Thursday, September 08, 2005
I mean, what the hell man..
Singapore really really REALLY ought to improve the standards of its tv shows. Or at least, Channel 5 does. One bad sitcom/reality tv show/drama series/talenttime is bad enough, but when every single local tv production makes me cringe, then i guess its safe to conclude that there's something SERIOUSLY wrong with our English TV entertainment scene.
Dont get me wrong, i'm a big fan of the local entertainment scene. Local movies such as Army Daze, Chicken Rice War, Liang Po Po, and the very recent Perth are all commendable productions, and have certainly placed our little red dot on the map. Local music acts like the (defuct) Urban Xchange, Parkinglot Pimps, and even Triple Noize (okay, the semifinal version) do justice to our hip-hop scene.
But the unforgivable crap they show on TV: Singapore Idol and shooting stars, with their overexposure of taufik, sylvester and gang, filled with corny scenes, cliched lines and poseur-ish fade in/out change of scenes. Or how about Villa Wellness, with such obvious rip-offs from the Bachelor, the Apprentice and other more tried and tested (as well as entertaining) reality tv shows. There are a hundred other timeless cringe-inducing shows i could bitch about: living with lydia, chase, my grandson the doctor, happy belly, first mums..
Singapore's TV scene does one thing well: Reverse engineering. Or rather ripping off a successful idea, adding some local flava, and calling it our own.
You would think that after years of experimentation, a tv station could possibly come up with something successful. Sadly however, its most successful production has probably been Phua Chu Kang, and even that spawned a musical (Singapore's omnipotent characteristic to milk anything successful till its last drop) which was widely considered a flop. Hell, even my parents said it was a flop. Must have been that bad.
Its sad that they have to resort to below-the-belt tactics such as slotting Shooting Stars right after the National Day Parade and openly declaring it to break the record with "1.2 million viewers!"
Is it any wonder that US productions seem to take off much better than ours? Gems like Lost, the Apprentice, CSI, Who's Line is it Anyway?, hell, even Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with witty lines and better plots, manage to snare viewers and achieve cult status so much better than local ones. Is it any wonder, that Channel i, which tried to focus on broadcasting local tv shows, fell flat on its face?
National loyalty is not an issue here. I'm all for supporting our local entertainment scene. However, how do we force ourselves to applaud something which so blatently doesnt deserves our praise? We should certainly crawl out of our little holes and take a look at the big wide world. Im surprised im saying this even before i'm heading to the states..
I sound like a real complain king dont i? Well, i dont care. "It's my blog, and i'll whine if i want to, whine if i want to.."
he rocked the party at 8:52 AM |
