CRITICS, HAVE YOU reached your verdict? Yes, we have, your honor: This year’s Ramadan serials, by and large, stank.

After doing their homework —sitting for hours on end, every night, transfixed by the hypnotic Ramadan screen — they came to this conclusion in almost unanimous agreement. They had mixed opinions, though, when it came to strengths and weaknesses in acting, the script and the directing of each individual production.

Like regular viewers (whose opinions we also document here) their attention was drawn foremost by the mousalsalat starring big names including Nour El-Sherif, Yehia El-Fakharany and Layla Elwy, but were nonetheless curious to look into what the new material had to offer.

MAGDA KHAYR-ALLAH

Renowned critic Magda Khayr-Allah found it imperative to devise a sound strategy for watching mousalsalat during the month of Ramadan. If she were to succeed in following the ridiculously large number of Ramadan serials — while juggling her social obligations and professional responsibilities as publisher and editor-in-chief of Studio Misr newspaper — there would have to be an intricate schedule in place. Her life would then resemble, as ironic as it may seem, a TV grid.

Is Khayr-Allah a harsh critic? Indeed, and justifiably so when you consider that she’s a professional TV-serial writer herself. Her previous works include Wagh El-Qamar (Face of the Moon), starring screen legend Faten Hamama and Shams Youm Gedid (The Sun of a New Day) starring Nelly Karim, among numerous other small screen classics.

Omar Mohsen Studio Misr’s Magda Khayr-Allah

This Ramadan, two of the de rigeur ‘big name’ serials topped Khayr-Allah’s priority list: Nour El-Sherif’s Hadret El-Mottaham Aby (My Father, the Accused) and Yehia El-Fakharany’s Sekket El-Helaly (El-Helaly’s Way). It didn’t take her long to come to the conclusion that Hadret El-Mottaham Aby offered the better script and performance of the two — and certainly the best of the Ramadan bunch.

“Nour El-Sherif and his supporting cast of mostly young actors and actresses were really first rate,” says Khayr-Allah. “Ahmed, the son of Mohammed Galal Abdel Kawy, who wrote the serial, is a really good actor. He has improved since his debut last year in El-Marsa wel Bahhar (The Port and the Sailor) alongside Yehia El-Fakharany.

“Hadret El-Mottaham Aby and Sekket El-Helaly both succeeded in depicting the struggle between simple people with morals and principles, and corrupt individuals in high places. The common link between most of the serials is the appearance of comedian Salah Abdallah, who seems to be well on his way to stealing the supporting actor casting calls from (big and small) screen favorites Hassan Hosni and Samy El-Adl.”

On the other end of the scale, Khayr-Allah says the greatest disaster this year was Warda’s Aan El-Awan (It’s About Time).

“To start with, the story is simply not believable,” she explains. “Additionally, you couldn’t help but notice what a miserable state Warda’s health was in. I remember a certain scene where she could hardly walk from one end of the room to the couch on the other side. It was a miracle she arrived on set. The supporting cast around her resorted to improvising comic punch lines in an attempt to fill the long gaps during her slow movements — especially Hassan Hosni, sometimes by just saying anything.”

Mohsen Allam Alexandria Film Festival President Iris Nazmy

Khayr-Allah thinks Soheir Ramzy’s Habib El-Roh (Soul Mate) falls in the “only slightly less disastrous category. It is obvious that a huge chunk of the budget was allocated to [Ramzy’s] wardrobe and that her celebrated comeback was intended for the sole purpose of seeing her grace the screen once more with her presence, nothing more.”

She adds that Ramzy’s portrayal of a physician was less than convincing. “She frequently showed up at the hospital wearing that big tent on her head. I think it would take her at least an hour to take it off if she were summoned to the operation room,” laughs Khayr-Allah. “The dialogue is also extremely superficial. In one scene, she asks her husband ‘Honey, can you spare me LE 2 million?’ What type of viewers are they targeting? I really don’t have a clue.”

Souq El-Khodar (The Vegetable Market), according to Khayr-Allah, fell short — too short, in fact — of expectations. She attributes this to what she dubs as star belly dancer-actress Fifi Abdou’s “Taheyya Karioka Complex.”

