2024-04-08 23:59:02
It was not a successful dramatic season this year, as many admit. Perhaps this sentence sums up everything that can be said regarding a dramatic race that was characterized by hasty, stilted actions full of clichés in approaching important social issues. Moreover, the need for professional authors and scriptwriters became apparent. No matter how great the skill of the performer/actor, it seems clear that the problem is too big to cover. With his performance. Here we have chosen for you what we liked from the works witnessed in the Ramadan 2024 season, of which Egypt received the lion’s share. These are the successes of the season…
“Crown”
Much has been said regarding the most important Syrian series of the year. His first star and one of the best performers/actors in the Arab world currently, Tim Hassan, made a great effort to make the series “Taj” (written by Omar Abu Saada and directed by Samer Al-Barqawi) come out as he dreams and loves. The success of last year’s series “Al-Zend: The Wolf of the Orontes,” with writer Omar Abu Saada and director Samer Al-Barqawi, encouraged Hassan to repeat the experiment, but haste, some recklessness in the written text, and some errors in the dramatic craftsmanship did not help the series. Maybe it should have only been 15 episodes, and maybe the characters should have been etched more carefully. But this does not mean at all that Abu Saada did not make an effort to his credit. In the current era of poor dramatic writing, he is much better than others. The most prominent feature of the work is the skills of its actors, and this is what raised its value. Almost everyone who participated in it gave a very distinguished performance, starting with its two heroes, Tim Hassan and Bassam Koussa, in a very superior performance, all the way to the work team that seemed to know exactly what the viewer wanted to see. We rarely see an actor make a mistake in his role, unless the script leads him to do so. Therefore, it can be considered one of the best series of this year without a doubt, at least in terms of performance.
“The Assassins”
It ended the opposite of what it started! “The Assassins,” the most controversial series this season (written by Abdel Rahim Kamal and directed by Peter Mimi), quickly overcame, especially inside Egypt, criticism related to the use of the Egyptian dialect and failure to adhere to historical facts. The audience who insisted on following the journey of Hassan Al-Sabah (Karim Abdel Aziz) until the end sided more with the drama, which was characterized by a number of sources of strength, such as the fast pace and important events from one episode to the next, in addition to relying on a large number of good actors, from different generations. “The Assassins” did not rely only on the charisma of the prominent Egyptian star, but Peter Mimi succeeded in assigning roles, even small ones, to prominent actors, so that many of them shine, such as Ahmed Eid, Mirna Nour El-Din, Suzan Najm El-Din, Ahmed Abdel-Wahab, Omar El-Shenawy, Sami El-Sheikh, and Omar. Zuraiq, and Nidal Al-Shafi’i. At the same time, Mimi maintained an unprecedented level of technical quality that appeared in the action scenes, especially the battles, so that the filming locations on the one hand and the visual effects on the other hand were a major reason for making “The Assassins” one of the most prominent works of Ramadan 2024, far from its thorny issue that cast a shadow over it. Discussions of elite viewers.
“Compulsory course”
“An Obligatory Path” (written by Amin Gamal, Mohamed Mahrez, and Mina Bebawi, and directed by Nadine Khan) is certainly one of this year’s discoveries. The series, which spanned 15 episodes, was distinguished by being a nice and quick mix that brought together two promising young actors, Ahmed Dash and Issam Omar, a good writer, Baher Dowidar, whom the audience knew with the series “The Choice” (2020), and a young, hard-working director, Nadine Khan. The work was distinguished by the fact that it presented a correct and healthy relationship between siblings, on the one hand, and on the other hand, it truly moved away from the logic of “gangs” and “thugs” and approached the real street. In addition to this, there is a villain professionally performed by Rushdi Al-Shami, as well as beautiful additions such as Basma, Sabreen, and Mai Al-Ghaiti in a very professional performance. Of course, it is not possible to talk regarding the work as if it were “Dream Nights” or “I will not live in my father’s robe,” but it is certainly one of the best series this year, especially with the spontaneous, innocent and smooth performances of its heroes, especially Ahmed Dash, who proved that he is one of the best. Young performers currently.
“kinship connection”
The end of its show at the end of the Ramadan 2024 race did not diminish the controversy surrounding it, as one of the criteria for the success of any series is the extension of its influence, which is what “Silat Rahm” achieved (written by Muhammad Asham Obaiya – directed by Tamer Nadi). This is not the first work to discuss the issue of surrogacy, but it placed it in a dramatic and human context that succeeded in attracting attention, so that the reactions to its last episode were very broad compared to the rest of the series whose episodes ended at the same time. Indeed, the puzzling question with which the events ended was repeatedly asked, whether to the heroes in media interviews or elsewhere: Who is the child who arrived moments before his father’s death? Is it for the biological mother or the foster mother? “Silat Rahm” presented its characters from a human nature, full of mistakes. There is not a single ideal character in the series, including the religious “Sheikh Jaber” who did not hesitate to imprison his wife, a nurse who specializes in abortion operations. An act that seemed legal and ethical, but he did not respect the ten and did not work hard to prevent her imprisonment. This division over his position was repeated many times with the main hero, “Hossam,” who sought throughout the events to have a child as compensation for his wife, who lost her pregnancy because of him. In the same way, the rest of the characters appeared in more than one way as they are in life, not in series that present heroes as angels in front of the audience… and these are his failures.
