A netizen on reddit pointed out that our tv sucks because there is nothing much exciting happening in Singapore
here is what the netizen said:
In Chinese the saying goes: 人生如戏，戏如人生. Which means life is like a drama, drama is like life.
In Singapore, life is too safe, too boring. Our lives are too good compared to people in other countries. There is no excitement. Even the biggest scandal that happened in Singapore, where politicians cheat on their spouse, or a Minister allegedly corrupting $300k, those are still boring compared to other countries.
There is no semblance of realism if our screenplay writers write too dramatic. Because those don’t seem realistic to happen irl.
Even those shows that we think were good like Holland V, they are only “good” because we had no basis of comparison. Most people had little access to overseas TV shows back in 2003.
The TV shows standards never drop, but they stagnated. And our tastebuds upgraded because of the access we have now.
Here are what netizens think:
- It’s because Singapore TV shows have multiple SOP censorships and guidelines before it’s approved to be shown on national channels. Another factor is the approved budget for production. SG’s market is too small for wide-budget compared to our influential countries in media (America, Korea, etc.). Imagine channel 8/U only caters to~3million Chinese mixed population of SG and some are not locals, how many are willing to tune in to local shows? Probably less than 5% I suppose. I think the scriptwriters have to adapt with the approvals and thread accordingly haha.
- or maybe singapore is too small of an audience that there’s no point pumping in more money to produce better productions. roi is just not there.
- A lot of Japanese dramas depicts the beauty and philosophy of ordinary daily lives. It’s the lack of depth makes shows boring.
- It suck because of censorship and lack of money. Can you imagine the multi award winning korean movie parasite produced in sg ? Directors and producers will be sent for questioning. No one will invest in the movie. It will be dead before it’s born.