Thread: Falling in love in TV serials

I've been watching some Russian serials lately, and there's something I don't quite understand. I even don't know how to put it exactly. It's just like, umm, people are so cool with marital infidelity.
I mean, come on, when all of a sudden a marriage breaks up, there must be some sort of grief somewhere in these people's soul. Not just: "Доброе утро, милая! Не знаю как ты, но я-то вроде влюбился в другую женщину. Вчера вечером как раз. Ну так. Будь счастлива. Прощай!"
How's that supposed to work in real life?

Originally Posted by Misha Tal

It's just like, umm, people are so cool with marital infidelity.
:

I've watched a ton of serials but I never saw that attitude.

I agree with Sperk. I tried to watch some contemporary Russian series too but I did not notice any more infidelity / divorce than in a standard European or American series.

I agree with the general point of view though. There is far too much sleeping around and disrespect for the institution of marriage. I don't think there is an easy answer to your question. People DO get hurt from all that and they have not discovered some way of disconnecting body and emotions. I think that is particularly hard for women.

Not just the adults involved. but also children affected. For example my own mother never emotionally recovered from her divorce from my father. So many kids grow up without a father in the house, or with step parents.

Of course it puts a scar on someones soul if they are "discarded" or hurt in a relationship and I don't see why it needs to be the main plot of so many films / series.

I guess fidelity is particularly hard for men in general and women also crave emotional fulfillment. If people don't get what they "need" emotionally in their marriage, they look outside of the marriage. And hundreds of thousands of films and series, magazines and experts now tell them that this is ok.

It's sad in a way.
Marriage is not for life anymore and nobody can feel safe in their marriage.

With pornography now being ubiquitous, dating sites and chat all over the internet, people get completely de-sentitised to that... Whereas in the past, it was harder to have an affair or get divorced. Perhaps people tried harder to make it work.

I am not always sure that women get quite as liberated as some imagine from sleeping around as much as some women I know do, and as womens magazines essentially encourage, at least prior to marriage.

Frankly I don't know what to believe on any of this but the demise of marriage is tragic in my view and I really don't think it's limited to Russia. I am at the age that I definitely ought to make the effort to meet a guy but I had some bad experiences and I really don't feel like it right now.

The latest development on this front (at least in Europe) is the super PC obsession with homosexuality, that it is absolutely fine and ok.... I am so sick of reading about homosexuality in media. Had no issue with it before, but it's gone too far now, with marriages and kids etc..

Most people in Europe (and Russia) are not religious, so that side of things is totally irrelevant. If anyone is religious, then what goes on around them would make them think of Sodom and Gomorra, for sure....

Christianity has a lot to say about this and with or without faith I think many people would do well to listen to some of it whether they are religious or not.

Alright, I didn't mean that falling in love while in a serious relationship is such a rare phenomenon. Even in my so-called "Islamic" country it happens all the time. But I've got the impression that the way these things are depicted in television is somewhat unrealistic.
Take this Russian serial I've been watching recently, "Дыши со мной". The main characters literally alternate between loving and not loving their partners, and there's not a hint of it being any big deal. Well, I wouldn't say that. They are sincere in loving, but their partners don't seem to care that much. It's just like it could be this way or that, anything goes.
I for one am certainly not that religious (just as much as believing in God), and it surely doesn't have much to do with religion in a typical non-religious European society either. Of course there is the cut-and-dry explanation why I have difficulty understanding Russian moral values: I've been brought up in a different culture. But I don't think that's the point here. I've read and watched enough material to have a reasonably accurate idea as to what things are like there.
The only explanation I can think of for the moment is that I have misunderstood the plot, simply because my Russian isn't anywhere near fluent yet. Yeah, I hate to be honest about that.

Look for money. All serial producers in order to raise some money should follow some unofficial 'guidelines' otherwise TV channels (especially owned by federal government which means large auditory and large revenues) won't buy them.
Taking in view the catastrophic demographic situation in Russia, there is a policy for advertising of 'family values' (coming from the government). It is quite a normal situation when the plot gets corrected from time to time to reflect that.
Saying all that (even though I don't watch national TV channels at all) I doubt that this is a widespread tendency.

Я тоже не когда не заметил этого поведения по телевизору! Где ты? Может быт традиции у тебя слишком крепки. Вообще, думаю что телевизор малышам лучше не смотреть.

Originally Posted by Sgt. Cold

Я тоже никогда не замечал такого в сериалах! Откуда ты? Может быть традиции у тебя в стране слишком крепкие. Вообще, думаю, что телевизор малышам лучше не смотреть.

Misha is from Iran.

Originally Posted by Basil77

Misha is from Iran.

Понятно.

В отношении предмета женщин и телевизионных программ, по моему, меньше одежды - больше видеть.

Originally Posted by Ramil

Taking in view the catastrophic demographic situation in Russia, there is a policy for advertising of 'family values' (coming from the government). It is quite a normal situation when the plot gets corrected from time to time to reflect that.
Saying all that (even though I don't watch national TV channels at all) I doubt that this is a widespread tendency.

That's kind of funny....! So they think that if the soap-opera families have lots of kids, then regular families will do the same? So does this "strategy" work?

In England, the problem is that the WRONG people have lots of kids. Like teenage girls who are unmarried. While many successful middleclass families have only one child, or no child.

The UK government is doing one thing about this: They give free contraceptives to teenage girls who ask for it.... and childless women in steady relationships get free IVF on the National Healthcare.
I don't think this is working though. Some girls have a baby just to get a council flat (state owned flat).

If Russia really wanted more children to be born it seems that it would be much easier to restrict access to abortion a bit! I am not sure if this is true or not... But I heard that abortions were super-common in Russia, at least some years back... And also stop foreign adoptions!

Plus; is the demographic situation in Russia worse than in Japan for example?

Maybe all this should be in a separate thread?

By 'family values' I mean not 'having a lot of kids' (though this is the absolute goal) but depicting happy couples (they can get separated in the middle but they have to reunite in the end). I must admit though that I'm no so great a specialist in Russian TV shows. All I know that 'people of culture' sometimes meet officially with the government and receive the picture of so called 'social demand' (or whatever they mean by that).

Originally Posted by Sgt. Cold

Я тоже никогда не замечал ...

Привет, Сержант! Добро пожаловать в нашу тесную компанию!

Originally Posted by Hanna

The latest development on this front (at least in Europe) is the super PC obsession with homosexuality, that it is absolutely fine and ok.... I am so sick of reading about homosexuality in media. Had no issue with it before, but it's gone too far now, with marriages and kids etc..

Damn those homosexuals, corrupting our society with their immorality! Oh well, at least us virtuous people can look down upon their depravity, safe in the knowledge that they'll burn in hell for eternity.