Singapore Social (2019)
With a resounding score of 5.1 on IMDB and a rumoured “love to hate” reception from native Singaporeans, is Singapore Social worth a watch? Is there something there for both the docu-soap afficionado as well as someone interested in getting a glimpse or immersing themselves into the social life of Singapore?
Previous summer, as I was trying to find an excuse not to start an early Saturday morning tearing up the floor in my former bedroom (having fallen into the trap of doing another home improvement project, this time a new room for daughters with an awesome loft and other kid friendly features), I realised I knew absolutely nothing about Singapore. If you’re not pathologically curious that might not mean a lot to you. However these kind of realisations hit me on average once or twice a week and combined with having also contracted ADHD from an errant serving of Swedish meatballs sometime during 2019, hasn’t really helped the situation either. The result this time was a few hours of intense research on the subject of Singapore and then… the ultimate vehicle of procrastination: Netflix having Singaporean content in “Singapore Social”, a reality TV show following a group of young Singaporeans and their everyday trials and tribulations.
The Setting: Disneyland with the death penalty
As the initial impulse that got me watching Singapore Social was an interest in Singapore, let’s just spare the asian island city state a few seconds. Singapore was established as an asian trading and shipping hub by the British Empire and has a diverse population consisting of a majority of Chinese and a minority of Malay (roughly 15% of citizenry) that are considered the indigenous population group in addition to Indians.
With it’s British ancestry there is a British presence, both in expats and culturally. Social engineering like the use of CMIO framework (Chinese, Malay, Indian and Other) to balance the construction of the new satellites towns around the original city by having population mix of these new towns adhere to the national proportions all make for a state that is quite different from it’s surrounding neighbours or Europe or North America.
The generally affluent population leading in GDP and PPP indexes have an unsurprising fertility rate and upside down age distribution triangle and are supported by a large chunk of immigrant workers who are engaged in the service and healthcare sectors. Malay is the national language and English the official lingua franca. Mandarin and Tamil dominates as alternative language among the Chinese and Indian part of the populace respectively.
Singapore is rich, clean, multicultural and does retain the death penalty – the expression “Disneyland with the death penalty” coming from William Gibson, one of my favourite authors, and his article in Wired about Singapore – read it here.
Singapore Social
The premise of the show is to get a glimpse into the life of six successful young Singaporeans. So far so bland right? Standard fare only this time in a setting previously unknown for this particular genre. The series follows what on paper looks like diverse cast of characters. A blockchain entrepreneur, a social media influencer, an actor, a burlesque performer and a local pop star. The local reception of the series was rather negative. The criticism that the participants are far from representative for the Singaporean population or even social life. Based just on the selection of the characters this obviously doesn’t seem like a strange thing. I think the problem occurs with the unlikely cast combined with the particular soullessness with which the producers display Singapore. It’s glitzy with a kind of heightened sense of middle class. Everything is clean, the parents and families are predictably over-protecting, demanding and destructive, and our stars all seem pampered with no real challenges in a society that is portrayed as being generally cushioned and sanitised.
The cast
Sukki
A burlesque artist that for some reason makes me think of Cirque D’Soleil, you know the modern circus shit with acrobats and violin-playing Batman impersonators?
Imagine that your main act of emancipation from parents and…well I guess, stereotypes, is chucking in your day job in IT to become a burlesque artist. Sukki is the kind of artist that exists in such a cushioned talent and originality vacuum, such that just wearing pasties and colouring your hair, somehow becomes viable to make a living as an artist. This could in and of itself actually explain the Singapore epithet of Disneyland with the death penalty. And when exposed to the general insecurities of Sukki that death penalty starts too look like a rather attractive option. Fast forward to the excruciating moment when the artist Sukki tries to fuse Singapore hip hop with burlesque…
Sukki is at her best when being tormented by her “close friend” Vinny, whos passive aggressive mind games absolutely reduces Sukki to shambles.
Nicole
Described as a crypto/blockchain entrepreneur, Nicole initially doesn’t offend. This state doesn’t persist for long though with some curated Nicole moments being when she freezes when doing some motivational speech for a women in business club (the rest of the event seems to consist of yoga kit promotions).
