Salma Ahmed
Since the announcement of the upcoming series Suits Bel Araby, it has faced a lot of criticism.
Most people on social media started criticizing the series and the cast before it even aired, and we will point out the possible reasons for this attack and why people should give the series a chance.
Recent Adaptations That We All Loved
Most of the criticism was based on people refusing that the show is an adaptation of the original series, but we didn’t see it yet.
Suppose the idea of remakes and adaptations, in general, is the problem. In that case, we have several examples of Egyptian series that were remakes of foreign series and had a huge success.
All the series we will mention were criticized as well, but they had huge success after airing.
- Heba Regl El-Ghorab & Ugly Betty (American Series)
- Tariqi & La Ronca de Oro (The Voice of Freedom – A Colombian Telenovela)
- Anesa Farah & Jane the Virgin (American Series)
- Sittat Bayt Al Ma’adi & Why Women Kill (American Series)
- Qawaed Al Talaq Al 45 & Girlfriends’ Guide To Divorce (American Series)
And lastly, we have Suits Bel Araby, a remake of the well-known American series Suits.
Of course, there are other examples of Egyptian series and movies that were adaptations, but we wanted to mention the recent ones that had huge success after airing.
Putting Your Love Aside
Even though Suits Bel Araby isn’t the first Egyptian series to be adapted, it is most criticized.
Take, for example, Anesa Farah, one of the most successful series in the last couple of years. It didn’t face the same criticism as Suits Bel Araby.
We have two more examples like Sittat Bayt Al Ma’adi and Qawaed Al Talaq Al 45, and both of them were also successful despite being an adaptation.
We understand that people’s love for the original Suits could make them believe that the adaptation would insult it or be a failure.
Ahmed Dawood pointed that out, saying:
The original Suits has a lot of fans… They are asking “why will you make it like this?”
So, it’s clear that many of the judgments are based on people’s love for the original series.
We Shouldn’t compare As7ab Wala A3az With Suits Bel Araby
Another reason for Suits Bel Araby being criticized a lot more than other adapted series is because it was announced after the release of As7ab Wala A3az (Perfect strangers), which was attacked and met with backlash.
Despite this backlash, As7ab Wala A3az was the #1 most-watched film in Egypt and several Arab countries.
People shouldn’t judge Suits Bel Araby because of their outrage over As7ab Wala A3az since both works are completely different, and your dislike toward a certain adaptation shouldn’t make you judge any new adaptation that is announced.
Why Adaptations Exist
Some people judged the series because they don’t like the idea of remakes and adaptations; they think that it is uncreative.
It was difficult to create entirely new ideas when the Egyptian cinema and TV industry existed for many years. After a while, you would want to introduce different ideas that weren’t used multiple times.
Some already judged Suits Bel Araby because there were a lot of adaptations released recently and they are “getting bored,” but we must ask them, would you prefer watching the same ideas being used again and again by the same actors, or would you like having a mix between Egyptian series and ideas and between adapted series with different views?
Why We Can’t Wait to Watch It
People already love Suits, and that is clear in how they aren’t that excited about an Egyptian adaptation. Still, the idea of watching a show that you love with Egyptian actors that you know is exciting and has already proved its success.
Suits Bel Araby already has an amazing cast, including Asser Yassin, Saba Mubarak, Ahmed Dawood, Mohamed Shahin, Tara Emad, and Reem Mostafa.
CBC has also dropped a teaser for the series, and we want to ask those who are attacking the series to look at the teaser and at Asser Yassin’s dialogue because they will rethink judging it after doing so.
So, if people put aside their judgments and remember all recent successful adaptations, they will give Suits Bel Araby a chance and actually enjoy it, especially with that cast.
And just like Ahmed Dawood said:
Watch then judge.
