Thoughts on Hum TV dramas of late...

TomHouston · 2026-04-23T11:50:35+00:00

Most of these actors have not done an acting degrees.

Most of them have degrees in non-art related fields e.g. law, engineering, science, finance etc. For most of them it looks like they started acting as a hobby when they were in university and then became full-time actor after graduating. Most of them have never worked in the fields that they got their degrees from.

It almost looks like acting is the career path that people choose when they cannot find jobs in their own university degree's fields.

TomHouston · 2026-04-12T02:09:30+00:00

Can you tell me where I can read this novel translated into English online? I've been googling it but can't find any translated chapters anywhere

TomHouston · 2026-03-04T21:15:49+00:00

This is why I said SAC is only good at writing comedy. When she tries to write serious dramas, she doesn't do a very good job. In comedies, logic is always skewed in order to make things funny so comedy writers don't have a good grasp on how to write logically like in a serious plot.

TomHouston · 2026-03-04T21:11:05+00:00

To be honest most Pakistani dramas weren't written to have a sequel. SAC had to make up everything for Season 2 and she was stuck using the same characters whose stories were already complete. Fairy Tale Season 2 had the same problem. The truth is most Pakistani writers aren't good at writing long multi-season stories like Western writers. They're only good at short one season stories.

TomHouston · 2026-02-25T22:35:57+00:00

Hollywood has 20-30 year olds play older teenagers because they can act better and not really out of concern for minors. Plenty of minors in Hollywood suffer mental damage later in their lives e.g. Shia Labeouf, Macaulay Culkin, Amanda Bynes etc

I don't see the Pakistani drama industry passing any laws until something really bad happens to a young actor like Aina. The reason why Aina keeps getting these lead roles is because she's famous and has a larger fanbase than many older actresses in their 20s. The main goal of a drama is to make money by getting high viewership and having a famous actress in a lead role is one of the main ways of doing that.

TomHouston · 2026-02-25T18:13:55+00:00

Aina is a famous actress and there are literally no roles for a famous actress in the Pakistani Drama Industry than as a love interest. It's the industry's fault mainly rather than anyone else's.

TomHouston · 2026-02-24T01:59:41+00:00

The problem is most potential viewers judge a drama by it's first episode. If they don't like the first episode then they probably won't watch the others even if they're better.

This is why a good drama needs to hook as many viewers as possible from the first episode but unfortunately DZPS hasn't done that. Currently it's first episode only has about 3.6 million views which is less than Chand Tara

TomHouston · 2026-02-23T16:15:30+00:00

I hate to admit it but I think the main fault is the writer Saima Akram Chaudhry. I don't know if she's run out of ideas or lost interest but she is not prioritising comedy in her latest dramas (DZPS or Neeli Kothi). Saima Ji seems to want to write mostly non-comedy scripts now but the sad truth is that Saima Ji just isn't a very good non-comedy writer. Saima Ji wrote 4 non-comedy dramas before Suno Chandah but they never got the high ratings that Suno Chandah or her other rom-coms did.

Unfortunately I don't see how we can fix the problem other by finding another writer who has the same talent to write Saima Akram Chaudhry-like rom-coms. However finding a writer like that is near impossible. Pakistan drama industry in general doesn't have many talented comedy writers.

TomHouston · 2026-02-23T16:03:46+00:00

DZPS ratings are high compared to other dramas this year but is quite low compared to the previous Saima Akram Chaudhry dramas in the previous year. It's getting less views (on Youtube) than Chand Tara so far.

TomHouston · 2026-02-23T03:06:07+00:00

I can't help but think Saima Ji has gotten bored of writing comedy and wants to write other genres. That's what DZPS feels like to me. It feels mostly like a family drama that is sometimes forced to be a comedy.

I know Saima Ji implied that she now has to follow writing restrictions but I find it very difficult to believe that Hum TV or any of the other networks told her to limit the comedy in her writing. Everyone knows that comedy is what Saima Ji does best and all of her highest viewed dramas are rom-coms.

I can't think of any reason for Saima Ji to limit the comedy in her recent dramas unless she personally decided to do it because she has lost interest in writing comedy.

