The Return of Cable TV Hell?

I was left reeling this morning. I was having my customary breakfast time flick through the TV channels, when I decided to have a look at what was on cable. Jesus Christ! Instead of the usual cable company logo, there they were again - those bloody idiots trying to sell me various phone and web-related packages! I thought I'd seen the back of those bastards months ago! Clearly, I thought, I must have done something terrible in a previous life to be subjected to this horror again. Still reeling from these apparitions I stumbled off to work. However, it was clear that the damage had been done - a cloak of depression descended over me for the rest of the day.

So, you can imagine my relief when, on my return home this evening, a quick check of my cable channels revealed that everything was back to normal - no inane sales idiots, just the logo back. Back to normal, except... Upon flicking through the channels again, I found that Sony Entertainment Television Asia (SETA) was unencoded. A whole new world has suddenly opened for me! A world of bizarre Hindi-language soap operas, in which most of the vital action seems to take place in people's brightly-lit living rooms. The directors are obviously greatly taken with video editing technology - the number of zooms every time something dramatic happens is incredible. The acting performances are also wonderful - in one soap a character is shot several times and proceeds to clutch at his (extremely bloody) wounds in one of the most protracted death scenes I've ever seen. I particularly liked the relatively delicate way in which he finally fell to the ground - where he proceeded to twitch his legs violently before finally expiring. Magnificent stuff! As well as the soaps, I also caught a sitcom about the Indian Mafia, which involved someone doing a truly dreadful Marlon Brando impression. It was all accompanied by lots of canned laughter and looked like something ITV would have made in the 1980s.

Whilst I can't understand most of what they're saying (although quite a lot of English phrases are used), I can honestly say that SETA is one of the most entertaining cable channels I've ever seen. The only thing which has rivaled it was the Italian channel RAI Uno, which I got for several months a few years ago. I don't know how long SETA is going to be available to me, but I intend enjoying it for as long as it is there!