If you’re into Ramadan mosalsals, you may be overwhelmed by the ten thousand series airing this year. We feel you. This is why your TV experts (*cough* couch potatoes with suffering severe social anxiety and neuroticism *cough*) at Cairo Gossip bring you their recommendations of which TV series you should watch. Cue the Botox, overacting and nostalgia overload; it wouldn’t be Ramadan without them...
It’s only day three of Ramadan, but this suspense/drama/whodunit series is shaping up to be a 2016 favorite so far; what with the decent acting, the quality soundtrack and cinematography, and can we take a moment to high-five whoever picked the Old Cataract in Aswan as a set location? There’s also an element of Yacoubian Building/Downton Abbey to the show, where the entangled lives of the servants and bashas are just as intriguing as Amr Youssef’s blue eyes.
Ma’moun wa Shorakah (Ma’moun and his Partners)
While this show has many torn between yay and meh, we can’t deny the on screen power of heavyweights Adel Imam and Lebleba, even if her face is stretched so tight you’re worried her cheeks may fall off. Imam is extremely believable as a miserly, stingy millionaire who ends up in jail and, while the show is camp and predictable, there's something warming to the soul about watching Adel Imam be funny (or try to).
Another quality production thanks to director Mohamed Yaseen and a stellar cast including Mona Zaki and Jamal Suleiman, Afrah El Quba is based on a novel by Nageeb Mahfouz and has been quite impeccable so far in its script, costumes and locations. Set in 1970s Cairo, the drama focuses on the life backstage of a theatre company as members of the cast discover that the screenplay is about their real lives.
Confession time: we, like so many, are watching this mainly for the smoldering Dhaffer L’Abidine. Fellow smolderer Sherif Salama isn’t too bad to look at either, by the way. The show has something to do with two cops investigating a murder, and one of them falling in love with Dorra, but honestly - those two can investigate us anytime.
Foq Mostawa El Shobohat (Above Suspicion)
This may be the most controversial item on the list but hear us out first: this show is the epitome of guilty pleasure - excruciatingly bad acting, raging stereotypes (kid who smokes up and sleeps around, yada yada) and a script that kinda falls flat. But then again, you have Yosra as the bad guy; a parliamentary candidate who also seems to have killed people, in addition to having sent her husband to jail and not minding sacrificing her own mother. It’s so ridiculous, we can’t get enough of it.
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By Kalam El Qahaira
