Abdel Shakour: "The End" Is A start for Arab Sci-Fi drama.. BUT

Egyptian TV series "The End" has succeeded in capturing the attention to it since the release of its "promo", as well as managing to gain an advanced place in the Ramadan drama marathon.

Credit for the series’ success goes to the presenting the idea of Armageddon, which is the first for Arab production to tackle the science fiction genre, especially as the idea dovetails with the stressful environment caused by the Coronavirus around the globe.

Despite this success, the series was on the receiving end of many observations and satirical comments on social media. “SEE” spoke with prominent critic Mahmoud Abdel Shakour, about the series and its fall downs.

“I do not consider the many similarities of the series ideas with the theme of the Armageddon in the cinema and drama production globally a big problem,” Shakour said.

“Likewise, the idea of a robot rebellion against humanity is repeated, as well as the idea of the domination of dictatorial regimes, since George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm, so it is only natural that the "end" will be affected by it,” he added.

However, its problem remains, which is dispersed and the lack of unity of its message, or adopts a clear issue, as the political, geographical, and economic conflicts over energy and the dominance of powers without those ideas being strongly connected, which causes the viewers to ask many questions.

The Questions of "The End":

They are left contemplating questions such as if its idea revolves around a robot that threatens the existence of humans, thus, what that got to do with Jerusalem and its liberation? Where did the Palestinians go from the city? As we did not hear the Palestinian accent nor did not see a single Palestinian, and how did the Arab countries end up in housing blocs? And why does the city look like debris and its buildings got destroyed in light of this technological progress? “The true reason “the end” slipped due to the script that can be disassembled into 3 different plots.

Otherwise, the writer would have addressed every idea in the work, without logic, even the fiction must have a logic and a clear path without loopholes,” Shakour stated.

He affirmed: “Also, adding an idea such as the liberation of Jerusalem and the annihilation of Israel, even if it was dreamlike, however, lacked awareness of its goal, and appeared lacked in value, unlike the movie “E.T”, for example, which revolved around the homeland values, the family, and belonging.”

“This dispersion is not new for sci-fi productions, as the number of great and influential ones is very few, even that the most famous Hollywood movies that have achieved huge successes and revenues suffer from the same problem and depends on razzle-dazzle vision without a good plot, which is what the production succeeded in executing.” Shakour continued.

The staff of "The End":

Talking about the acting, the prominent critic pointed out that: “I did not feel that the actors understand their characters nor know their objectives and profiling, which is notable in their performance, especially with Youssef El Sherif, which I did not notice a big difference between his performance as a robot and as a human, except for Sahar El-saigh, whose reactions shows that she understands her character and the clarity of her motives and thoughts, which means that her role is well written,”

“I hope that the cast will not be angry with the sarcastic comments of the audience and the critics’ observations that show great interest in the production and aspirations for its best,” he added.

Shakour continued: “In addition to the controversy it causes is strong evidence of the high viewership, subsequently to the public’s thirst for more of those experiences and ideas, but more perfected, however, so do not stop,”

“It is sufficient that this series opens the door to a brand-new Egyptian drama that must be adopted and repeated, as it is not necessary that the first experience be successful,” He concluded.

Contributed by Yara Sameh