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lmost every evening, 60-year-old Safiah Ahmad will look for a comfortable spot in front of her TV, to watch her current favorite Islamic sinetron, Tukang Bubur Naik Haji (Porridge Seller Goes on the Haj).

Before watching Tukang Bubur, which has passed the 670-episode mark, between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. every day, the stay-at-home mom also tunes in to another sinetron, Berkah (Gift), which starts earlier.

'€œWhile both shows depict stories about families and their daily lives, I prefer Tukang Bubur because it has a lot of comedy. It also delivers religious moral messages, which I think people can learn from and implement in everyday life,'€ she said.

Safiah said she often got tired of watching Tukang Bubur, a drama about a lower-middle class neighborhood in Jakarta, that can last for up to four hours every evening.

Lengthy air time is usually a benchmark of a successful program in the local free-to-air television stations. Given good ratings by viewers'€™ surveys, a television station usually expands the running time to create more space for commercial breaks.

Featuring flawed characters '€” including Haji Muhidin, a middle-aged man who has performed the haj pilgrimage on three occasions, but is still envious and cruel to his neighbors '€” each episode in Tukang Bubur is a comical satire about daily problems in an average, predominantly Muslim, neighborhood in the country.

'€œI'€™ve been following the story since day one and I'€™m really curious to see how it ends,'€ said Sefiah.

Tukang Bubur is not her first time following a long-running sinetron; she also enjoyed Cinta Fitri (Fitri'€™s Love) '€” a drama that holds the title of Indonesia'€™s longest running TV series with a jaw-dropping 1,002 episodes.

During its peak popularity, it also aired for more than one hour a day.

Islamic sinetron is a phenomenon that has been around for almost 15 years. It was started with Doaku Harapanku (My Prayer, My Hope), which was the first sinetron to be aired thematically coinciding with the fasting month in 1998 by RCTI, a few hours before dusk, just before the breaking of the fast.

It starred then sky-rocketing diva Krisdayanti as Anisa, former soft-porn actor Dicky Wahyudi as Andika and film veteran Leily Sagita as Andika'€™s mother Lela. Lela played a cliché sinetron antagonist, who was cruel and strongly disagreed with Anisa and Andika'€™s love and marriage.  

The sinetron are among several staples that television stations offer during the fasting month, along with slapstick comedy shows, sermons and Koran analysis sessions and religious music.

Doaku Harapanku, a typical series of its time presenting extravagance and luxury, was a huge success and was soon followed by numerous similarly thematic and dramatic sinetrons featuring a tormented female protagonist who turns to God for help to help overcome her problems. Such as her vicious mother-in-law as well as a jealous rival lover of her man. Religious sinetron have become staple shows outside of Ramadhan too.

Abdul Asmawi said although he watched sinetrons now and then, he was looking forward to Para Pencari Tuhan (God Seekers), which has aired on SCTV exclusively during Ramadhan for the last seven years. It used to be during the afternoon, but this year it is on in the morning to accompany Muslims having their pre-dawn meals.

'€œThe series does not have a lot of conflict, but it has more religious teachings. It'€™s educational but still in a light way, not a very serious series. I am not bored watching it,'€ said the 58-year-old entrepreneur.

Abdul said he disliked long running sinetrons. '€œI can'€™t bear their length. I am impatient and their stories do not seem to have any visible ending,'€ he said.

Media expert and TV creator Maman Suherman believes there is nothing religious about the Islamic sinetron as production houses only use religion as packaging, while the content is pretty much the same as pop sinetrons throughout the year.

'€œFor example, they have actors playing clerics or pesantren (Islamic boarding school) but the core story is still about: love, family conflicts or the ridiculous black-vs-white characterization,'€ Maman said.

If she had the power, Safiah knows the kind of sinetron she wants to see. '€œI want them to produce sinetrons that are morally educational, but still funny. Stop producing ones with mother-in-laws being cruel to their daughter-in-laws,'€ she says.