King Farouk's TV series

I think that I did not speak about that successful TV Series except when it was announced that a Syrian was going to act the role of King Farouk , other than that the discussion about the TV series was in my Arabic blog , yet I believe with all the noise the TV Series created in the Egyptian street I should speak about it here

I will speak first about the TV series from an Artistic point view , I will not speak about the historical and political point views now because they need time and already I got a bad flu.

With no argument that TV series was from the best Arabic TV series presented on the screen in this Ramadan and in historical drama over all , here I am using the word Arabic because it is not considered an Egyptian TV series , it is produced by Saudis "MBC Channel" , the director is Syrian "Hatem Ali" , the leading actor is Syrian "Tim Hassan" and the Music is by Lebanese "sorry I can't remember his name".

This TV series is well made no one can deny the story and script of Dr.Lamis Gabr are impressive "I am not going to involve in historical debate yet"

The decorations were excellent taking in consideration that the Egyptian Presidency refused to let the crew of the TV series to film in the Royal Palaces which became Presidential palaces for security reasons as the Make up crew of the TV series is Iranian ,already of course "Hatem Ali" is so mad and attacking indirectly the officials in Egypt despite the fact , the important fact he can't open his mouth in his own country in Syria when it comes to the national security and presidency , already I did not feel any problem with the settings or decorations , yes it would be much better if it were shot in the original settings of the Presidential Palaces but before "Ali" goes angry and gives the Syrian press an opportunity to jump in the wagon and start attacking the Egyptians' red tape ,he should first have paid attention to the customs and clothes in the TV Series

The huge terrible mistake, I do not think that the art director or the fashion designer or even the director himself bothered to read or even see any picture regarding the customs of that period from the 1920s to early 1950s whether internationally or locally ,in fact they did not even bother to present the decorations of orders as it should be ,the Three stars and crescent decoration "Tim Hassan" as King Farouk wore in his suite was badly made and that's just the beginning

The Royal Queens and Princesses clothes whether in day or night look like as if they were in the Victorian era not in 1940s !! Despite all the photos online and off line in the books are available to anyone

Of course this nothing compared to the big disaster represented in the clothes of the commoners "the ignored part in the TV Series" I can't believe that in 1940s Egyptian ladies wore like in 1919 !!!!

I can't stop thinking that these small mistakes could have been avoided if the famous director "Anam Mohamed Ali" ,the director of "Om Khalthoum" and "Kasem Amin" were the director of "King Farouk"

The acting was the big surprise here and I am not speaking about "Tim Hassan" 's performance which is a real fine one , do not forget that was his first performance in Egyptian accent and I guess it is also his first leading role , all his previous roles "mostly with Ali" he was not the leading actor even in "Nizar Qabbani" whom he only represented the famous poet in the youth era ,still "Hassan" I felt that he always fall in the nervous scenes when he screams and shouts , here I feel he can't control it and that he is just pretending , also the last three episode where he presented Farouk in his last years as fat and bald man he was not in his best times in the TV series , may be the make up and the custom he wore to make him fat made it hard for him to act naturally as in the early episodes , not every actor is gifted by Eddy Murphy's talent

The big surprise in the TV series was not "Tim" but the other supporting leading actors whom I think stole the light from him in their scenes together

1- "Ezzat Abou O'of" , one of the most famous supporting actors in Egypt , he presented the role Ahmed Hassanein Pasha in a way like no other , seriously I felt that Abou O'of wore the character as a glove

2-" Wafaa Amar", I will confess that when they announced her name to present Queen Nazli on screen I had the feeling the TV Series would be a big failure , after Wafaa Amar was associated with third degree seduction role , yet she was more than great here , a very mature actress , seriously it was the role of her life time

3-"Salah Abd- Allah" , here is another surprise ,because when "Abd Allah" the famous comedian actor presents the character of "Mustafa El-Nahas" in that wonderful way , already many attacked "Abd Allah" for his way of acting the role , they believed that "Abd Allah" made "El-Nahas" look like a comedian , well believe or not that was the real style of the great leader, my grand mother 's best friend's family was a close to him and as a young girl she met him several time and that was his style and way of talking and dealing with people

4- "Nabil El-Halfawy", in the role of "Ali Maher" ,"El-Halfawy" is a great actor and it is not a surprise that he would represent this character in that wonderful way

What else ,well there are other actors who did their roles wonderfully but on the other hand there are some actors who were not that good above them "Menna Fadly" who acted the role of "Queen Farida" , I do not know if she is a bad actress or the role was written badly , already I felt that "Dr.Lamis " was unfair to the popular "Queen Farida " presenting her as some sort of nervous sad dull wife for the merry "Farouk" !!!

The music was so bad , seriously I do not know why they ignored some one like "Amar El-Shara'ai" or "Omar Khairat" to compose the Music !!

Over all the TV series was excellent ,it is highly recommended to be watched , you can watch it here on Jump TV

Technorati tags: Media, TV, King Farouk, TV Series, MBC, Tim Hassan, Ramadan, Egypt, middle east, arab world, culture, history, Egyptian Royalty