Restricting Forces

Other than MDA, a greater restrictive force that makes local dramas look dull lies in...the audience themselves.

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From: The Straits Times Forum, 22 Dec 2010

Beware of dramatising suicide on TV

I LOST someone close in an apparent suicide, so I know the pain that families of suicide victims and survivors experience.

I was watching the television drama Po Tian Wang (Breakout) on MediaCorp's Channel 8, in which one of the characters tried to kill herself by jumping off a building. I immediately switched to another channel.

Earlier in the series, another character tried to slit her wrists.

It made me wonder what the impact of this show would be on people in despair.

I cannot believe that over just a month, I have encountered two television scenes of suicide.

This is horrible.

The media should play a part in raising awareness about suicide and helping desperate people. We can have telephone helplines, but if television shows keep putting out these depictions of suicidal people, we are back to square one.

Wong Chin Yong

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Before you start hurling any criticisms towards his comments, let's look at another supporting article.

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From: The Straits Times, 22 Dec 2010

Bruises from biting herself

SINGAPORE - AN EIGHT-YEAR-OLD girl in Singapore bit herself on both arms after watching a scene on self-inflicted pain in a television show, Sin Chew Daily reported.

The girl's mother, identified only as Ms Foo, said she was shocked when she saw bruises on her daughter's arms.

She added that the girl was apparently angry at herself and bit her own arms. But after further questioning, Foo discovered that her daughter had been following the Singaporean show.

In the first episode of the series, the main actress cuts her own arms with a knife.

Ms Foo, 41, believed her daughter only bit her arms as she was too afraid to cut herself.

She has since stopped her daughter from viewing the series.

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*Additional* This Chinese article has more details. Take note of the the part mentioning about the autistic character:

http://news.omy.sg/News/Local%2BNews/Story/OMYStory201012201513-208832.html

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We all know what the series is and who the main actress is. Mediacorp can't possibly axe the show just because of one silly person, but it may think thrice (or warned by MDA) before producing such scenes in the future.

We can look forward to more happy dramas and say farewell to dark plots.

And who will complain? Ironically the audience themselves.