And then, when it dawns on you that Nicole isn’t in a blockchain startup that actually builds and sells something using blockchain tech, but rather she and her partner are advising companies on how to approach blockchain. And I get a feeling the advise dished out is about as shallow as their clienteles understanding of blockchain. In other words probably a good commercial match!
On the theme of Nicoles business partner and sometime boyfriend Anson there is some distasteful but somewhat enjoyable drama as Nicoles closest friends shit all over her love interest who incidentally looks like a male version of Nicole, though not very attractive and maybe having received a few whacks too many with the genetical oestrogen stick.
Nicole
Described as a crypto/blockchain entrepreneur, Nicole initially doesn’t offend. This state doesn’t persist for long though with some curated Nicole moments being when she freezes when doing some motivational speech for a women in business club (the rest of the event seems to consist of yoga kit promotions).
And then, when it dawns on you that Nicole isn’t in a blockchain startup that actually builds and sells something using blockchain tech, but rather she and her partner are advising companies on how to approach blockchain. And I get a feeling the advise dished out is about as shallow as their clienteles understanding of blockchain. In other words probably a good commercial match!
On the theme of Nicoles business partner and sometime boyfriend Anson there is some distasteful but somewhat enjoyable drama as Nicoles closest friends shit all over her love interest who incidentally looks like a male version of Nicole, though not very attractive and maybe having received a few whacks too many with the genetical oestrogen stick.
Mae
With her awesome Singlish accent, a resemblance to Dreamcatchers Yoohyeon and perhaps smarter than she lets on – Mae, a Singapore social media star may just be the favourite out of an unlikeable bunch.
At the time of recording the show, Mae manages her parents store selling curated fashion, and together with Paul, seems to be one of the few of the cast who doesn’t wear her anxieties on her sleeves. The highly enjoyable somewhat pidgin-esque Singaporean English, “Singlish”, spoken by Mae has the shocking quality of hearing an attractive, somewhat delicate looking asian woman speaking with the northern monkey drawl of a Brit from say… Manchester, lah.
Also Mae obviously observes shit and rarely speaks without thinking.
PAUL
Actor, bimbo, good natured with an affinity to only say things that sound like middle of the road cliches. By general consensus the socially compatible Paul also goes by the monicker: “the Mayor of Singapore“.
Paul also does a mean back flip while holding a beer and is perhaps one of the least offensive members of the cast.
By the end of the series Paul both seems to cut a few inches off of his massive umbilical cord to his mother, as well as finding a passion for clearing the oceans from plastic (from a chartered boat using a pole and hook and catching those plastic bags one at a time, no less).
Congrats Paul, at least the art installation using plastic cups looks pretty and the hobo outfit worn during the fundraiser actually reminds me of someone from a Douglas Coupland novel.
PAUL
Actor, bimbo, good natured with an affinity to only say things that sound like middle of the road cliches. By general consensus the socially compatible Paul also goes by the monicker: “the Mayor of Singapore“.
Paul also does a mean back flip while holding a beer and is perhaps one of the least offensive members of the cast.
By the end of the series Paul both seems to cut a few inches off of his massive umbilical cord to his mother, as well as finding a passion for clearing the oceans from plastic (from a chartered boat using a pole and hook and catching those plastic bags one at a time, no less).
Congrats Paul, at least the art installation using plastic cups looks pretty and the hobo outfit worn during the fundraiser actually reminds me of someone from a Douglas Coupland novel.
Tabitha
The singing artist Tabitha, besides being in some poo-faced scenes and if you can disregard some artist pretensions, could actually be a pretty OK person.
You’ll never know.
In the show she comes across as a pretty average and less than offensive person. She can probably sing but from the songs featured on the show as well as having come to fame through the Singapores version of (American) Idol, the music, sadly, is just bland stuff.
Tabitha, together with Mae, actually does some of the best impersonations of humans on the show. Which in a production devoid of any real emotion, where the main draw is observing the conceit and artifice of the cast, sadly isn’t that entertaining…
Vinny
Cliche ridden, beard fretting aspiring video director. When combined with ingenue, eurotrash and ex girlfriend, Vinny takes on a very unflattering mean girl persona.
