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Ramadan TV Series: The Good, the Bad, and the Mediocre

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Ramadan TV Series: The Good, the Bad, and the Mediocre
written by
Cairo 360

Last year, the Arab world witnessed some great works of Egyptian art during the holy month of Ramadan. When we say “art”, we are referring to the creative activity that was witnessed in the ingenious series, portrayed by talented Egyptian actors and actresses alike. Rahim, El-Rehla, and Roba’ Romi are just a few examples of the many programmes that people were hooked on from the 1st until the 30th episode. Simultaneously, there were some series, which did not share the spotlight.

It’s been a week so far for Ramadan 2019, so it seems fitting to check which series are currently in the lead and those that are at the other end of the track. Sadly, YouTube is blocked from streaming Ramadan series this year. Therefore, we don’t have access to an accurate statistical map. Even the Watch iT! app that we talked about last week was facing some technical issues when we tried to sign up. And so we turned to our final options, a Facebook page called Series of Ramadan 2019, the official page that follows entertainment news for Ramadan series, as well as Elcinema.com, the largest Arabic movie database.

We’ll start with the results that we found on Elcinema.com. They categorised the list of dramatic, comic, and action series based on two main criteria: Ratings, and number of views. The leading star of this year’s highest-rated series, at 8.5, may not be a surprise for some of you. It’s none other than “The Knight”, Ahmed El Sakka in Weld El-Ghalaba. He portrays an upper-Egyptian who lives on the border of the poverty line, who decides to earn an honest living by having two jobs. Yet through his struggle to make ends meet, he falls into the pit of the drug trade.

Qabeel, by Amia Khalil and Mohamed Mamdouh, as well the nationally renowned Kalabsh, by Amir Karara, are ranked as second and third respectively. Sadly, Hassan Al-Raddad and Mai Ezz-Eldin’s projects this year are not receiving the same attention as they are placed at the end of the list with ratings of 4.6 and 4.9 respectively.

At the same time, Series of Ramadan 2019 conducted two polls in the past 24 hours. The first one asked viewers to vote between Abu Gabal, by Mostafa Shaban, and Zelzal, by Mohamed Ramadan for best series. Based on 1,500 votes so far, Zelzal exceeds Abou Gabal by 10 per cent (55:45). This corresponds to Elcinema.com’s survey that ranks Ramdan’s series as the third most viewed series and that of Shaban’s as the ninth.

However, the second poll conflicts with the data on the movie website. While Hoogan by Mohamed Emam, and Lams Aktaf by Yasser Galal, are very close in rating as well as the number of views, the voting shows that the former is in the lead with a difference of 12% based on 735 votes. 

The month is still young, so we cannot fully judge the scenario until the very end. The plots are still unravelling, and many surprises are yet to come. Let’s see how the ratings and number of views will alter in the next couple of weeks. 

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