Mystery keep audience glued to television screen<\/p>\n
Joko E.H. Anwar, Contributor, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Ghosts invade our TV screens, mostly on Thursday nights, with all
\nsharing the same fate of having died of unnatural causes and
\ncondemned for their sins to laughing maniacally for evermore.<\/p>\n
Forget about decent scripts or acting. This is the death of
\nquality TV. However, like most local television series, shows on
\nthe supernatural continue to attract many viewers since local
\naudiences have always been interested in supernatural issues.<\/p>\n
But the stories are not like those featured in The X-Files
\nseries, which include UFOs, alien abduction and spontaneous
\ncombustion. It is probably because there are so many unexplained
\ndeaths in this country over such a long period of time that makes
\nour local audiences interested in stories about ghosts who seek
\nrevenge from those who have wronged them.<\/p>\n
In the 80s, local horror queen Suzanna was well known for her
\nrole in the Sundel Bolong (translates roughly as an evil female
\nspirit with a hole in her back) film as a woman who turned into
\nghost after being raped by several men and died after giving
\nbirth.<\/p>\n
There have also been countless local horror flicks which would
\nembarrass even the late Edward D. Wood Jr., who was dubbed the
\nWorst Director of All Time in the U.S.<\/p>\n
Still, some of the locally made horror flicks continue to be
\nhot items on bad movies aficionados' list on the Internet.<\/p>\n
Today, we have several TV shows in Indonesia dealing with
\nhorror and things that go bump in the night.<\/p>\n
Kismis or Kisah Misteri (Mystery Stories), which is screened
\nby RCTI television every Wednesday at 10 p.m., continues to
\ngarner huge ratings.<\/p>\n
When it was first aired late last year, AC Nielsen' survey
\nshowed the show notched up a 5 in the TV rating. This week, the
\nits rating had risen to 9.<\/p>\n
\"We are optimistic that the show will continue to go strong
\nfor a long time,\" the station's PR coordinator Murjadi Iksan
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
The show recreates alleged real encounters with ghosts. One of
\nthe show's episodes tells how some people were haunted by the
\nghosts of people who died during the 1998 riots.<\/p>\n
The half-hour show attracts both older viewers and children
\nwho stay up late just to watch it.<\/p>\n
More demanding audiences, however, will find it hard to
\nbelieve that such a show can attract wide audiences. The scripts
\nare moronic and the acting is so inept as to be laughable.<\/p>\n
The show opens with a beautiful host narrating the background
\nto the upcoming story. The show even includes so-called local
\ncelebrities telling about their encounters with ghosts.<\/p>\n
Another show on the supernatural, TV Misteri on TPI
\ntelevision, is even more mind-numbing.<\/p>\n
The 90-minute show's latest episode told the story of a man
\nand a woman who committed suicide by drinking poison after the
\nman's mother disapproved of their relationship. The woman died
\nbut the man, without further explanation, survived. For the next
\n60-minutes or so nothing happened except that the woman, who had
\nbecome a ghost, appeared two or three times.<\/p>\n
Strangely, the show receives quite a high rating, between four
\nand five, every week.<\/p>\n
Many TV stations try to attract viewers by putting their
\nmystery shows out on Thursday night, the night which is
\nconsidered sacred and scary at the same time by most locals.<\/p>\n
TPI runs another mystery show right after TV Misteri, namely
\nKesesatan (Lost Souls), a supernatural\/action show written,
\nproduced and directed by martial artist Taveri who also stars as
\nthe show's hero named ... Taveri.<\/p>\n
The show receives ratings of between three and four.<\/p>\n
TRANS TV also runs two shows on the same night. The first one
\nis an hour-long horror drama, Misteri Leak (Balinese bloodsucking
\nfemale ghost). This show is slightly better than other similar
\nprograms but still suffers from unintentionally laughable scripts
\nand acting. It also takes itself too seriously.<\/p>\n
Misteri Leak is followed straight after by a half-an-hour
\nsemi-reality show, Dunia Lain (Another World). This show is
\nactually the only watchable (although barely) supernatural show
\non TV.<\/p>\n
It features reputedly haunted places and dares participants to
\novernight in them with cameras recording everything that happens.
\nIt also screens interviews with experts about various strange
\nphenomenon.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, the show also featured the mystery of jenglot,
\npalm-sized human-like figures which are said to be found in the
\nmountains. Even though the figures look dead, their hair and
\nnails continue to grow.<\/p>\n
The show ended with disturbing testimony by an \"expert\" saying
\nthat a DNA test on one of the figures showed that it had human
\nDNA.<\/p>\n
Both Misteri Leak and Dunia Lain only hit the screens this
\nmonth and received ratings of, respectively, 1.2 with the average
\nnumber of viewers per episode being 358.000 and 1.6 with an
\naverage viewership of 450.000. The low ratings are because they
\nhave to compete with similar shows which are screened at the same
\ntime.<\/p>",
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