Thursday, November 10, 2005

Lifeline? Man i need one!

I am currently a fireman working for SCDF. I am proud to be a fireman. I am proud to be in a job where i am saving lives and property for a safe and secure Singapore.

I have been waiting for many months, ever since i heard that they were going to do a show on the Home Team. I was excited. Very excited to see the show. I have never been more eager to watch a locally produced show in my life. I waited and waited. And finally, the premiere began.

With baited breath, i turned on the television and sat down, eager to see the great show that has been made from what i do day in day out, risking my life to save others. (some might say i hardly risked by life so far, but hey, if the opportunity comes, i know i will)

The show begins. Ah yes... what i've been waiting so long for. The opening scene. An RTA, or road traffic accident. A truck crashes into two cars, trapping a woman. The fuel leaks all over the road. What a premise for the first turnout! I have turned out for RTAs many times, and saw with glee as they took out the hydraulic cutter to remove the door.

Wait a minute... did the Officer Commanding(Gurmit Singh) just turn out in the fire engine? OCs don't turn out in the fire engine! They have their own car! Its called an Inspection Vehicle. Its a car with beacon lights. And they don't standby in station 24 hours. They go HOME after office hours, and respond from there if there's a call. Anyway, back to the story.

Yes, yes. Get the poor girl out. Some man's smoking nearby, even with fuel all over the place. Strange, but hey, people do strange things. He drops his cigarette after being spotted, and the fire starts, spreading rapidly. The girl is dragged out, and the thing explodes. Its a bit drama for my taste. Ah, well. It is a dramatization, so no biggie. Make it as drama mama as you can.

If the episode had ended there, it would have been cool. Go on to the next call. But NOOOOO. They can't do that, can they? They can't keep it nice and simple. What usually happens after a fire call? We pack up our stuff fast as possible, and get the hell outta there before the press arrives and public starts to gather. We all know no one loves a good show like Singaporeans. And we don't want to be the ones to give them that show. Because honestly, for all the good we do, we just need the public to catch one thing we do that they don't agree with, they complain to the newspaper and the shit hits the fan at speed 10.

But, for some reason, a paramedic decides this is the time to pick a fight with her OC. Her Officer Commanding. The BIGGEST fish in the station. Oh... apparently they're getting married. Woah, man! A slap to the face! She gives him a tight slap to the face! In UNIFORM! In FRONT OF HIS MEN! In FREAKING PUBLIC! Now, i know the lovers have their spats. Maybe she wasn't happy with him risking his life and all that. So what. I saw that in Ladder 49(which i totally loved). But the difference is that SHE IS IN UNIFORM! HE IS IN UNIFORM! They are in the fire ground(what we call the place we turn out to)! Their priority should be to rescue and save lives! You don't disrespect your commanding officer in frnot of his men! How are his men going to respect him? If that happened in any station, the paramedic would be in for a huge disciplinary action. Maybe even fired for insubbordination. You simply do NOT slap your commanding officer! Not in uniform! She slaps him in public, he talks to her privately and tells her not do it. No action taken. I can't believe the OC did nothing. Its just... wrong. His men will lose all respect for him! They can do whatever they want after this! Whateer it is, this is still a uniform organisation!

Oh wait, a PMT(Paramedic Trainee, they are attached to the ambulances for months to gain experience before they become paramedics) needs help. Oh my goodness! He's panicking! He needs guidance. Man! She brushes him off! Apparently scolding with your OC/boyfriend for doing his job is more important than helping your poor PMT to do his!

Ah... its over. Now for talk, talk, talk. I never knew that the ambulance crew visited their casualties. The ambulances in my station turn out for more than 5 calls during some duties. Maybe they spend all their off days visiting their casualties. But you have to admit its kind of unlikely. People die everyday. If you're a paramedic, you can't afford to be attached to any case regardless of how bad it is. Ah, well. Mediacorp thinks differently, can't do anything about that.

I start to notice other things. Like did you know that in a firestation, the personnel are 70-80% malay? I could be wrong, but i didn't really notice malay personnel. The show is dominated by eurasian and chinese people! Oh, and one indian. I forgot.

