Dave Spector Attacks Japanese TV Dramas

[Mulboyne]

The Tokyo Shimbun reports (Japanese) that Dave Spector was a guest speaker at a regular convention of commercial broadcasters. The main question addressed this year was "who wants to watch what on Japanese TV?" and touched on issues like the cosy way TBS dealt with the Kameda boxing family. Dave Spector, along with some other panellists, felt that Japanese TV was not catering enough to the adult audience and tended to treat viewers like children. He singled out TV dramas as one of the worst forms of television on Japan today especially because of the poor quality acting, in particular by teen idols and fashion models. He said anyone looking at overseas dramas shown on cable and TV Tokyo can't help but notice the difference in standards. He suggested that even people working in TV found overseas TV programmes more interesting than their own output. He also expressed the view that Japanese TV was too hostile to the internet. He gave the example of the US where cable TV had eaten into the audience for terrestrial broadcasters but now the big 4 networks had fought back by releasing material on the web shortly after showing a programme.

This story has been picked up on 2 Channel where, interestingly, it seems that most people broadly agree with Dave Spector.

[gomichild]

Good grief even I agree with Dave Spector here.

*blames being sober on a Friday night*

[ttjereth]

Agreeing with Dave Spector makes me unhappy

[omae mona]

I suspect he couldn't have gotten away with that a few years ago. But now that half of the real estate inside video stores seems to be taken up by DVDs of foreign drama series (US, Korea, China, etc.), and several cable networks dedicate significant amounts of their broadcast time to these series, the cat's out of the bag. I would bet that a significant percentage of the TV viewing public has watched some U.S. series recently, and they'd have to be brain dead not to notice the difference.

I don't think Dave Spector was going out on a limb, but it's possible that nobody until now has explicitly said what he said.

[DrP]

I totally agree with Spector on this .. the bizarre thing is that Japan has one of the highest levels of technical production capability but at the same time an arcane production work flow that depends on, err 'talent' forced down the network's throats by near gangster-run enterprises. At the same time - the old cronies making the executive decisions are just as corrupt and completely uncreative as the talent agencies' talent.. Lip My Stockings...

[Jack]

There is a lot more dramas produced in Japan than in the U.S. (if you exclude sitcomes) so inevitably not all will be great hits but there are some very nice and well-made Japanese dramas. Maybe Korean dramas are popular now or were couple of years ago but Japanese drama still remains very popular in Hong Kong, Taiwan and other Asian countries. I think dismissing all J-dramas as crap is overkill. I, for one, watch many of them to keep my Japanese language skills current and for "eye-candy"' value.

[DrP]

The only dramas I know that are popular in other parts of Asia and have any 'eye candy' are produced by companies like SOD, Moodyz, etc. Everything else is basically crap.

[2triky]

Gotta agree with Spector and others here who have chimed in on this topic. Japanese TV dramas have largely become vehicles for young idols to further their exposure, which often has nothing to do with whether they can act or not. Japanese TV dramas have become hijacked by idols represented by the likes of Johnny's Jimusho and other similar talent agencies. Comparing dramas today with those released in the last decade one can discern an obvious difference in terms of the quality of the acting and the storytelling.

[Jack]

Originally Posted by DrP

The only dramas I know that are popular in other parts of Asia and have any 'eye candy' are produced by companies like SOD, Moodyz, etc. Everything else is basically crap.

You seem to know all the players in that market. As much as I would like to defend J-dramas I do think many of them are super Cheesy and over the top sentimental and so on. But many of the actresses that I have know are because of the dramas. Norika Fujiwara, Miki Nakatani, Riyoko Hirosue and Nanako Matsushima, just to name a few. (Note that aside from Kimutaku I don't know any male actors' name.)

[Iraira]

Originally Posted by 2triky

Gotta agree with Spector and others here who have chimed in on this topic. Japanese TV dramas have become largely become vehicles for young idols to further their exposure, which often has nothing to do with whether they can act or not. Japanese TV dramas have become hijacked by idols represented by the likes of Johnny's Jimusho and other similar talent agencies. Comparing dramas today with those released in the last decade one can discern an obvious difference in terms of the quality of the acting and the storytelling.

The storylines are too contrived. They pick a segment of the working populace that a people can somewhat identify with and make a ganbarou story out of it, usually with a bittersweet ending. Can't everyone just die of Ebola or be kidnapped by N. Kor agents in the end? When I got some grasp of the J-go, I tried, I mean I tried to watch these dramas, but too many models/popstars trying to act like regular OLs was too much for me to suspend disbelief.
Even the comedy shows have become clones of themselves. If I see another bedpan fall from the ceiling and bounce off someone's head, I swear...The 3 Stooges should sue the fuck out of all the Kansai comedians for stealing their schtick (yeah, I know the Stooges are all dead... except for Iggy).