Talkin-Typewrita.
- Critique Talk
Come Home to 5, er you mean Singapore?
Sunday, September 28, 2008, 11:15
Besides clinching the rights for the 'live' telecast of the world's first street night race (I'm not complaining!), MediaCorp TV's Channel 5 is trying very hard to help in 'nation building' with the newly created drama serial Sense of Home.Here's abit of the synopsis:
'Sense Of Home is a unique drama anthology. The first English drama series filmed entirely overseas, it is a collection of four stories about Singaporeans abroad: living, working, traveling … or simply lost.'
(More of it can be found Here)
The last sentence, "stories about Singaporeans abroad: living,working, traveling...or simply lost." I think the show attempts to draw an ugly picture of locals living overseas by illustrating the negativities of 'staying away from home' like in its pilot, "Chris and Linda, two Shanghai-based Singaporean newlyweds find their lives turned upside down when Linda discovers she’s pregnant, and they can’t agree about whether to have the baby in Singapore or China."
It is pretty clear that the show wants to:
1. Influence Singaporeans to set up their families back home and eventually work in Singapore for good.
2. Encourage young Singaporeans to continue staying in Singapore.
3. Convince locals who are studying overseas to come back home to work when they are done with their education.
I feel that yes it is good that our Government recognises the problem of its talents (sad to say that it's our only resource) leaving the country for good and should be given credit for taking steps to stem the outflow of Singaporeans. However, they are not going to accomplish that with just some speeches and a TV series.
As much as it hopes to influence the Singaporeans who are thinking of moving overseas, the show lacks the kind of impact that needs to get the right message across to Singaporeans. Like one of the show's slogans, "Is the grass greener on the other side?", might just make young Singaporeans think hard and go like, "Of course!" and that would be an opposite effect which the show failed to control. With so many new oppoturnities out there, young Singaporeans are definitely attracted to the idea of migrating to embark on their 'exciting journey of life' (yes the grass is really greener on the other side!) Unless they experience it for themselves, they are not going to believe that the stories of Sense of Home apply to all.
Despite the weakness of the show, I can say Channel 5 is pretty smart in creating a strong identity with their interstitial "Come Home to 5". Although we don't notice, it is actually stuck somewhere in our heads, along with the song sang by our very own Singapore Idol, Hady Mirza. Oh well, let's just say that it takes more than TV to convince Singaporeans where HOME should be.
Labels: Aretha