A guilty pleasure and a dream to watch, here’s what we think of Ch8’s The Dream Makers

By Joanna Goh

The last time a Ch8 drama created this much hype, it was the year of The Little Nyonya in 2008, where Peranakans (specifically, Yue Niang) ruled our lives. Fast forward 4.5 years later and we finally see an inkling of what we’d call the revival of local TV’s former glory days in Ch8’s The Dream Makers, a 30-episode series which concluded its run last night.

For the past few years, no other show has achieved what ‘Dream Makers’ managed to do in six weeks: generate an insane amount of frenzy online and off. It became the hottest lunch and gossip topic as people 1) compared fact or fiction notes based on real-life showbiz events (like we did here) and 2) shelved dinner plans and after-work activities to race home and catch the broadcast of the weeknight drama at 9pm – us included. True story.

So what was it about The Dream Makers that worked for viewers? Was it the show’s format? The uncanny pairing of the TV station’s top-tier actresses and actors and the long-awaited reunion of the ill-fated ‘Nyonya’ lovers Jeanette Aw and Qi Yuwu (who’ve yet to, well, get a happy ending of their own…)? Or was it due to the sense of familiarity viewers had for the local entertainment scene they once grew up with?

Hit: Tight chemistry between the cast

The next best thing about having a bunch of veterans cast in this show (apart from their strong acting) is the solid chemistry that comes through their performances as a result of their familiarity with one another. There was no need to wait for them to “grow into” their roles and nurture their chemistry – thank goodness. Here are our favourite pairings from the show: Zoe Tay and Chen Liping’s friendship (more on that on slide 5), Chen Hanwei and Zoe’s soulmate-like relationship, Jeanette and Yuwu’s instant and natural chemistry, and Dennis Chew and Rui En’s buddy-like siblinghood.

Hit: Pot shots at realistic events

Instead of basing certain story plots on lofty ideas and far-fetched circumstances, what was done right in this show was the boost of realism it had with drama events mirroring real-life happenings. And as viewers we do appreciate the “art-imitates real-life” and subtle tongue-in-cheek references found in its scenes and dialogues. We said it before in our previous story and we’ll say it here again – this is our kind of guilty pleasure.

Hit: An insider peek at the TV industry

Half-truth and half fictional, The Dream Makers successfully incites interest with its gossip reveals and behind-the-scenes take on show business in Singapore. Viewers are left guessing the authenticity of what they see on TV: are there really catfights between fame-hungry actresses, do directors really bully newbies and calefares – so on and so forth. Plus, for the ones not in the TV industry, it provided them with an inside-out microscopic look at how folks at the TV station go about their daily jobs – from the management-level and business side of things to the production end, the show nails it perfectly, especially the APs (assistant producer), writers and camera crew’s behaviour.

Hit: Well-paced storyline

The Dream Makers was a drama with a multi-faceted plot and did not solely revolve around events taking place in the TV station. Apart from its main focus on the office politics and rivalry between the higher-level management staff and actors in showbiz, it also had other story plots which focused on the relationship between siblings, lovers, a married couple and friends. And despite its multiple ongoing story plots, the show gave viewers breathing room by spreading out the development of its characters over a few episodes at one time which explains why they sometimes go missing for an episode or two.

Hit and Miss: A show all about women; but what about the men?

We don’t know if you noticed this – the drama is mainly driven by the stories and lives of these four women in the TV station: Yao-Chu Kang Li, Zhou Wei Yun, Fang Tong Lin and Zhao Fei Er. It is centered on their trials and tribulations; their successes and failures. On the other hand, there is less focus on the men in this show as they are there to serve one and only one purpose: to drive the growth of these four female characters. Whether done intentionally or not, we appreciated and really enjoyed the strong and unwavering focus on the ladies. Can we have a drama series done on the men in the TV station next? We can’t wait to see the hijinks that would unfold from this.

Miss: Unrealistic parts of the show

Despite the truths portrayed in the show, The Dream Makers had its fair share of unrealistic moments too. An artiste manager (Shaun Chen) dating his artiste in the open? Uh, that’s brazen – considering how local celebrities prefer to keep things on the low-key end. And Vincent Ng’s overdramatic trip-roll-and-rumble action stunt to get to his dead wife’s side in the earlier episodes of the show? We’re sorry guys, that felt a little too staged and forced.

Miss: Voting for the final couple… again???

This feels like Star Awards online voting (aka, fan wars) all over again. To the ones who have the power to decide and control the destiny of the show, please do not take the joy out of watching a drama by forcing viewers (or rather, fans) to vote for their preferred ending between Jeanette Aw and Rui En. While it’s commendable that we try to be different, innovative and engaging, reusing the same old method i.e., getting fans to vote for their preferred happy ending, just feels stale and predictable. Can’t we just vote if Jason should stay single or attached and have the producers decide who deserves to be his happy ending? Well, if we had to choose, we’d say Joanne Peh. There, we said it.

Source: Xinmsn

Categorised in EN, The Dream Makers 志在四方, xinmsn.