Cliches from Tik Tok, scenes of gratuitous violence, blood, and brutality, illogical stories, characters devoid of depth, and lackluster performances due to the shabby script. These are the most prominent problems that plagued the series we are presenting here, and we see that they did not cross the line of success despite the uproar they caused on social media pages.
“Badiya’s children”
“Sons of Badia” (written by Ali Wajih and Yamen Al-Hajli – directed by Rasha Sharbatji) can be considered one of the major disappointments this year. It was expected that the result would be different with this group of skilled actors like Sulafa Mimar, Mahmoud Nasr, Samer Ismail, Nadine Tahseen Bey and a director like Rasha Sharbatji. The disastrous mistakes in the work appeared in many aspects: it relied on clichés from Tik Tok and others, and there were many scenes of unnecessary violence, blood and brutality, the story was confusing and often illogical, and above all, some scenes that did not take into account the time and geographical space. . In short, despite the huge uproar that the creators of the work are making on social media regarding it, it will be forgotten like many similar works, but what certainly saddens the viewers is that this huge amount of talent was wasted in this way and this recklessness.
“I hope”
In “Amal” (written by Nadine Jaber – directed by Rami Hanna), its reliance on a story/text that flatly attempts to address major and crucial issues in Arab societies was evident from the beginning. These are major issues that must not be glossed over in any way, such as sick marital relations, murder, backwardness, and family injustice, which the series’ writer, Nadine Jaber, sought to mix together without any logic, relying on repeated and familiar clichés. The second point was represented by the heroine of the work, Maggie Bou Ghosn. The Lebanese actress is trying to perform, and this is to her credit, and she has certainly changed her complexion, but she lacks a lot of training, and this is not a defect, nor is it an unsolvable problem. Last year, Mona Zaki brought in a personal acting coach in order to enter into her character in the series “Under Guardianship.” Boghosn suffers greatly in giving real features to her characters, and the exhausted and flimsy script by writer Jaber came to complement the series and Boghosn’s performance.
“Al-Arabji 2”
“Al-Arabji 2” (written by Othman Juha and Moayed Al-Nabulsi – directed by Saif Al-Subaie) can be described as a series of continuous screaming between all its heroes. Virtually all the heroes of this second part of this work shout at each other. The viewer feels that the hero of the work, Bassem Yakhour, cannot speak without being shouted at. Yakhour can be considered one of the best method actors in the Arab world, and his roles in “A Lost Manor” and “Al-Kharba” and others are only an indication and confirmation of that. Here the skilled actor fell victim to a tired, repetitive and hostile text by the writers Othman Juha and Moayed Al-Nabulsi. The script seemed without both soul and heart, and this is what made him try to imitate last year’s mediocre success, which he did not even achieve. It can be considered a failure and a decline for the heroes of the work, with the participation of a capable group of skilled actors, such as Yakhour, Salloum Haddad, and Dima Kandalaft, but unfortunately they did not present anything new.
“A Look of Love” and “End Point”
“A Look of Love” (written by Rafi Wehbe, directed by Hossam Ali) and “A Point That Ends” (photo/written by Fadi Hussein – directed by Mohamed Abdel Aziz) are worth talking regarding in one paragraph, because they actually share the same problems. The flimsy and unprofessionally written script with Fadi Hussein (A Point Has Ended) and Rafi Wehbe (A Look of Love), and the weak performances of usually professional Syrian action stars such as Abed Fahd (A Point Has Ended) and Basil Khayyat (A Look of Love). Both actors perform repetitively and dullly, and in a way that is not clear or logical, while the Lebanese actors are absent from their performance in these works, knowing that Carmen Buseis is trying to perform in “A Look of Love,” but the script did not give her a chance, and the same thing happened with the skilled Nada Abu Farhat, who is trying But it seemed that the restrictions of the text were heavy and limited her skills. The two works disappoint because they had every chance of success, as “A Point That Ends” enjoyed stars like Anas Tayara, and “A Look of Love” by Jafra Younis, but that does not at all satisfy the two works and does not give them any chance of success due to the dull performance of the work’s heroes, and the weak and exhausted story. Not to mention the ease of workmanship.
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