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Design Patterns: The art of making TV serials or masala movies

After being tortured to sit through one too many series of never ending serials, here are a few rules or patterns that I had observed:

Design patterns on serials or movies
  • The-Not-Good-as-it-seems Pattern: If it is too good to be true, it is a dream and in real-world, it will happen exactly the opposite
  • The-One-is-not-enough Pattern: One of the primary character will have two wives and will struggle between the two (or more?).
  • Medical-Miracle Pattern: Someone will get amnesia and later will be always be cured.
  • Double-Trouble Pattern: If twins are born, they will get separated to meet again 20 years later. Of-course, there will be scope for impersonation.
  • The-Cryptic-Prophet Pattern: Swamijis, gypsies, sadhus will usually be able to give cryptic clues on what is about to happen next
  • The-Cycle-of-Life Pattern: If a primary actor's family is portrayed as being very rich, chances are they will become poor. Conversely, the family opposing the hero / heroin will have the lifestyle opposite to them.
The art of extending airtime
  • The-Matrix-Bullet-Time Pattern: When the situation becomes tense, you get into slow-motion mode with background accompaniment *after* every statement / action made by the actors.
  • Manic-Mondays Pattern: Friday (for serials that are aired on weekdays) sessions will usually be a cliffhanger, ending just before a pretty tense moment which will usually fizzle out on Mondays.
  • Bored-With-the-Existing-Faces Pattern: When things become too dull, introduce a new set of characters and follow a side storyline
  • The-Forget-Me-Not Pattern: On long running soaps, introduce a recap session that compresses all major moments that had happened earlier which the actor will ruminate
Now a days, a lot of reality shows have made it into our TV channels. Here are a few patters that I have observed here:
  • The-Blunt-in-Your-Face Pattern: The judges make it an effort to be rude while pointing out the participants faults, with closeups of both the judges as well as the participants at the recieving end with again, background accompaniments.
  • The-Let's-Cry-Together Pattern: When a participant or pair is bumped out of the contest, you should watch the emotional drama. The relatives and friends of the bumped out participants hurling verbal assaults towards judges and the judges themselves get into an emotional state deciding to quit and all others wooing them to come back. This is something that you should not miss . OK, OK, I was kidding about the last statement!
  • You-Have-Yet-Another-Chance Pattern: When the participants are dropping off the chart like flies after you switch on the repellent, the organizer will decide to pardon the non-performers and continue to the next session.

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Shoban Jayaraj said…
The Mute Pattern: When two people start discussing the plan, your TV goes mute. This likely means that the topic under discussion will likely succeed.
11:20 PM
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