In Continuum.

House M.D.

Dr. Gregory House,the protagonist of the TV series House M.D.,the hero of hospitals and the king of kings.I've been watching this series over the past two days or so,and i must say that this is television at it's best.This is what the television should be:Providing a form of entertainment you cant get from the theatres.Of course,in theatres you get popcorns and cokes,you get the ambient of the cinema and of course,the expensive special effects and let's not forget the actors and actresses with sky rocketting paychecks.The truth is,television is different from cinema,and in the growing competition of today's entertainment business,the only way for television to grow and come chest to chest with the competition from the cinema,is to produce shows such as House.Because i got to admit it,House is an awesome show.

But as good as the show,i am reluctant to go into details about it.I dont think anything i am going to type,in an attempt to describe the greatness of the show,is going to give justice to it at all.The most i can do is to spin and dance around like a crazy fanboy and expect you to share my joy.But it doesnt work that way at all,and to tel you the truth,watching House and those other American television series makes me really sad.Not because the stories and plots are(They are,sometimes),but because in relative to their dedication to the screenplay,the plots and the cinematography,the asian entertainment business,especially the television media,is pathetic.

Over at the forums,there was a question posted in the "General" section,on whether anybody thought that Mediacorp programmes are going downhill,that they are not as good as before.My theory is that they never were good,so it is not exactly possible for them to head downhill.There never was an uphill,so to speak.But then again,according to the voters and posters of the thread,people seem to agree that it has been going towards the rock bottom recently.There was an overwhelming support of the "Yes" option,and before the computer that day i was happy.At least Singaporeans - the ones on the forum anyway - are waking up to the atrocities of Singaporean television.

Let's break down the structure of almost every single Singaporean television series nowadays.The root of all evil has got to be Hong Kong's Kindred Spirit,which sort of lasted for a thousand,if not a million episodes.Family conflicts,brothers hating sisters and hatred in between families.Business partners fighting with one another while here and there,lovers fall in love and yet against the families' will.Yeah,we've seen it all before on channel 56 on cable,but let's switch to channel 3 to watch those channel 8 trash.Everything is a copy of those Hong Kong shows,but the problem is that they are almost always a bad counterfeit of the former.Like printing a hundred dollar bill with George Washington's head instead of Yushok Ishak's.It doesnt work out,and it is downright hilarious.

Anyway,back to the forum.This is how that person actually ranked the television shows available in Singapore.American television > TVB > Japanese television > Taiwanese television > Korean television > Mediacorp.I personally cannot testify for the TVB part,since i dont remember watching anything from there.But i must admit that the 4th and 5th positions are rather debatable.To me,at least Korean actors and actresses do exactly what they are supposed to do:Act.Whereas in Taiwanese television,as long as you look cute or handsome,somebody is going to bump you into a television show and act.But of course,with the looks and havent the brain or the talent,most of the time you find those young actors acting to act,if you know what i mean.And let's not forget just how bad the storylines can be,and how cliche-filled they are most of the time.Boy loves girl,girl loves boy,one possibility.Boy loves girl,girl doesnt love boy,possibility number two.Boy hates girl,girl hates boy.Then they love each other at the end,possibility number three.Every possibility also has the possibility of sexual reversal,and of course at the very end of each possibilities there will almost always be a happy ending.Because that's the way they are: Family-friendly.

We dont even need to start on just how bad Korean shows are.A friend of mine might be going to Korea after ORD,and i was asking him if he has insurance of any kind.When asked why,i told him that in Korea it seems likely that you are going to get some terminal disease like cancer,go blind,deaf or dumb,be knocked down by a car or truck and possibly amnesia.Also,everybody on the streets could be your brother,your sister,cousin,long lost parents or any forgotten family members.That conclusion was drawn because that's what happens in 90% of all Korean shows.And let's not forget Korea seems to be the saddest country in the world,with their characters consuming ridiculous about of Kleenex in each episode.And we are not even considering the amount they use in private times when cameras are not rolling,and the exclusion of North Korea is a factor too(I think N.Korea is the dumbest country in the world).

I dont exactly have comments on Japanese television though.In fact i used to be a fan of sorts.They really do have a wide variety of plots and storylines.Anything from courtroom drama to high school drama,to police action-driven dramas to comedies.Oh,that medical drama - White Towers? - is pretty good too.So there you go,at least Japanese television is good.But of course,we are merely talking about television serials,not taking into consideration their variety shows.That'd pull the ranking down like gangbusters i'm sure.

Take everything bad about the shows from all over the world,you add them together and you get what Mediacorp is trying to do.It is cheesy,cliche and mediocre at best.They show it and people forget,and they even have the cheek to put two actors who dont look like each other at all,and call them twins in a recent tv show.Seriously,we need more than just whiny characters,angry neighbours,stupid jokes and a lousy script to be entertained.And dont even use budget as an excuse,because it's not like American television depends a lot on that.

Look at House,look at Lost.Look at all the successful American television.Sure,you can say that they still have a relatively more advantageous budget to you guys.But they are essentially very plot driven,and the audience is drawn to these shows not because they have kick ass special effects,or because they have great beautiful sets.In House,all you get is the hospital and the equipments.In Lost,most of the time everything happens in a hatch,and of course the beach.Everything is cheap,and let's admit that.What drew me to watching these shows are the screenplays,the writings.They are simply magnetic,thoroughly awesome.

So the next time you decide to produce some sub-standard crap,think again about the screenplay,and what you are going to do with it.Because everytime you come up with a new show,a group of viewers just left the television screen to their computers to watch some foreign shows.Mediacorp is a shame to the entertainment business in Singapore.But then again,it is not like there is anything to lose in the first place.