does this thing exist in your country? (1 Viewer)

[eclipsoul]

this is a question i've always wanted to ask you guys but never really did so as my comeback to activity i want to ask whether this also exists on your country's television or is a thing only the citizens of poland have to put up with. and that thing is called a paradocumentary! actually, i don't even know whether that is a real word so let me explain what those things are

those are poorly produced and laughably written series with overdramatic one-hour long episodes. they exist on almost every polish channel and it seems like each year there are new ones being produced - with titles like "difficult issues", "why me?", "hidden truth" or more specific like "divorce - a fight over everything". the plot is some dramatic story about common people's everyday lives and each episode has a different story with different characters. they air everyday and are objectively considered awful but yet enough people watch it for them to never stop airing. the actors are just random people, not just that they're not famous but most of them are literally never seen in other productions outside of this genre.

to put it in words how absurd they are, here is a description of one paradocumentary episode i watched: a middle aged woman caught her stepdaughter kissing their family friend in their kitchen as she was visiting home during a college break, then she found that the girl had naked pictures of herself that she claimed was some self-love activity because she's a psychology student. she then followed that girl and discovered her asking a man for money in return for sexual favors and wants her to stop but the girl had a hidden camera in her parents' bedroom so she recorded her stepmother cheating on her father and threatened to expose her if she ever steps in her way again. then she also found out that she was never a student and did full time sex work in some expensive apartment. they made an agreement to confess to their mistakes to live as a normal family but then one day when the parents were returning home they were attacked by some men hired by the girl to kill them and fake a robbery. they killed the father but the stepmother was alive and saw the girl calling 112 (polish 911) to hide the fact that she wanted to have them dead. if you managed to read the whole thing, it probably sounds like one of the most ridiculous stories to ever exist. and trust me, there are worse

i'm sure my fellow polish user @badcrookshanks knows what i'm talking about but i'm curious about other countries. so, is this a thing where you live? or does this start and end with poland? ​

 

[Ahsoka]

Tbh I wouldn’t know because I don’t watch tv really, but that seems….interesting

 

[eclipsoul]

Tbh I wouldn’t know because I don’t watch tv really, but that seems….interesting

i feel that if they were on the same level as they are here you would still know, i only watched this episode as background noise and usually don't even watch the channel they air on and yet i still know of their existence because there are many memes made out of the absurd plots and in general just people talking about how bad they are and how is it even possible that people watch it

 

[Ahsoka]

i feel that if they were on the same level as they are here you would still know, i only watched this episode as background noise and usually don't even watch the channel they air on and yet i still know of their existence because there are many memes made out of the absurd plots and in general just people talking about how bad they are and how is it even possible that people watch it

Maybe but idk. There’s obviously crappy English speaking shows and movies. I’ve even heard of Tall Girl, which is a stupid one. But I doubt Tall Girl is the singular worst English speaking show or movie in existence, yet I haven’t heard of others like that. After all, where would I? I don’t go out in public chatting with friends about TV. I don’t go on Twitter. My memes are limited mostly to ones with animals. I don’t turn the tv on even for background stuff unless I’m watching a movie usually adapted from a book, which generally happens once every few years. There’s a big difference between chatting about movies and shows to people you know and being engaged with other culture and me, being not engaged with culture, not watching shows or movies, not even using the tv we have. You could very well be right, I don’t know. But I think if we switched spots you’d know lots of bad English speaking tv and I might have no idea the crappy tv you talked about was a thing even with the different countries.

 

[Nina]

The closest thing I can think of (which is still pretty far off) are Hindi soap operas but they are tame and ridiculous at the same time.
You wont find kissing or any form of sexual contact at all and the actors remain the same (sometimes) throughout the series.
The plots are written "normal" with heavy sprinklings of overdramatic situations.

