Originally posted by: JNam
I don't know why but I have a feeling the series has been tweaked based on its popularity and our expectation of a romantic union between Mohsin and Aina. Even the monologue in yesterday's episode and the hand-holding seemed almost designed keeping our concerns about previous episodes in mind. I can't help but feel that our voluble feedback is contributing towards what the show has shaped into, else it might have been a regular show with time-skips, and a sedate relationship between Mohsin and Aina. They most certainly wouldn't have become the Mohsin and Aina had this elaborate discussion of the show not taken place in various sites on the web. So, three cheers for the internet, internet fora like this one, and the opportunity they provide us to get the story we want to hear told :-)
Great new posts on the thread, btw. This thread has become my replacement for the celeb-gossip websites I'd haunt to while away my hours (and procrastinate). So, yay and thank you to the thread and its posters :-)
Ok, JNam, this was an excellent post! I've had very similar thoughts recently, and I wanted to talk about this topic that is seldom seen in Pakistani dramas: fanservice.
Let me please preface this by saying that I despise fanservice 99% of the time. I think it's so wrong for writers to change any part of their original plans at the request of the fans, even if the writers' fanservice is in my favor. I think a real writer would never let anyone sway him or her from the intended plot, no matter how popular a certain character, pairing or theory is amongst the fans. For example, my favorite example of why a writer should never do fanservice is with the American show Arrow. In that show, a side character became obscenely popular, and fans desperately wanted this side character with the male lead. When the writers discovered this, they gave this side character more and more storylines and more importance, ignoring all the other characters (now angering fans, because too much of a good thing can be toxic), including the actual female lead. Finally, the writers catered to the fans of this side character and fans of the side character x male lead pairing so much, they killed off the female lead (they fired their female lead, essentially) so that the side character could become the heroine. The lead female's death, and the destruction of the show because the side character kept getting all the big storylines, resulted in one of the most massive backlashes I have ever seen in all my time of writing about TV and the media. The writers did exactly what the fans wanted: they made the side character really important, but they destroyed the show in the process.
There is only one time in the history of ever that I wished the writers changed the story based on what the fans wanted, and that was with the American sitcom How I Met Your Mother. Anyone who's watched that series and has seen the ending knows exactly what I am talking about.
But in the case of KnK, it was as if the writers were leading us up the path of a beautiful mountain. I like the imagine the writers of this show as the owners of a really stunning mountain, and at the top of the mountain is promised a breathtaking view. Well, the writers lead us, the hikers of the mountain, up a truly lovely path. The first 28 episodes of this show were simply brilliant, but just as the final view from the top seemed like it would finally be revealed to us, it's as if the writers put a gigantic brick wall right at the top of the mountain (the time leap), so that nobody could enjoy the view.
I think you're right, JNam, that our voices were heard. In this case, we, the hikers (the audience), were confused at first. How could something so beautiful result in such a depressing view (how could all the development we were seeing result in no character growth, and instead, regression?)?
But then through these forums, through instagram, through facebook, the writers, these mountain owners, were told that by us loyal hikers/audience members that if they simply removed the brick wall, not only would those of us who already trekked this mountain be so much more grateful, but more people would come once they heard about this view (more people would watch if they knew what a great show it was).
In this case, we the fans didn't ask the writers to change their story. The writers gave us all the plot pieces for the development. It was literally all there; we were just waiting for the results of it. All they had to do was write the results of these developments that they originally wrote.
And you know what, I think they listened.
We've been giving the writers a lot of flak for writing the leap and the character regression, but never forget the story they gave us in the first 28 episodes. The post-leap episodes are getting better and better, but even before that, the first 28 episodes of this drama got better and better. There was barely any filler scenes; every character had his or her own distinct persona. This drama hit a huge surge of feedback right around the episode 18-19 mark: that's right about the time most other dramas that are half as long as KnK start to falter. Every episode was greater than the previous one. You were on the edge of your seat. It's not like this drama had an incredibly unique plot. It didn't even have a ton of money or a highly-known cast. It was barely even advertised, but people kept watching.
A lot of the popularity, in fact, most of it, can be accredited to Emmad and Navin and the rest of the actors, but if there's anything this past year in dramas has taught us it's that a star cast does not a good drama make.
The writers wrote scenes like Aina imagining herself talking to her dead mother, wrote characters like Annie that you couldn't help but hate but at the same time feel so much for when she had scenes like her "nobody wins in this game" dialog, or how even though I only watched this drama for MoNa/EmNa, I couldn't help but feel for Imran when he realized Aina could never be his again because the writers made you feel for all of these characters. They didn't write any character as overtly evil or nice. Everyone was human; I'm not sure if everyone else feels this way, but I can definitely see little aspects of myself in each and every character, from Aina to Annie. They were simply written so realistically.
So I'm beyond relieved if the writers listened to us, because they wrote the beginnings of this hit show. They laid all the pieces for an epic story, even post-leap. If they needed a reminder from the fans that all of the puzzle pieces were there, that's OK. I wouldn't consider this fanservice, but it is great to hear that the writers took our feedback seriously. The writers worked so hard on the first episodes of this drama that I would hate for their efforts to go down the drain just because of a few dropped development points.
Edited by Fobby_FoSho - 7 years ago
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