“[Fifi Abdou] had previously expressed her desire to play the role of [legendary belly dancer-actress] Taheyya Karioka in a yet-to-be-produced biographical serial,” Khayr-Allah explains. “It is apparent she is preparing herself for that role by walking in the footsteps of Karioka. The only difference is that Karioka was in her thirties or forties when she played the title role in the classic Shabab Emraa (A Woman’s Youth) back in the 1960s, unlike Fifi, who must be in her fifties or sixties. It was hilarious to see her, at that age, playing a woman chased by men and aspiring to have children.”

What about the much-anticipated biographies El-Andaleeb (The Nightingale) and El-Cinderella (The Cinderella), biopics of the late singing legend Abdel Halim Hafez and the dead actress Soad Hosny, respectively?

Mohsen Allam Al-Ahram’s Nader Adly

“There are real-life characters whose influences are beyond time,” Khayr-Allah notes. “This makes it difficult for any performer to portray them successfully. The skinny Shady Shamel [who plays the character of Abdel Halim Hafez in El-Andaleeb] only resembled the iconic singer in the fact that he too seemed suffer from bilharzia [schistosomiasis]! Meanwhile, if you switch the channel to El-Cinderella, you will find Halim being portrayed by the overweight Medhat Saleh. As for the rest of the casting, it was by and large stereotypical: a fat actor to play Salah Jahin, a blonde to play Nadia Lotfy”

IRIS NAZMY

Iris Nazmy, a writer and current president of the Alexandria Film Festival, was similarly unimpressed by this season’s offerings.

“Even though [Yehia] El-Fakharany delivered an excellent performance in Sekket El-Helaly, the plot was full of holes,” Nazmy points out. “For instance, the woman who suddenly appears to haunt [El-Fakharany] from his past and who mothers his illegitimate daughter [played by Menna Shalaby] was poorly dramatized. And in Nour El-Sabah [The Light of Day], Layla Elwy is obviously too overweight to play the energetic tour guide.”

Having written biographies of both Soad Hosny and Abdel Halim Hafez for Akher Sa’ha magazine — in addition to having known them personally — Nazmy is even more critical of El-Cinderella. “Let us just say that the producers shouldn’t have rushed the serial just to catch the Ramadan marathon. A biographical serial shouldn’t see the light until it’s well researched,” she says.

Nazmy also remembers once saying that Mona Zaki could be the successor to Soad Hosny’s legacy. “I admit I was wrong,” she says now. “Mona [Zaki] has failed to convince us body and soul that she is El-Cinderella.”

Finally, Nazmy complains that the number of commercials aired before, during and after serials has become ludicrous. “They kill the viewers’ concentration.”

NADER ADLY

Al-Ahram film page editor Nader Adly points out the dire need for what he calls “educational themes” in our society.

“We used to say that TV dramas should not directly preach to people,” he says. “But now, we live in very critical [times], where the environment around us and our social habits are continuously declining, day by day. In this context, I think El-Fakharany’s serial [Sekket El-Helaly] succeeded in tackling sociopolitical themes, like the elections for instance.”

The first member of our jury to comment on Hada’iq El-Shaitan (The Devil’s Gardens), Adly was positive when speaking of what was to many probably the only serial to deliver more than was expected of it.

“I think Syrian actor Gamal Soliman was brave to take on a villainous role in his first Egyptian serial [Hada’iq El-Shaitan]. And he did a fairly good job here, too. Let us not forget that six Egyptian leading actors refused to take on this role prior to his casting.”

Finally, Adly points out that the heavy traffic in the streets of Cairo was not in the least affected during the airing of any mousalsal. “Accordingly, no serial has succeeded in really attracting audiences like they used to in the old days,” he laughs.

Adly predicts that next year, producers will re-think the number of serials to be aired and this will result in lower quantity and higher quality. “Notice how the best serials went to the best channels, like MBC, Dubai and Al-Rai, and those left over suffered from bad sales and thus lower viewership.”

MOHAMMED SALAH EL-DIN

Mohammed Salah El-Din, entertainment editor at Al-Gomhuria newspaper, had a few suggestions of his own regarding the regulation of TV-serial production.

“There used to be a special committee headed by Dr. Fawzy Fahmy responsible for choosing which serials are to be aired on Egyptian National Television during the month of Ramadan from the offered lineup,” explains Salah El-Din. “Instead of this committee, I think we should be more selective in the quality of TV productions by eliminating bad scripts before they are even produced. Notice how many of the serials aired this year shared common topics, themes revolving around the socially oppressed versus the filthy rich people.”