Priya was a girl from a small town who fell in love with son of a prominent family. Both families did not approve of the relationship.
BUT THEN
-She causes a fight between the families because she cooked with too much oil
-Granny had to be sent to the hospital because he pillow was fluffed wrong.
-The police could be called over because the chandelier was dusted to roughly.
-The guy she's in love with gets another girl pregnant just by staring into her eyes.
-Random love rivals who are not related to either family but someone ends up living under the same roof with them all.
-Memory loss because of a car accident that was intentional from a love rival but she comes back after plastic surgery (this one happens in almost every)
- They fast forward have children who then have their own children but Priya at 70 still looks like Priya at 20 just with a single grey strand of hair.
Also, the most famous scene. Dramatic music being played while a girl cleaned a laptop with soap and water.

 

[Boyo]

I'm from Hungary and we had something similar in the past, but it was more like police/detective/crime stories acted out by random people (not professional actors). But I didn't see something like this in the past 10 years, so maybe they don't make it anymore.

 

[eclipsoul]

Maybe but idk. There’s obviously crappy English speaking shows and movies. I’ve even heard of Tall Girl, which is a stupid one. But I doubt Tall Girl is the singular worst English speaking show or movie in existence, yet I haven’t heard of others like that. After all, where would I? I don’t go out in public chatting with friends about TV. I don’t go on Twitter. My memes are limited mostly to ones with animals. I don’t turn the tv on even for background stuff unless I’m watching a movie usually adapted from a book, which generally happens once every few years. There’s a big difference between chatting about movies and shows to people you know and being engaged with other culture and me, being not engaged with culture, not watching shows or movies, not even using the tv we have. You could very well be right, I don’t know. But I think if we switched spots you’d know lots of bad English speaking tv and I might have no idea the crappy tv you talked about was a thing even with the different countries.

i think it's different than like tall girl because that is a one movie on netflix yet here the tv shows have been running for decades and there is a lot of them. with that being said, i wish we could switch spots to the point where i am not aware of their existence because they are just so so bad that even if i wanted to torture my worst enemy i wouldn't want them to watch those things omg

 

[badcrookshanks]

this is a question i've always wanted to ask you guys but never really did so as my comeback to activity i want to ask whether this also exists on your country's television or is a thing only the citizens of poland have to put up with. and that thing is called a paradocumentary! actually, i don't even know whether that is a real word so let me explain what those things are

those are poorly produced and laughably written series with overdramatic one-hour long episodes. they exist on almost every polish channel and it seems like each year there are new ones being produced - with titles like "difficult issues", "why me?", "hidden truth" or more specific like "divorce - a fight over everything". the plot is some dramatic story about common people's everyday lives and each episode has a different story with different characters. they air everyday and are objectively considered awful but yet enough people watch it for them to never stop airing. the actors are just random people, not just that they're not famous but most of them are literally never seen in other productions outside of this genre.

to put it in words how absurd they are, here is a description of one paradocumentary episode i watched: a middle aged woman caught her stepdaughter kissing their family friend in their kitchen as she was visiting home during a college break, then she found that the girl had naked pictures of herself that she claimed was some self-love activity because she's a psychology student. she then followed that girl and discovered her asking a man for money in return for sexual favors and wants her to stop but the girl had a hidden camera in her parents' bedroom so she recorded her stepmother cheating on her father and threatened to expose her if she ever steps in her way again. then she also found out that she was never a student and did full time sex work in some expensive apartment. they made an agreement to confess to their mistakes to live as a normal family but then one day when the parents were returning home they were attacked by some men hired by the girl to kill them and fake a robbery. they killed the father but the stepmother was alive and saw the girl calling 112 (polish 911) to hide the fact that she wanted to have them dead. if you managed to read the whole thing, it probably sounds like one of the most ridiculous stories to ever exist. and trust me, there are worse

i'm sure my fellow polish user @badcrookshanks knows what i'm talking about but i'm curious about other countries. so, is this a thing where you live? or does this start and end with poland? ​

you forgot the best one, pamiętniki z wakacji

 

[eclipsoul]

The closest thing I can think of (which is still pretty far off) are Hindi soap operas but they are tame and ridiculous at the same time.
You wont find kissing or any form of sexual contact at all and the actors remain the same (sometimes) throughout the series.
The plots are written "normal" with heavy sprinklings of overdramatic situations.

