mediacrap

TODAY newspaper reported that 'Mandarin TV channels praised but can improve', and that 'THE improved storylines and acting in locally-produced Chinese television dramas were praised by the committee monitoring the performance of two MediaCorp Chinese television channels.'

My gawd! Since when are the locally produced dramas good? Even the ones with overseas collaborations (Taiwan + China) sucks... the acting is exaggerated, or unconvincing and basically the actors do not hv a natural screen personality (except for the veteren actors). Most of the actors are just busy trying to act coy / act sweet / act bitchy / act stupid.. in other words, u can tell they are ACTING, and they are reading from a script. Worse, these days, they no longer dubbed the shows, and actors have to use their own voices... u get all sorts of lousy diction, poor pronounciation.. really makes me cringe to hear them speak mandarin. And for overseas collaborations which have the privileged of getting voiceovers, the dubbing is simply unnatural, u can tell that its dubbed....

more from the newspaper article:
Ms Ho Soo Fung, Channel vice-president, Network Programming & Promotions (Chinese Broadcast) and Network Programming & Operations for MediaCorp TV, said: "One of the reasons that our dramas are so popular among our viewers is because we're able to strike a chord with our viewers and the drama is actually a reflection of life.
"Our producers work very hard at fleshing out a variety of stories with different characters, and they're portraying these characters in a realistic approach."
.Since the merger, there has been a bumper crop of variety programmes — some innovative, but others still dependent on low-brow slapstick antics to win ratings, said the committee.

Pleeazeee la....... variety of stories? U can always depend on how predictable their shows are... loving husband / boyfren has affair. wife / gf is HOT HOT HOT.. lots of people going after them.... kids are long suffering and child prodigies....... the script varies with a deviation of + - 0.1%

bumper crop of variety programmes - I'll take my HKG dramas anytime. Dun give me anymore international collaborations (Lotus lantern sux), and the whatnot... just plain old good HKG shows + Taiwan variety shows..