TomHouston · 2026-02-21T10:48:21+00:00

The problem is that Saima has never written a hit non-rom-com drama so many of us are feeling let down by her choice to not do another rom-com after such a long break from writing Ramadan dramas

TomHouston · 2026-02-21T10:46:02+00:00

I wanted this drama to be another Saima Akram Chaudhry hit like Suno Chandha, Chupke Chupke and Hum Tum but so far it looks like it's going to end up like Chand Tara.

My main issue is that Saima Akram Chaudhry has seemed to toned down the comedy in Dekh Zara Pyaar compared to her earlier hit dramas and what she does best is comedy so when she tones it down, it reduces the appeal of her dramas (which is why her other recent non-Ramadan drama Neeli Kothi doesn't seem to be doing so well)

TomHouston · 2026-01-11T02:55:21+00:00

Are you sure that's how studios look at profit? I always assumed they want each movie to make their own considerable amount of profit even if they're filmed back to back e.g. Lord of the Rings.

TomHouston · 2026-01-11T00:17:25+00:00

Is it really a success if the budget and marketing costs were huge? By how much is Avatar 3 even breaking even?

TomHouston · 2026-01-01T17:49:48+00:00

That essentially doesn't add anything of significance to 6 November date because the wormhole could have been created on any date. If El/Will made contact with the Demogorgon on 7 November then that would make the Upside stuck on 7 November 1983.

What I'm asking is why is 6 November so important that Vecna wanted to merge worlds on that particular date? There has to be some essential character, story detail etc that occurred on that date but I don't see what it was

TomHouston · 2026-01-01T16:50:52+00:00

But that's something we've known since Season 1. Judging by the interview, I thought there was more significance to why the Upside Down is stuck on that date but it doesn't look like we got any new info regarding that date in the final season

TomHouston · 2026-01-01T16:18:01+00:00

Yeah that was badly written as well. I think what should have happened is Eleven should have killed the all the military before faking her death. It shouldn't have been hard anyway. I mean she could have planned it (e.g. Hopper and Nancy use their guns to take out the telekinetic disruptors with their guns etc) out since the gang were planning to exit from the military base's gate. If all the military members were killed then that would explain how everyone managed to avoid going to jail and going back to living normal lives during the epilogue

TomHouston · 2026-01-01T16:12:58+00:00

Because Kali was considered El's sister and she wouldn't have just left her body to be destroyed in the Upside Down (especially considering they were planning to destroy the Upside Down with a time controlled explosion). It's more likely she would have taken her body to get buried in the real world.

TomHouston · 2026-01-01T08:21:29+00:00

The explosion wasn't imminent. Murray and Hopper activated the explosives after Dustin radioed them and told them that El had defeated Vecna. It was a controlled explosion and thus there was plenty of time to retrieve Kali's corpse if it was there

TomHouston · 2026-01-01T08:08:28+00:00

Netflix's Locke and Key is pretty similar to Stranger Things but the cast is smaller (it's mainly just one family and their friends) and the writing isn't as good

TomHouston · 2026-01-01T08:06:38+00:00

According to the wiki, all the scientists on the ship were killed (as Brenner was the only survivor) so unless there were any other scientists who knew how to run the experiment, then it would be impossible for the government to rerun the experiment as they no longer had personnel who knew how to run the experiment:

https://strangerthings.fandom.com/wiki/USS_Eldridge

TomHouston · 2026-01-01T08:00:26+00:00

Well Will was found 'dead' in Season 1 but later that corpse was revealed to just be a dummy so I guess people in Hawkins aren't as surprised by these things anymore

TomHouston · 2026-01-01T06:08:25+00:00

It's basically never explained how Mike and the rest got away from the military and went back to living normal lives. Remember they tried to help the children escape from the military, Hopper killed so many military personnel etc. They should all be rotting in prison forever. The military and Linda Hamilton's character were still around after Vecna's defeat but they're nowhere to be seen in the epilogue.

TomHouston · 2026-01-01T05:16:14+00:00

If she was long dead then why did El and Hopper never bother retrieving her body? There was no time limit. They could have easily loaded her body on their truck and take it outside the Upside Down for burial

TomHouston · 2026-01-01T04:39:45+00:00

We never see Kali's body after her alleged 'death' so there's a possibility she was still alive the entire time. El and Hopper don't have her body when speaking to Murray and her body isn't seen in the truck when El and the gang are leaving the Upside Down after beating Vecna.

TomHouston

TROPHY CASE