Dear Sinetron Writers

I don't watch Sinetrons. None. However, I can't help catching glimpses of them when channel-surfing. Considering the little amount of exposure I had to sinetron, it's incredible the number of times I encountered this wrath-inducing scene: the internal monologue.

An internal monologue in a sinetron involves a character talking to himself. The camera would be static on a close-up shot of a character looking distraught as if in deep thought. Meanwhile, the character talks to himself regarding what he feels about a situation he is facing in his head, or worse, outloud.

Sinetron writers, if you want to write such scene in your script...

Don't.

Just don't.

It's a dirty hack. It's cheating. It's embarrassing. If you want to convey the character's feeling, show it in action and dialogue. Don't just tell it for the audience. Respect the audience that are watching your show. An internal monologue insults their intelligence. It says "we don't think you're going to get this story, so we're just going to spell it out for you."

With internal monologue, you are hammering a story to the audience. Well, here's a new word for your consideration: subtlety.

Of course, thats' just a minor problem among a group of major ones: story theft, one dimensional characters, over-acting, laughable dialogue, lack of variety. But we'll start at internal monologue. Baby steps.