Not Your Typical Monday Night
ABDUL SHAFI ANSHARI BIN ABDUL AZIZ reviewed Not Safe For TV’s Monday Nights, its story, cinematography and music.
The main characters of Monday Nights: Ryan, Jasmine, Sabrina, and Devan (from left to right).
PHOTO CREDITS: NOT SAFE FOR TV
Anxiety attacks, abandonment issues, and alcoholism. These are only a few of the many topics brought to life on screen in Not Safe for TV’s (NSFTV) original series called Monday Nights which first ran from December 2020 to January 2021. It’s the second most recent series released by NSFTV, but it’s also their second most popular series of all time in terms of views.
Monday Nights is eight episodes long, each with a runtime of eight to ten minutes. The series features four petty crime offenders as they navigate through their counselling sessions and everything in between. Their progress will determine the sentence for their crimes.
“One of our colleagues has a friend that works in these sort of rehabilitation programs for troubled youths,” says Miss Tan Hui Er, one of the producers for Monday Nights. “We have always been exploring issues, like social issues that are not really seen or heard, especially in Singapore.”
She also says how her team was inspired by popular shows with ensemble casts like The Umbrella Academy, Sex Education and Euphoria.
“You get to see the different people with their backstories and what they've gone through,” says Miss Tan. “They kind of interact and rub off each other and that causes growth and even hurt and change.”
That was one of my favourite aspects of the show. Every character was flawed, and you can see it being shown in extreme forms. But watching them learn and improve through each other was satisfying. For example, when there was a conversation about experiences with divorce and letting go between Ryan and Devan which led to Ryan finally confessing about his crime to his mother.
Miss Sum Jodyn, a fan of Monday Nights, thought it was a good decision to slowly reveal the backstories of the characters.
“It made me want to watch the other episodes and eagerly want to find out their story,” she says.
Miss Sum also says that one of the interesting aspects of the show was the title sequences. I agreed with her sentiment.
Every episode of Monday Nights has an unconventional title sequence where the title is introduced through an object in the scene such as on a cigarette box or a cake. This concept excited me to see the different introductions of each episode.
Miss Tan says that the idea was inspired by The Umbrella Academy where the title of the show is always shown on an umbrella.
PHOTO CREDITS: NOT SAFE FOR TV
The show explores different camera techniques like showing certain shots through an Instagram story format or a fisheye lens to show a vision of a dog.
“The different angles and point of views that they explored made it more immersive for me,” says Miss Sum.
My favourite episode in terms of visuals and story is episode seven titled, ‘One Last Take’. It only features three scenes and just like the title, each of it was filmed in one take. It follows Jasmine as she tries to cope with an anxiety attack after being haunted by her past. I could feel the tension through the screen which made me really engaged in the episode.
Mr Danial Chan Xian Wen, a cinematographer who is not involved in Monday Nights, says that shooting a scene in a single take will give the audience the illusion that they are watching the scene “in real time”.
“It helps to create anticipation and there’s a lot of waiting to see what happens next. Also, the camera movements can’t really be predicted so the viewer is just left there waiting,” says Mr Chan.
Music also plays a big role in this series. I liked how some of the intense scenes were accompanied by a contrasting cheery tune. This is called “soundtrack dissonance”. According to an article by The Guardian, “dissonance between song and action has the power to make the scene even more poignant, emotional”.
Overall, I found Monday Nights really eye opening and enjoyable. By the last episode, I was looking forward to seeing the verdicts for each of the characters’ crimes. However, just like many shows, Monday Nights ended on a cliffhanger.
“It doesn't matter where they go from here. The point is that they've been through this journey. Whatever happens to them afterwards, shouldn't be the thing that they defined themselves by,” says Miss Tan.