A sex scene between a private detective and a neglected wife opens HBO Asia’s first original drama series, Serangoon Road.
For those hoping for another serving of the abundant sex and nude scenes featured in many HBO series, including Sex And The City (1998-2004), True Blood (2008-present) and Game Of Thrones (2011-present), there is good news and bad news. It is clear that the raunchy quotient has been toned down for this HBO Asia production. On the other hand, the sultry Singapore climate means that the hunky male lead – Australian actor Don Hany – is often shirtless when he is at home.
The sex factor aside, HBO is also the marquee name for quality, ground-breaking dramas. So naturally, expectations are high for HBO Asia’s first foray into an original series. And it is one set in Singapore, no less.
Early signs are good.
The 10-parter is set in 1960s Singapore and follows the investigations of a private detective agency owned by Patricia Cheng (Joan Chen), who is searching for answers to her husband’s murder.
She ropes in as investigator former Australian soldier Sam Callaghan (Hany), who is having an affair with a lonely expatriate wife, Mrs Claire Simpson (Maeve Dermody).
The multiracial cast also includes home-grown actors, from Los Angeles-based Chin Han as Kay Song, an ambitious secret society figure, to Alaric Tay as Callaghan’s sidekick to Pamelyn Chee as a forward-thinking young woman who works at the agency.
Among the things a pilot episode has to do is give viewers an idea of who’s who, what’s where and, at the same time, tell a gripping, self-contained story that will make viewers want to follow the series.
In trying to juggle too many balls, Serangoon Road’s opening salvo comes up a little short. It manages to introduce a good number of characters and also establishes a sense of time and place, but the initial story itself is not very strong.
An American soldier is killed and Callaghan is roped in to investigate. Things fall into place and people open up to him a little too easily. There is not much momentum or suspense.
At least the crime is cleverly set in Bugis, a colourful and rough-edged area where transvestites, sailors and crooks mingled back in the day. It is a good way of showcasing the handsome, expansive set on Batam and the top-notch production values for this period drama, whose budget HBO Asia declined to reveal.
Also, the makers of the series – directors Peter Andrikidis (for episodes one to five) and Tony Tilse (episodes six to 10) and head scriptwriter Michaelay O’Brien – cannot be accused of gratuitously exoticising an Asian setting, given the real-life Bugis’ seedy reputation then.
In the same vein, the choice of a white protagonist for a series set in 1960s Singapore could set off alarm bells in some viewers at first. Is this going to be some exoticised version of the East seen through Western eyes?
While Callaghan does seem to be the hero about town, particularly in episode one, his character is also one that makes sense in a historical context. Poised between a recent colonial past and an imminent, unsought-for independence, there were different worlds jostling alongside one another in Singapore in 1964. A white man at that time could conceivably have access to many of these worlds, from high-society soirees to smoky gambling dens.
And kudos to Hany for speaking reasonably intelligible Mandarin, as opposed to, say, the offensive gibberish that Bradley Cooper spouted in the final scene of the sci-fi flick Limitless (2011).
Indeed, in this polygot melting pot, only Chee’s accent juts out for being too posh and polished. Maybe there is some reason for it, but at the moment, it is mostly distracting.
As for the rest of the cast, Chen is sympathetic as a widow searching for the truth. (I am curious, though: What is it exactly that she does as head of the agency?) Chin Han gets to exude some menace and you can certainly count on Kay Song to feature more prominently as the series progresses.
Episode two – featuring veterans of the local small screen and stage Xiang Yun and Tan Kheng Hua – picks up with a stronger story about the case of a missing husband.
It is great to see home-grown talent flexing their acting chops on this platform and the thought of more of them gracing the show is encouraging.
Meanwhile, the central mystery of Cheng’s dead husband beckons and the hope is that it does not unspool too predictably.
For now, Serangoon Road is a promising ride which hints tantalisingly at the twists and turns ahead.
(ST)