INDONESIAN POP (Bilingual)

#MASALEMBO, The Indonesian Version of #LOST ???

by: Adam MS

I don’t normally post anything in “Bahasa Indonesia” on this blog (not anymore though), but I think the main points of what I’m about to elaborate in this page, would be understood so much better by the audiences/Indonesian readers if I wrote them in “Bahasa” and more specifically with the informal accent (Some quite amount of readers from Indonesia read this blog, more than half of my readers are from the U.S. and Canada). So I did, and here it is:

See “LOST” has been my “TV Love Affair” since it was on the air for the first time ELEVEN YEARS AGO and until now I still usually watch the reruns on my laptop. It was simply one of the most phenomenally epic shows off all time. And when I heard from a friend in Jakarta that NET TV would air “MASALEMBO” which is obviously the Indonesian version of  LOST, I jumped in and closed my ears. Don’t get me wrong though, I really genuinely appreciate the efforts which “Mas Wishnutama” and NET Crew have been doing to bring Hollywood to Indonesia. Starting from all those so-called talk-shows, and then the Late-Night Shows, #Glee to #Stereo, #SNL to #CNL, the Lipsync-Battle, you name it—gw appreciate it all, sayangnya dari NET sendiri nggak ada credit even sedikit pun ke original shows yang mereka adaptasi (well, I’m fully aware it’s not really “adaptation” per say, in term of license and all that, you know what I mean, but in term of creative process—they’re all adaptations, atau istilah jaman dulunya ATM—Amati, Tiru, Modifikasi).

Unfortunately justru itulah yang bikin gw gak pernah nonton “acara2-nya NET yang gak original” and to be honest the last time I even saw NET was when #AgnezMo had that special talent show, and if this can make the “NET People” feel any better, the last time I REALLY saw “Indonesian TV” was almost four years ago, so what I’m saying, you’re not the only media who has been a mess in term of original programs. Jaman “Mas Tama” di Trans dulu masih adalah beberapa fresh shows yg memang original bgt, kalaupun di-import psti ada license-nya, alias ada embel-embel “Indonesia”-nya, n yg terakhir kyaknya “Big Brother” deh, which was pretty cool.

Anyway back to my main point—makanya pas denger bakalan ada #LOST-ish nya di NET gw lgsung ttup mata ttup kuping yakin GK BAKAL NNTON (And I didn’t, not live at least when it’s aired, haha), karena gw gk ada interest sm show yg “creativitas-nya gk original”. AKAN TETAPI—#LOST ITU BENER-BENER “TV LOVE AFFAIR” YG GW PALING ADDICTED selain #FRIENDS #PrisonBreak & #GreysAnatomy. Makanya at the end of the day, gw “khilaf juga” buat iseng liatin episode 1-nya #MASALEMBO di-youtube as my guilty pleasure, berharap preliminary judgement gw salah, dan setelah nnton, gw kecewa berat karena judgement gw benar—this #LOST-ish show is just trashy on so many levels, and I’m not planning to watch it on youtube or even to talk abt it anymore—like I said earlier—no offense, just trying to be really (maybe brutally) honest here, so just bear with me.

Here’s why the pilot eps was really awful:

1. From scale 0-10, the directing is 4. SERIOUSLY. I’ve never seen INDONESIAN FILM/VIDEO that’s really this bad in directing (and writing):

• Why bother gitu close up dua kaki orang (pilot/ptugas bandara) hanya buat nunjukin kalo itu setting-nya di bandara or di area dekat pesawat (see? Even dr situ saja kelihatan ambigu seting-nya). Mungkin persoalan cost atau apa sehingga production house-nya nggak bisa shooting di airport—bisa dimaklumi—but still, directingnya parah disitu.
• SCENE PALING PARAH adalah scene ketika di udara, pesawat udah mulai jatuh (dalam byangan gw sih jatuh dengan posisi kepala ke bawah, walaupun again gara-gara directing-nya gagal membangun SCENE yg pas—bisa saja jadi ambigu—bisa saja sbnarnya psawatnya itu jatuh dalam posisi terbalik.
• Masih soal SCENE DI UDARA, padahal gw justru berharap scene ini yg bakalan sedikit lebih hidup, malah justru sebaliknya. TIDAK ADA SATU DETIK PUN ditunjukan keseluruhan kabin pesawat ketika chaos di udara, gw yakin either persoalan biaya visual efek or memang writing-nya yg juga parah yang bkin itu absen, pdhal biar scene lebih real at least ada gambaran keseluruhan kabin ketika chaos di udara.
• YANG PALING LUCU, MASIH DI SCENE DI UDARA—disaat semua penumpang panik, ada cewek yang pake baju putih rmbut pendek—dia either tertidur atau mati itu nggak jelas—EH PAS UDAH JATUH DI DARAT—DIA HIDUP COY, so berarti tadi dia tidur dong di pesawat—DISAAT YANG LAIN TERBANGUN KARENA CHAOS LUAR BIASA DI UDARA. Mungkin dia minum obat tidur atau apa—atau memang jelas-jelas directing-nya aja yang emang ngaco—no offense.

