Realiti - Episode 4 notes

• "Sebelum ini dalam Realiti...". Ashraf says this before this week's episode begins. I think every week has somebody different saying it.


• This episode is written by Kartini Ariffin, of 3R fame. She's also written a few episodes for Impian Illyana.


• This is my least favourite episode in the entire series. For me, the main story (Amir running back to kampung) just doesn't really do anything. On top of that, it's hard to really see the theme in the episode. It would have been an opportunity to explore surface image vs what we think underneath, but it didn't turn out that way.


• The business about gaining weight at the buffet is based on real life. You eat buffets every day, of course some of the kids are going to gain a little weight.


• I remember discussing with Ping how Amir would run back to the kampung. At first, Ping was reluctant to follow him all the way back, simply because it was an additional location and costs. I had a storyline where Mac confronts him in Pudu bus station, but Ping wasn't happy with that. The other problem was trying to figure out why he wanted to stay in the competition. I don't think that bit was ever really solved. We sort of have this idea that it's because his mother gives him the push, because his father was a great musician, but then gave it up. I don't quite get it, though. Originally, this storyline was meant to extend until the end of the season, but I think we both agreed it didn't have the legs to take through. Hence, the introduction of a new storyline for Amir later...


• On some of the forums, there have been comparisons between Amir and Mawi based on the fact he's engaged to Dayang and then breaks off with her, and that he comes from the kampung. As far as I am concerned, this wasn't entirely intentional. We did want the popular kampung boy, primarily as an antithesis to Baby, and we did want to explore what does being popular mean. But I primarily had Faizal in mind of a lot of these themes.






• Amir was always meant to be from Kedah. Notice that his accent doesn't keep up throughout the whole show, but when he talks to Jay, it reemerges. I could sort of explain this by saying that after being in KL for so long, he knows he has to keep the accent down in day-to-day conversation. But I wish now that I made it reemerge when he was upset or excited.


• Jay was a character we came up with relatively late in the series. In fact, I think I came up with him in order to write episode 7, and then he sort of spread from there (could be wrong, must check emails to find out). We needed a contrast to Mac, somebody in the industry who focussed on things that Mac didn't care for. Glamour. Popularity. Image. For Jay, the music is the lowest thing on the list.


• Naz Rahman is an excellent choice for Jay. I'm happy about that casting.


• That whole "One flush yes, two flush no" conversation Burn has with Melody; that was Ping's work entirely, and I didn't really like it. Sounds a little cheesy. But maybe Melody likes cheese. In large creamy blocks.


• It was mentioned somewhere that Alvin said that Nickson was based on Daniel MI2. Perhaps that's where Alvin drew his inspiration from, but I was thinking of other people. There were guys in MI2 and AF who leant towards the feminine side, and the judges kept telling them to be more manly. I didn't really get that, because you're always told to 'be yourself' when you perform. I imagined that these guys would be torn inside on what they should do. Anyway, for me, that's where Nickson came from.


• The song that Melody is inspired by is Quizzical by Juliet The Orange. I like the song, but it's not my choice for Melody's song by a long way. I would have picked something slower, less quirky.


• That exchange between Baby and the photography, where she asks what needs to be done to get the other 50%, is a little sleezy to me. It would have been slightly better if the photographer had just asked "How about dinner?" at the end of all that. Then, we could get all sleazoid later, right?


• But crossing that Juliet the Orange song with Baby's willingness to give in to the photographer, pure genius.


• That line that Burn says, "All I need is the girl"? Ping says: "Classic". Dzof says: "Chedder central".


• Amir serenades his family with Widuri by the great Broery Marantika. And, yes, it's really Azizan singing.






• The reaction on the forums to that whole Baby sleeping with the photographer plot has surprised me. Mainly, it's because people are asking, "really, ah, people sleep with other people just to get on the magazine cover?". Well, despite what you might think of Malaysians, there's an awful lot of extra-marital sex going on in KL. And Baby is super-ambitious. So, it isn't so far-fetched, right?


• Okay, here is the scene that makes me cringe. It's the part where Amir's mum explains to him that his father gave up on his dream to be a muscian, so Amir must carry on with the competition. Not good enough for me. My original suggestion was that the music made his father regain some of his memory, and then the father tells him that he's really good and should carry on with the competition. Don't really know why that idea was nixed.


• So, Amir comes back, and what has really changed? At the moment, only Dayang's relationship with Amir. In hindsight, I think it might have been good to have increased his popularity with the Malaysian Star voters as a result of his actions as well. It's about the competition, right?


• Argh! You know what really makes me mad? The 'Minggu Depan' segment pretty much tells the story for the whole episode. That sucks, big time. But I think it's a good episode, so watch it.

Labels: realiti, tv