Priya was a girl from a small town who fell in love with son of a prominent family. Both families did not approve of the relationship.
BUT THEN
-She causes a fight between the families because she cooked with too much oil
-Granny had to be sent to the hospital because he pillow was fluffed wrong.
-The police could be called over because the chandelier was dusted to roughly.
-The guy she's in love with gets another girl pregnant just by staring into her eyes.
-Random love rivals who are not related to either family but someone ends up living under the same roof with them all.
-Memory loss because of a car accident that was intentional from a love rival but she comes back after plastic surgery (this one happens in almost every)
- They fast forward have children who then have their own children but Priya at 70 still looks like Priya at 20 just with a single grey strand of hair.
Also, the most famous scene. Dramatic music being played while a girl cleaned a laptop with soap and water.

i know that scene sadly this crap here is not iconic like that it's just so so bad. that priya story sounds like definitely something you'd see on polsat (the tv channel here that seems to produce the most of those things) but we also have our separate soap operas AND the paradocumentary things so it's like a double torture

 

[eclipsoul]

I'm from Hungary and we had something similar in the past, but it was more like police/detective/crime stories acted out by random people (not professional actors). But I didn't see something like this in the past 10 years, so maybe they don't make it anymore.

we have those things too! ever since mid-2000s there have been multiple crime dramas like that but they hire actual actors for the main roles so it's still a level higher when it comes to quality. they're actually still popular here and the tv channels both play the older ones as reruns and create new episodes of the more recent ones.

 

[eclipsoul]

you forgot the best one, pamiętniki z wakacji

holy sh*t you're right it totally left my mind as i was typing i think this is the one that has actually stopped production as a whole because i don't see it anywhere, not even reruns like i once caught a 10 year old trudne sprawy episode. i remember people always made fun of that series but never actually watched (not like i regret it lmao). i'm just wondering whether they really filmed that crap overseas or just somewhere in poland

 

[Magician]

I don’t think there are shows like that in Germany… we have a few soap operas that run every day, but the episodes are only 30 minutes long

 

[motorp77]

There is one in France but it isn't popular and has been discontinued many times and I think rn it isn't airing.

 

[eclipsoul]

There is one in France but it isn't popular and has been discontinued many times and I think rn it isn't airing.

do you remember the title?

 

[motorp77]

do you remember the title?

Nope unfortunately but it was really bad

 

[Boyo]

we have those things too! ever since mid-2000s there have been multiple crime dramas like that but they hire actual actors for the main roles so it's still a level higher when it comes to quality. they're actually still popular here and the tv channels both play the older ones as reruns and create new episodes of the more recent ones.

Oh, that’s interesting. Here the quality was really low because of the unprofessional “actors”. So, I wish to never see them again.

 

[Jungwonie]

the closest thing I can think about are telenovelas. they are usually 20-30 minutes though.
I just looked up a popular telenovela from here and uhhh
Maya dela Rosa is tricked by a fraudster who promises to help her achieve her dream, however, her life takes a turn after a chance encounter with Richard Lim, a wealthy widower.

I remember some scenes from this. Maya was tricked by someone and now she was left alone in the city with no money and home (I think she went to the city because they really needed money so that explains the no home part) and I don't know how it happened but she became a maid for Richard's family and then after some time, she falls in love with Richard and of course Richard falls in love with her too. typical soap operas lmao

 

[eclipsoul]

Oh, that’s interesting. Here the quality was really low because of the unprofessional “actors”. So, I wish to never see them again.

with the actors from the series i described i think it's more likely to see them on the street just living their life instead on tv