2. Writing-nya, from 0-10, I CAN’T EVEN be a little moderate for this one … 3 lah. Membandingkan writing-nya #LOST sama #Masalembo mungkin seperti langit dan sumur kali yah, akan tetapi opening-nya scene-nya gw really-really genuinely surprised nggak taken langsung di arena kejadian/Pulau kayak di LOST. Kalo di LOST from second 5 or 10 kita udah digiring ke arena chaos di pulau baru mundur sedikit ke udara. Tapi di MASALEMBO kita diantar dengan adegan yang datar/santai. Lumayan-lah. TAPI CUMAN SAMPE SITU. Selebihnya dialog yang ditulis seperti dialog2 yang sering gw tulis untuk keperluan pentas drama jaman SD dulu—u know—imagine lo pergi ke pasar dan bertanya “berapa harga satu buah apel ini, Bu?” atau “Bolehkan saya membeli sayur yang sedang ibu jual?”—model2 dialog seperti ini yang membuat tontonan TV/Film Indonesia punya writing yang parah, dan itu diperparah dengan akting pemainnya yang berakting dengan intonasi suara yang membuat dialog-dialog seperti itu yg seharusnya misalnya serius atau sedih, malah kedengaran lucu dan tidak natural layaknya percakapan orang Indonesia sehari-hari (in general)—dan persoalan intonasi itu seharusnya bisa diantisipasi jika directing-nya memang bagus.
3. Kegagalan terbesar writing-nya mungkin karena faktor biaya visual efek or somehting—gak ada scene pesawatnya terlihat jatuh (atau beneran jatuh kah? Atau mendarat darurat dan pendaratannya gagal?). Bahkan “ACARA-ACARA SILUMAN DI INDOSIAR” pun bisa provide visual efek murah gitu, kita juga bakal ngerti karena ini produk Indonesia jadi biaya visual efek-nya mungkin gk banyak. Tapi at least, for the sake of good writing, berilah closure scene gitu bagaimana pesawatnya jatuh, kemudian yang terlihat hanya semua seprihan-serpihan-nya LITERALLY gak ada satu bagian besar badan pesawat pun yang utuh—dan WHAT R D ODDS banyak yang “selamat” dengan kondisi scene yang kayak gitu. (Gw berharap bagi yang masih nnton akan menerima closure ini nantinya, dan gw justru expect untuk membangun premise cerita seharusnya sudah muncul scene seperti itu di episode perdana)
4. And don’t even get me started with the scene ketika Angel Karamoy harus membantu korban yang tertusuk logam (yang gak kelihatan/gak di-close up, apa karena pengaruh video yang gw tonton di youtube ya?). My point is that scene—THAT’S EVEN WRONG MEDICALLY SPEAKING, and the writers did a really bad job on their research about “trauma patient”. Seriously.
5. Acting, gw nggak banyak expect dari sini, soalnya akting orang Indonesia banyak yg nggak natural emang terutama jika dicompare dengan adegan sehari-hari yang kita lakukan. Hanya sedikit aktor yang bisa berakting/berdialog senatural mungkin ibarat adegan di dunia nyata, dan di Masalembo, so far cuman ADI KURDI (come on, this man has been great since KELUARGA CEMARA), Angel Karamoy (nggak begitu banyak perubahan setelah terakhir gw lihat dia jadi pengganti-nya MARSHANDA di “BIDADARI” she’s okay), sama Ibunya NARO (whoever she is, good job). So from 0-10, 5 lah karena sedikit banget yg actingnya at least 7.
6. GW HARUS PUJI CINEMATOGRAPHY-nya di Pulau itu, wherever that is. Tease-Clip nya KEREN!!! Tapi opening scene-nya yang di Jakarta—seperti anak kuliahan yang ngerjain.
7. SCORE-nya KECE!!! Secara itu ngambil SALAH SATU score terkenal-nya #LOST (don’t u dare tell me otherwise) yang di-compose sama “Michael Giaccino” deh kalo nggak salah—itu iconic banget score-nya si Michael, bkin mewek. Dan salah satu score di #Masalembo ini ngambil punya #LOST paling jelas yang di Season 1 Episode terakhir “EXODUS”—searching aja di youtube, itu score-nya sama banget—not entirely, but some part of them are used in #Masalembo.
8. I hv no more interest to talk about its editing which is disaster. The only things that were not completely ruined from the entire pilot eps were the makeup and the costume.

Lastly, who am I to speak about this at all? I’m a hardcore fan of #LOST. It was one of those shows that made me consume lots of my times in front of TV and laptop. It was the first show that made me enjoy the whole binge-watch experience. And because I’m also a pop-culture junkie. But most importantly, I’m an entertainment critic—that’s what I do for a living, professionally. I know what said, because I know what I saw. I’ve seen so many great shows and films are failed being adapted from the original versions. And I know the quality of great shows. There are (actually “were”) successful Indonesian shows with fresh and original premises. But the needs to bring the so-called Hollywood to Indonesia has made so many media owners and film-makers/script-writers would do the “ATM” method but they forget about the quality. Even more ironic, actually when I heard that “Mas Tama” was gonna do “this” I thought at least he’d handle the whole package, but obviously he did not. ‘Coz watching this pilot—I didn’t recognize any of his great standards he used to have back when the man worked at the Trans Group.

It wasn’t all a nightmare experience watching this pilot episode. At least I got to know a little bit about MASALEMBO because after seeing this, I went googling about MASALEMBO and finally found out yet another interesting piece of Indonesia that many of us haven’t discovered or even been aware of yet. And I have to give the credit for that to NET and Team MASALEMBO. And to close, I remember there’s an interview many years ago when JJ ABRAMS (The Creator of LOST/Director of the newest Star Wars film) was asked what he told his actors on the set, and he jokingly went like … “STOP RUINING MY SHOW!” So I just hope those who never had the experience of watching LOST and found “something vaguely original” from MASALEMBO would keep just keep watching the show on NET, because who knows the writers would not be ruining that show after all, ha! xo #PeaceOut (image:NET)