On Sinetron

From someone who in long history of sinetron only had ever follow two titles, Si Doel Anak Sekolahan & Sahabat Pilihan, here is; Sinetron Only Needs Fixing.

Sinetron had inviting many critics in these past years. In the era when Dessy Ratnasari and Paramitha Rusady were popular, sinetron had face critics for its similarities with Jane Austen’s novels, the love between rich and poor. Seasonal trends, along with the use of natural calm color on screen, are the character of Indonesian television. From the misinterpreted life of the haves, sinetron goes to the booming of teen sinetrons, then to religious sinetrons.

Not only sinetron is the most criticized show in Indonesia, it is also the most programs that exemplified how bad and dangerous television could be. On the other hand, sinetron provides working field for many people. Consider that the production work is not demanding any educational qualification, despite its morning to morning shooting schedule, sinetron’s behind the scene work is also paying well.

UK with its BBC is producing European style dramas, America is famous with serials and sitcoms, and their southern neighbors are the factories of la’novela. Hey, remember how we, the Indonesian housewives and young female before the sinetron era were consuming many Marias’ (usually played by Thalia) from day time till the afternoon? While from Asian countries, Japan becomes so popular with animation and Korea for its sad drama. Drama series in Indonesia had become main example how bad television can be.

But can general channel stay as it is without drama? Discovery Travel & Living, Fox Crime, and MTV, have proved they can. Specific channels still could stand out from unaccountable TV stations offering various drama, sitcoms, quizzes, and talk shows. They are the alternatives from type of programs that regularly inviting critics to give comment. Problem is, can’t all channels drift to specific channel. People still want to see more drama series, reality shows, and Oprah.

Most sinetrons are using the narrative structure of television serial. Herewith list of television serial narrative structure which I took from Jeremy Butler’s Television Critical Methods and Application:
1. Multiple protagonists. The multiplicity protagonists permit a variety of simultaneous story lines within the narrative world of a serial. Soap opera relies on a multiplicity of characters to create a narrative web in which most characters are connected with one another.
2. Exposition. Through this redundancy the soap opera constantly re-establishes its characters and their situations. Part of the redundant information that is regurgitated in the serial is the pasts of the characters. Serial characters carry a specific, significant past which the characters constantly refer to it.
3. Motivation. Like the exposition, the original catalyst for long-running television serials took place years ago. In the episodes we watch day after day, or week after week, the many protagonists’ desires and lacks are mostly already established.
4. Narrative enigma. The serial is saturated with enigmas. It thrives on them. So viewers constantly being brought to the ‘will’ questions.
5. Cause-effect Chain. Serials adapt to this constant interruption much the same way that series do. They segment the narrative. Each serial narrative segment ends with a small climax, which raises new enigmas rather than leading to resolutions.
6. Climax. Eventually, individual story lines do climax on serials. If they didn’t, we would probably stop watching out of total frustration.
7. The lack of Resolution. Almost by definition, serials cannot have total resolution. They cannot resolve all of the enigmas. If they did, there would be no reason to tune in the next day. Climaxes are used to generate new enigmas, rather than resolution.
Sometimes sinetron stories can be too overwhelming to watch. The cause-effect chain has often used, the climax can be repeats a dozen times in one hour, and the narrative enigma is easy to figure. Like in one episode of Anakku Bukan Anakku, for almost an hour audiences were forced to watch the protagonist running in a rail train, escaping from her mean stepfather. Surprisingly, for almost one hour, there is no train passing by, and no people anywhere in sight. Anyone lives in Jakarta know how impossible that happen.

Besides that, in sinetrons –for example; Bawang Merah Bawang Putih, Bukan Cinderella, Kiamat Sudah Dekat, Cinta Fitri, Anakku Bukan Anakk— the villain are far too mean, the protagonists are too kind to be human they could make an angel look bad. Speaking of style, more than duplicating American or Korean TV series/serial, sinetron storytelling type is closer to telenovela.

Critics on sinetron not only can be found in the newspaper, many society members from different social background have expressed the same feelings. Aside from unhealthy scenes for underage children, the actors are too young to play their part (ex.; thirty something man a father of teen children, or early twenty actor set role as head of a company), they are too good looking (ex.; pretty actress as a housekeeper), overdressed (the costumes are too nice to be wear at home), and we could tell that most actors do not playing their parts seriously.

Sinetrons have their minus, but their ratings are reportedly the highest. And TV stations who refused to include sinetron in their prime time schedule are in the fast track of downfall. That was what happened to TV7 when they aired Circus program in prime time hours, that was what happened to Starantv when they aired SuperDeal Quiz series in three hours stripping. Sinetron, according to 2007 Cakram magazine research report, is the most watched program of television.

In times where television competition becomes survival of the fittest arena, the pressure TV stations put to Production House is understandably rough. The tight competition to win ratings/share affected to the sinetron stories where structures can be as unhealthy as written above.

In a country that always criticized as the capital of low mass production, America, hundreds of television channels competing to win viewer without pressing the stories of their drama series. That was how the idea of 90’s cult television drama, Beverly Hills 90210, started. On October 1990, the four year-old Fox network was looking to wrest viewers from the three big networks, found that teens at the time loved series Married with Children and The Simpsons. To battle their competitors, FOX aired a complex teen drama with stories that at that day usually reserved for adults. Beverly Hills 90210 then noted as the beginner of modern teen television (NYLON magazine, September 2008).

To compete some ‘though’ competitor show, American television varied the angles of their series/serial. From sex (Sex in the City), lawyer life (LA. Law), to doctor life (Grey’s Anatomy), to death (Six Feet Under), to Roman history series (Rome), to Manhattan teenagers (Gossip Girl). While Indonesia sinetron struggle with never ending teen drama, religious drama, and cruel antagonists.

There was time when Indonesian own dramas are nice to watch, even back when TVRI was the only national television where we had Losmen, Dokter Sartika, and Jendela Rumah Kita. In early 90s we had Tiga Dara, Opera Tiga Jaman, Sahabat Pilihan, Olga, and Keluarga Cemara. Oh, and do not forget, Si Doel Anak Sekolahan. At that time, Indonesian drama series were nice to watch, with its proper dialogues, storylines, and structures. Not to mention actors and actresses that chosen because they really could act, and not only because their Indo look. Today sinetrons gather many critics, but sinetrons, the typical drama of Indonesian television, can’t be erased from television schedule.

Garin Nugroho says that film is a reflection of Indonesian culture. The very same thing can be say about television. And more than only reflection of Indonesian culture, it is from television the maturity of our nation can be measure. From how the AGB Nielsen’s ratings/share reports were used as an excuse, and from the Nielsen ratings/share data itself, we can recognized the audience nature, hence their character, and from contradiction happens between television workers and the anti-Nielsen cultural critiques today, we can say a lot about Indonesian creators’s maturity.

Climate of competitive attitude, inability to compete healthily, how easy we blame things on others than do what we can to fix it, and how we fail to see the root where problem begins. Sinetron needs to get back to healthy plotlines and structures, in order to make them able competing healthily they need to develop fresher story idea, maybe build a creative team like American sitcoms have, and no stripping. Please, stripping is doing nothing more than developing an unhealthy culture of television. From the seasonal trends of Indonesian television, things that gone wrong over the last years, we can see how easy the audience getting bored and how the Indonesian creators are not in the capacity on doing stripping programs.

Wild Rose, the first telenovela RCTI aired, was scheduled once a week in Friday afternoon. The show became a start of la’novela phenomenon in the 90s. In order to get success, a good story is needed more than stripping schedule.