Thanks to an earlier post by Subzeroblue, I found Dubai’s new all-English channel "One." The channel is apparently competition for the popular Saudi-owned "Channel 2." I have been following it for a while and I must say they have a good collection of high-caliber Western shows, including CSI, the Sopranos and others.
The channel also provides a good collection of fairly new and "slightly" older Western movies. One thing that is proving an irritant, however, is their excessive use of the editing scissors! It seems the people behind this brand new channel are ultra conservative, as they edit out almost any display of affection including pecks; even cuss words are edited out!
Personally, I think this is too much and extremely, extremely annoying! It is even worse than Jordan TV. Well, I’m glad I’m not paying for this channel.
But to be fair, I must say that last night I enjoyed watching The Insider in spite of being annoyed on a number of occasions by the channel’s editing. I saw this movie years ago when it first came out and watching it a another time was highly enjoyable, particularly because it deals with the field I chosen for a living: Journalism.
One blunder I found in this movie was the choice of an Egyptian to represent a Hizballah fighter. A great director like Michael Mann should have known better. Hizballah fighters are Lebanese, speaking an entirely different dialect. Also the Arabic translator that was supposedly translating for Mike Wallace was speaking gibberish! I couldn’t understand a single word of what he was saying! Again, this shouldn’t be expected from a legend like Mann.
loOol
Linda,
Ironically enough in this part of the world, you can show a public execution but not a peck! Violence is rarely edited out on TV, not even during the day when children are watching!
Hind,
I was referring to the movie The Insider not the show on MBC2;-)
Chand,
Your Christmas observation is hilarious!
Roa,
It is so good to hear from you and know that you read this humble blog. I didn’t even know that you are aware of its existence.
Arash, I asked a friend of mine who claims that he knows some Persian and he told me that it was not Persian that the guy was speaking. I don’t know, maybe you can ask some of your friends and let us know.
As of 24’s new season, I read somewhere it is very controversial as this time it addresses the issue of Islamic fundamentalism very bluntly that some major Muslim organisations are objecting to it s airing as they say it represents an unfair stereotyping of Muslims and label them all as terrorists!. The new season revolves around the story of a Turkish family who immigrated to the US and who are planning a major terrorist attack. We are currently watching the third season, but this time the terrorists are Ukrainians;-) We really love this show!
Amal,
As a Shia leader he is supposed to be addressed as “Sayyed” no? like Sayyed Hassan Nasr Allah. In the movie, they didn’t even call him sheikh they called him “seek” or something like this;-)
“Also the Arabic translator that was supposedly translating for Mike Wallace was speaking gibberish! I couldn’t understand a single word of what he was saying!”
This is frustrating. I do not watch wrestling, my brother does and it is being done there too. There is this wrestelr that comes out and his character is an Arab American (very stereotypical) and his manager is as well. The manager claims to speak Arabic, but i think it is persian.
Hey Natasha, I am wondering, do they edit out any violence because I get MBC and Dubai tv through Satelite in L.A. and I have seen many violent movies shown on their channels.
I wonder why they would cut out anything romantic or curse words and not violence?
“Also the Arabic translator that was supposedly translating for Mike Wallace was speaking gibberish! I couldn’t understand a single word of what he was saying!”
I haven’t watched what is being discussed, but I’m guessing he was probably speaking Persian. On many occasions I’ve watched American series using an Iranian to fill for Arabic roles. There are many Iranians active in the US entertainment industry.
BTW, The new session of 24 will star Shohre Aghdashlou from House of Sand and Fog.
hey tasha..
i am not going to comment on the topic.. but i want to tell u although i have not been writing emails i have been reading your blog almost everyday.. i love it.. it feels so much like home.. and keeping up with u and jeff’s life..and the arab worlsd and most important amman..
miss u guys so much.. thanks again for htis blog :)))
The opening scenes of the Insider-one of my favorites Hollywood movies-with ‘Hizballah’ were also censored in the cinemas here in Beirut when it was released. And I was extremely offended by the Arabic they were supposedly speaking! Also, did you notice that he addressed the first Hizballah leader as ‘Shaik Fadallah?’ Where did they get that from?!
comparing both channels ‘ONE and MBC2 i found that ‘ONE is better;)
i dont watch tv that much but damn MBC2 repeats the same movies over and over and over..etc again
and the Insider show i’ve been watching it for over a week they repeat the same thing every single time!! i’m sick of it… but ‘ONE is really good i like the shows on this channel
Yes ONE tv is great… it complements MBC 2 quite well. There’s alot of snip snip, but I don’t mind it that much. I don’t know if you ever watched Saudi Channel 2 when it was still around, but that was really annoying. For example, they would show the Christmas episode of a sitcom, and the censor every time a character says “christmas”! Retarded! Why do they bother showing the show at all??
But Saudi 2 and Aramco Channel 3… the good old days…