Favourite scenes are when Vinny tries to convince Tabitha to let him direct her music video by a verbal cliche diarrhoea. And then, when he later on, undercuts another director on the set he’s kindly been invited to, so he can pick up tips and inspiration.
Vinny ties for first place with Sukki, for which one of the cast members makes me throw up in my mouth the most.
And what the fuck is the problem with people growing beards and then having to stroke those beards constantly. No volume of hipster beard strokers have de-sensitised me to this. I assume it must be a suppressed masturbation reflex or some kind of self soothing ritual.
But Vineesh Old Bean, get a fucking grip man.
Vinny
Cliche ridden, beard fretting aspiring video director. When combined with ingenue, eurotrash and ex girlfriend, Vinny takes on a very unflattering mean girl persona.
Favourite scenes are when Vinny tries to convince Tabitha to let him direct her music video by a verbal cliche diarrhoea. And then, when he later on, undercuts another director on the set he’s kindly been invited to, so he can pick up tips and inspiration.
Vinny ties for first place with Sukki, for which one of the cast members makes me throw up in my mouth the most.
And what the fuck is the problem with people growing beards and then having to stroke those beards constantly. No volume of hipster beard strokers have de-sensitised me to this. I assume it must be a suppressed masturbation reflex or some kind of self soothing ritual.
But Vineesh Old Bean, get a fucking grip man.
Main Plot Elements
Nicole dates her business partner who may also be a cross dresser. Nicoles friends don’t like him so passively aggressively shit on both her and him behind Nicoles back. Mae is looking for meaning and is interested in Vinnie. Vinnie is a fuck boy leading on his former eurotrash girlfriend and wants to direct Tabithas new music video. Sukki can’t stay out of anything and so creates drama because she leads a boring life. Paul wants to get married but has a mom.
The verdict
My initial interest was kind of high. First episode opening scene is all about Nicole and Mae. With Nicole presented as the co-founder of a startup “in the blockchain space”, being from “tech” this had me curious, later at a family dinner she drops the incredible nugget of insight: “I think blockchain is where all the companies will be in the future…” Bummer, combo of asian woman in deep tech looked kind of promising. Several semi vapid scenes follow: dates with Anson (who proves the rather disturbing theory of people in relationships starting to resemble each other – a male version of Nicole being quite disturbing), arranging a Singaporean female entrepreneur get together while worrying about maternal approval not telling her MC friend to go away as her friend meddles in her, to be completely fair, doomed to fail relationship with the cross dressing Anson.
The rest of the stories are equally painful. The variety of pain and banality is actually impressive and ranges from shooting mediocre dated looking music videos for extremely bland music to the mean girl style of intrigue everyone but Paul engages in.
I still think about why I had to write this. I try to justify it as public service. By spending two hours writing about the 5 hours of my life I wasted looking at Singapore Social, I could be saving a lot of people a lot of time and some pain and discomfort. The utility created, I tell myself, could be exponential.
I started writing this review pretty much when Singapore Social was made available on Netflix in my part of the world, but gave up, as writing about it was so boring. However during a particularly dour Easter holiday I was reminded of it as it came up as a “watch again” suggestion on Netflix. And a lot like a zombie you’ve conveniently forgotten in the cellar, I realised I needed to be a responsible part of society and blunt trauma this particular zombie to death and post it up as a warning to others. Simply put, I never thought a Netflix docu drama could set me back quite to the simian comatose fugu state I experienced after watching Singapore Social.
Half the time Singapore Social actually felt like someone unceremoniously force feeding me all the social media content I’ve never wanted to consume. All the motivational tripe, high contrast club selfies, inane conversations about absolutely nothing etc, fed through a tube, through my nose and being dumped directly into my stomach. Until I violently vomit that shit all over the living room floor. At which point I feel completely horrified but quickly realise that, due to whatever it is I’ve been fed having no substance, the vomit is really not that terrible. The hangover however, consisting of the realisation that I still intellectually and mentally vomited, is not pleasant. If you for any reason are into losing a good amount of functioning braincells, I highly recommend watching Singapore Social.
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