Marilyn Salloum
The endings of Arab series, recently adapted from Turkish series, throw the audience the hook of dreamy romantic drama and stories that can pull them out of the atmosphere of tension and pressures of life in which they live, adding a lot of spices of suspense, intrigue, and riddles to conclude each episode, arousing their curiosity and leaving them eagerly waiting for the episode. Next, to find out what will happen.
Suspense succeeds in attracting the audience to continue the heroes’ journey over the course of 90 episodes, with events, some of which are expected, some of which are repeated, some of which are logical, and some of which are most illogical… Let us reach the final episode, which constitutes a negative shock, which the audience does not accept, and which is not compatible with the path of the characters, their developments, and their nature. From which it started.
The “Crystal” series, which we followed and concluded its ninety episodes with an ending that provoked the audience, followed the same path as “Stiletto,” which was shown before it, which was also taken from a Turkish drama, and its main focus is an attractive man, competing for his heart with two women, one good and innocent, and the second evil, with a difference in the details of the story. Of course, but the goal he achieves is the same, which is that evil triumphs, and the person who was peaceful and good turns into a mass of evil. In “Crystal,” Faye turned into a monster who overthrew everyone, without any pause of conscience or self-examination, but rather she sacrificed the love she had held on to all along to continue her life alone.
Why did the director, Hakan Arslan, and the screenwriters, Lubna Maslah and Mai Hayek, choose for the ending to be so horrific and illogical? Perhaps out of a love of change, as if the life we live no longer has room for happy endings. The strongest strength of “Crystal” is its heroes, as we enjoyed these fierce acting matches, especially between Pamela Al-Kik and Stephanie Atallah, tremendous acting abilities. You cannot imagine Alia Karam except in the form, specifications, actions and looks of Pamela Al-Kik, and you cannot see her in anything other than Stephanie, who radiates vitality with her lovely smile and curious look…two stars who deserve many opportunities and championships in strong dramatic works.
Greetings to all the heroes of “Crystal”, Mahmoud Nasr, who has previously given testimony to his creativity in other works, Khaled Shabat, who worked hard to master the Lebanese dialect (he is a Syrian actor), and also successfully performed the difficult character of Basil, Anju Rayhan, who is always wonderful in everything she does, and the beautiful Joan. Zaybak, whose energies are expected to be exploited in more difficult and stronger roles.
There is no problem in relying on Turkish drama sometimes and adapting the work according to what suits Arab societies, but the problem is in committing to the number of ninety episodes, or more, to fill the broadcast hours and nothing more, while the brevity guarantees the intensification of events and the enrichment of the content without going too wild towards repetition and illogicality. , in many situations.
[email protected]
