A Singaporean In Australia

I caught Albany wailing outside the bathroom door last night. That was the way she waited patiently for Jen to complete her bath. After which she would see Jen behind the door and would walk as quickly as her little legs could carry her towards me, with a big grin and kiss me on the cheek. I would return the kiss on her chubby red cheeks. Then little Albany would run towards corridor leading to her bedroom, turn, wave at her dad and exclaim 'byeeeee'

It would take a while before the beautiful routine could take place. So I grabbed her outside the bathroom and took her to the living room, where our sofa bed was comfortably spread, and sat on it. Albany calmed down when she realised she was given her favourite seat. That would be her father's lap. Together we watched the television.

I wasn't the TV kind after my NS days. For some reason, I found the shows quite terrible after my NS days. I reckoned I grew out of the TV days gradually. So my fond memories of good old TV dramas remained in the SBC (and probably TCS) days. I remembered hearing similar remarks from friends along the lines of, "They don't make those good shows anymore." Maybe I didn't grow out of it after all. Perhaps the productions of Mediacorps simply suck and I wasn't the only one who feel so. Well you know, saying this would leave me at high risk of getting a "Mass media expert" who would argue about the validity of my blog post as well as my intelligence on the topic. Well, if I could feed the masses who rely of boosting their egos by winning meaningless internet battles to survive life, why not. Really, damn don't give an I.

They were showing Underbelly Squizzy on television. I watched for a few minutes before realising it was an Australia production actually based on a very old Australian setting in the 1910s. With Albany sitting contentedly on my lap, we watched it together. It was supposed to be a crime thriller but it looked like comedy to me. Overall I enjoyed the episode though I wouldn't go into the details. That point being made was that I thought I have grown out of TV series and wouldn't enjoy another one anymore. I was proven wrong.

I wasn't attracted to any genre in particular but I tend to appreciate a good story set in the past or future because these kind of shows require a great amount of imagination, creativity and even research to present itself properly. Sadly, even armed with the latest CGI technologies, the shows that Mediacorpse make these days are shit. I remembered the last show I watched was 九层糕 and that was it. I decided I would never watch another Mediacorpse TV series again. If I could remember correctly, the show was sponsored by NTUC and propaganda were heavily laced throughout the show. It was almost like an advertorial instead, terrible to watch, unless you were an Auntie perhaps. I noticed there were many shows which ran on similar concepts. Police, SCDF, whatever. Backed by government agencies, designed to relay government messages. Telling you:

I really missed the SBC days. Tucky told me once he liked 迷离夜, a series screened during the late 80s when we were small boys. Yeah, I thought I liked that too. Back then filming technologies were ... meh .. but did it matter? Not really. Even if we spotted the zip behind the dinosaur costume, the poorly concealed wire behind that flying swordsman or the fake moustache half peeling off an actor's face (believe me I saw that before), it didn't really matter.

My most memorable show was 金麒麟. It was yet another show during my primary school days. It was a simply plot but it really worked for me. I remembered being glued to the TV to follow the entire story line. It was about a mixed party who got together for a common cause, to find the treasure depicted by a coveted legendary treasure map. On the trail of the party was untold dangers, saboteurs, mercenaries and even government officials to rob them off their map. The show even have an interesting philosophical ending. The final quest that required the party members do perform was to plant a field of wheat on a vast land. According to the treasure map hint, that would reveal the path to the treasure. When the wheat field was bountiful, the party returned and got themselves to a high ground hoping to make out a path set out from the way the wheat grew and lead them to treasure. They saw nothing and main protagonist was disappointed. Then the old wise man in the party suddenly laughed and exclaimed, "I saw a field of gold!" upon realising they acquired themselves a vast plot of extremely fertile land.

That was my kind of quest. One day. Eventually. Soon.