The viewing figures are in. The return of Magda made OTV the most watched channel on Romanian television this week. Obama? Who he. It’s Magda the people want. Well, here she is…
Now, we used to hate OTV. Really. It was known in our house as the shouting channel, because all people ever did on it was shout. And the people upstairs used to watch it all the time, so we heard every word, often long into the night.
Then we moved. And there was no more shouting.
Now we can enjoy OTV for what it is: wonderful entertainment. What makes it so enjoyable is not the content, which, let’s face it, is beyond criticism, but instead the moral outrage it provokes amongst Romania’s liberal classes, who hate it. They hate it not just because it is popular (and how!) but primarily because of who it is popular with: what are known in liberal circles as ‘the lower orders.’
Well, those ‘lower orders’ now include Bucharest Life.
Say it loud! We love OTV and we’re proud!
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Well that’s a new one
You know, OTV used to have more interesting shows a few years ago when they called Gigi Becali, when they called politicians, mafiosos and other dubious persons that could speak their mind for hours in a Hyde Park manner. The shows that Gigi Becali used to put on OTV are unforgetable!
But since they started dealing with stupid murder cases, turning them on each side for hundreds of evenings in a row they lost me as a viewer.
Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against the lower classes – actually I consider myself to be low class as well because I listen to manele and I grew up between the blocks (“Dupa blocuri” – title of a famous melody from B.U.G. Mafia, an underground style troup) not to mention that I don’t give a sh** on my university diploma (yea, I have one) but what OTV does is ridiculous.
I mean they don’t even raise to the level where they could generate controversy. Nowadays when you say OTV you say something like “carciuma” (small bar in the countryside where people go only to get boozed and sometimes they stay in there for a whole day) – so you know what to expect.
“Cancan” newspaper fits very well in the same cathegory as OTV, however – they do have some subjects capable of generating controversy in each edition. So I’m a fan of Cancan