Pssst... I'm watching Emerald Hill. Perhaps you should too

If we don't tell our own stories, who will do it for us? That's why it is important to support local artists and shows.

- Ho Ai Li Assistant Foreign Editor

I was chatting with several colleagues recently and we started talking about Adolescence, the four-part Netflix series that has impressed everyone with its thought-provoking story about a teen killing, its one-take filming technique and its teenage star, Owen Cooper, a.k.a. "the Lionel Messi of acting".

Adolescence is world-class, no doubt about it. Then someone brought up the latest season of The White Lotus, the hit HBO series about privileged American tourists, and remarked on a lack of dead bodies in the early episodes.

"You should watch Emerald Hill. There are two deaths within the first three episodes," I told them.

I could almost hear a pin drop.

I know, I know. Many people no longer watch Singapore dramas and some would even proudly proclaim that it has been years since they last watched one.

A common refrain is that local shows cannot match world-class dramas from elsewhere.

For sure, Emerald Hill - The Little Nyonya Story, an ambitious Mediacorp drama centred on a Singapore Peranakan family in the 1950s to 1970s and airing on Channel 8 now, is hardly ground-breaking.

There is nothing that innovative about how the 30-part show was filmed: There is no dazzling aerial drone footage like in Adolescence, for instance; and Emerald Hill's storyline can be unintentionally comical, such as when the patriarch of the Zhang clan, played by Rayson Tan, chokes to death on a glutinous rice ball.

And yes, the drama has many, many flaws, as pointed out by my astute friends - all loving critics of local dramas - from villains with no backstory to protagonists stoical beyond belief, from too much exposition to the cheesy way in which the show tries to explain Peranakan or Straits Chinese culture.