ABSTRACT
Once again, as is the case every year, Egyptian television greeted us during the 2001 Ramadan season with an awesome mass of TV serials exclusively fashioned for the holy month of Ramadan. The Arab viewer, who would have just broken his or her fast with the typically heavy Ramadan meal, iftar, could slip into a state of drowsiness and sprawl lazily in front of the small screen. Watching television – after almost half-a-century-long experience of special programming, produced specifically for these post-iftar hours during Ramadan – is an activity that hinders the already arduous process of digestion (of both the heavy iftar meal and the even heavier dose of Ramadan serials) with an intensity that almost brings the process to a halt.
