This winning formula was copied in other countries and by producers in other languages.
I think Peyton Place was one of the earliest soaps that we, Malaysian, were exposed to. Teenagers in the mid 70s (mostly girls) used to get all excited over Ryan O'Neal and stayed up late to catch the show and discussed all about it the next day in school in secrecy as if they have had just tasted the forbidden fruit. Of course, it (the series) raised many eyebrows then and was cursed by the puritans for it dwelled on taboo topics like adultery and extramarital affairs! How times have changed since then? The new serials they produce now make Peyton Place look like an episode from Sesame Street!

DALLAS: One of the earlier soaps in M'sia

The 80s saw blockbuster series like Bold & Beautiful, Dallas, Dynasty and Knots' Landing. Malaysian viewers, by then ecstatically drawn into the trap of make believe world could not ask for more when plethora of shows in various languages (Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese and Spanish) hit our shores in the mid 90s and TV has never been the same. The dangerous overload happened when India liberalized their economy and made it easier for Indians to get a satellite dish than clean drinking water. Being the masala-licking melodramatic society they are, it further dashed open the flood gates of Indian TV serials. Whatever language or part of the world these shows may be produced, the common theme in all them are revenge, lying, fornication, cheating, backstabbing, blackmail, kidnapping, plotting downfall of others and all the satanic virtues deplored by man for generations.

Annamalai: The mother of
all Tamil serials

If one were to observe the general behaviour of  human beings over the years, we will find that we are basically copy cats. Fashion buffs copy latest trends set by pencil thin anorexic model; in the pre-telecommunication era, citizens used their leaders as role model to emulate (like how the Germans condoned what Hitler did in WW2 and how a group of Malaysians agree with PERKASA's ideology); in the golden era of Hollywood, Audrey Hepburn and Twiggy were trend setters; Indian fashion sense is derived from their silver screen demi-gods where latest Diwali wear is based on what the Bollywood or Kollywood stars wore in their latest record smashing blockbuster. If this analogy is followed, are people going to follow what their admired actors in the serials and our world will be all filled with negativity? God forbid...