What's on TV tonight?

 

There is nothing, televisually speaking, more hilarious and at the same time tragic, than Indonesian TV. In my house I have access to cable networks including Fox, Warner TV, Al Jazeera News and ESPN. I also have access to all of the terrestrial Indonesian channels.

The difference comes into stark relief when channel hopping. I’m not saying that all western TV has great production values, just look at the writing, the acting and special effects on the recently cancelled Fox show Terra Nova to see what I mean. But, when compared to the action shows on Indonesian TV, ...wait, what action shows?

Indo TV is predominantly a selection of soap operas, game shows and variety shows.You can also find loads of football and movies but it’s programmes such as Opera Van Java, a series of sketches performed live in front of a studio and home audience that are most popular and would probably have never aired on channels in the earliest days of western tv. I’m not saying it’s bad, well, I guess I am, but these programmes have a fanatical following amongst Indonesians. This is partly because of the OTT farce where people fall over a lot, partly because of stereotypes being put in stereotypical situations (there seems to be much campness)the audiences in the studios are entranced and i’ve seen people watching on tv screens in public laughing along.

I think it shows the cultural divide between the west and Indonesia. Actually, generally In the East too, as Japan is no stranger to insane tv and my experience of Thai tv was also similar.

Watching one local soap opera (I don’t know the name and don’t know the channel, but that’s ok as the formula for Indo soap operas is exactly the same) I was struck by our geographical proximity to Australia. Is bad TV catching? Is it possible that the likes of Home and Away and Neighbours could have infected the tv executives here? That same level of bad acting (Guy Pierce, I’m looking at you here) the cliffhanger expressions as a particular piece of banal gossip comes back to bite some upstanding citizen, the shaky scenery, all of these motifs are present in Indo soaps, just not as well done.

What’s interesting is that I meet loads of Indonesians who steadfastly refuse to watch Indo movies at the cinema as the plot is just too contrived, but these same people will watch an Indo soap.

Even more interesting is that the current movie being raved about for its cultural significance, great acting and brilliant directing, especially on IMDB, Aint it cool. com and Rotten Tomatoes, is a gritty drama set in a high rise block of flats called The Raid... It’s Indonesian and I can't wait to see it!