On a different topic, Salah El-Din points out that the only serial escaping a typical Egyptian setting was Qalb El-Donya (Heart of the World) starring Tayseer Fahmy. “Even though the story takes place in Iraq, [which is positive], it was shot entirely in Egypt and the writer failed to tackle the bulk of problems there like Abu Ghraib Prison, for instance,” he says.

Salah El-Din agrees with Khayr-Allah that the return of retired actresses was over-hyped. “They were overpaid only to star in flat serials copycatting their personal lives, and some of them returned [to the screen] for the sole purpose of overcoming financial problems. The next step is having the Ministry of Social Security sponsor TV productions!”

Then, he says, there were the period pieces, which draw tiny audiences for outsized production costs. “We must re-consider our approach for this genre,” emphasizes Salah El-Din. “The Syrian historical drama has, despite being plagued with the ‘overacting disease,’ succeeded in attracting viewers due to good visual effects. In Egypt, we must seek new subjects from our long, illustrious history. Everyone is tired of the Tartar [Mongolian] invasion, which has been depicted for the hundredth time in Ala Bab Misr [On Egypt’s Door].”

Salah El-Din was also tough on El-Andaleeb. “The serial turned into the story of [former president Gamal] Abdel Nasser, not the story of Abdel Halim [Hafez],” he says. “In playing Nasser, Magdy Kamel, like most of the other supporting roles, was miscast.”

WHAT ARE WE TO DO?

How can we produce quality mousalsalat in the future? According to our critics, the solution lies in the hands of producers, who need to limit the number of serials to which they commit, then focus on the quality of writing, and directors, by good casting.

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, viewers were limited to watching only two terrestrial channels owned by National Television. Ramadan serials ran for only half the month (15 episodes each), then other serials would take their place in the second half.

In a Nutshell

JOURNALIST ABDALLAH KAMAL thinks Syrian actor Gamal Soliman failed to play the Upper Egyptian villain in Hada’iq El-Shaitan and Soheir Ramzy was only modeling for the latest hijab fashion trends in her serial Habib El-Roh.

Leading critic Tarek El-Shinnawy tried to watch the maximum number of serials and thought that Hada’iq El-Shaitan was the best-written of the pack, followed by Sekket El-Helaly, which he says suffered problems in the plot that stemmed from creating the character by Menna Shalaby.

On the other hand, writer Saeed Shoaib said that the quality of TV serial writing is degrading from year to year; the characters are stereotyped and the subjects are repetitive. According to him, this is due to the reign of the public sector (Media City, Sawt Al-Qahira, ERTU) over the production of TV drama in Egypt — although that’s now gradually changing.

Veteran TV producer Ibrahim Abou-Zekry, president of the Arab Producer Union for Television production (APUTV), said the public sector would never evolve as long as it is dependent on big stars and big directors. “The private sector and independent producers have scored better hits like Tamer and Shawkeya, which starred a cast of up-and-comers.”

The Viewers

I REALLY LIKE MONA Zaki, but she is not Soad Hosny.” — Heba El-Mogy, medical student, saw a few episodes from El-Andaleeb and El-Cinderella before switching back to MBC4 to catch up on Becker.

“Al-Qahira Al-Youm has become more political and boring, always revolving around the same topics. Even Hussein Fahmy’s show, [Al-Nass wa Ana (The People and Me)] is déjà vu. I think people like to watch it because Fahmy is still handsome.” — Awatef Hamdy, housewife and grandmother, who followed Nour El-Sherif, Yehia El-Fakharany and Fifi Abdou because, she says, they reflect our daily social diseases. As for the TV shows, she preferred El-Beit Betak over Orbit’s Al-Qahira Al-Youm because it was more entertaining and colorful.

“I wasn’t able to follow all the serials because I work shifts. But I couldn’t help noticing that the Upper Egyptian-based themes are repetitive and reminiscent of what I used to watch in my childhood.” — Noha Sedky, real estate coordinator

“I was unlucky enough to follow Nour El-Sherif’s serial [Hadret El-Mottaham Aby]. Can you please tell the TV people to take Ahmed Galal Abdel Kawy off the air? He was awful last year in Al-Marsa wal Bahhar and unbearable this Ramadan with Nour El-Sherif. His only asset is being the son of writer Mohamed Galal Abdel Kawy.” — Yasser Salah, marketing manager

“Fifi is very good, the only one I watch, but I sleep early so I can catch sohour and fajr prayers.” — Shaaban, bawwab  et