Anyway, so the PMT is haunted by what happened, his lack of ability to save his casualty, and he's going crazy. Hmm... he asks his paramedic for help, but she's too busy being jealous with her OC talking to his ex to give him his full attention.

Hmm... talk, talk, talk, flashback flashback. Starting to get bored already. Oh, the casualty from the previous case is struggling without her missing leg out of bed and up the stairs.

ITS A SUICIDE! The next episode is going to have a suicide! I WANNA WATCH!

All in all, the most accurate part of the show is when the firemen are checking their appliances. I do that every morning of my duty. Its very accurate. I think i was observing them checking their appliances in the background as compared to listening to some paramedic talk to the indian section commander. Its very accurate. I have to count the hoses in that locker of the fire engine too. Very accurate.

All in all, the show is one of the worst and most inaccurate things to come out of mediacorp. Honestly. If not the worst. But i'm excited. I'm still going to watch it. Next week, its time for the SUICIDE! Bring out the Life Pack(air bag)! Call down the DART personnel! Time to rescue the suicidal girl! I can't wait!

13 Comments:

Blogger Faith said...

urgh.

u owe me a nice lunch for making me sit through that horrible show!

... so, next week, same time yah? watch and msn at the same time yah?

11:11 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

As a producer of the show, I apologise for the inaccuracies.

The OC will be shown driving his staff car in future episodes. Since Gurmit is the star, we felt it was necessary to show him turn out in the appliance in the beginning.

We were informed that there's one real-life fire station OC who has been known to turn out with his men.

The medic visits the casualty because she's his first casualty and he doesn't know any better. He also feels guilty about letting the casualty's boyfriend die.

The female firefighter Farizah is Malay and the medic Jamal is half Malay. But yes, to cater to Singapore's Chinese-dominated audience, most of the lead characters have to be Chinese.

There's only one Aaron Aziz and he's already on Heartlanders. But we're very conscious about casting diversity and reflecting reality.

As for the questionable actions of the paramedic, I can only plead 'dramatic licence'. It is to create some human drama and establish the character as very possessive about her fiance. She won't appear in many more episodes.

12:29 PM  
Blogger Yuhui said...

Wait a minute, did Anonymous just spoil the show???

She won't appear in many more episodes.

Cheryl Miles' character dies or leaves??? Is that after she gets stabbed (as seen in the ad for next week's episode)??? But... but... she's a main character/star!

Anonymous, if you're really the producer, you just made a major boo-boo! :(

5:56 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Perhaps the creators of Lifeline should watch a whole season of Third Watch to improve their realism and accuracy.

8:04 PM  
Blogger Johnny Malkavian said...

Has the side-to-side CPR made its appearance yet? That's still my favourite medic faux-pas.

9:39 AM  
Blogger fleng said...

yeah man, i get the same feeling as you did from watching that show although im from the police force, all the inaccuracy is sporadic and nonsensical at times, although im not really in the SCDF, but i do see them do their work as most of the time, fire cases are handled hand in hand with both Home Teams, especially skydiving cases. But this drama is making it too "lame". Well there goes real story about real people. Maybe we home team people should suggest about how working in the hometeam really is, how we can automatically switch off from work to enjoy our own personal life even though tragedies happens time to time. maybe..

11:22 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i think the "pmt" you mentioned is a nsf medic orderly and not a pmt. pmt probably'll be wearing a bush jacket already. right?

anyways. it doesnt matter. he wouldve still needed the help. "virgin" call. pretty suay i say. in real life he'd probably kena condemned to do fire-post duty til he ord. hehheh.

4:58 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Bush jacket? i'm sorry, i'm in the fire side so i'm not sure about the medical side, but i'm sure i've never seen anyone, PMT, Paramedic or MO turn out in a jacket.

And you're right, in real life he'd probably kena many many extras.

Goodnes gracious me, johnny... i can't wait to see THAT CPR!

And Fleng, i'd agree with you on that. Although our SCDF Public Affairs Department did clear the show for the public.

I told my OC about it, and man, we had a good laugh! Especially about the slapping of the face during a call!

11:27 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hey kababoom...if i'm not wrong, lifeline is supposed to be a drama...hence the love triangle and stuff...i think the dramatic stuff was included to remind us that the firemen, police, paramedics etc. have to manage their own lives on top of saving other people...but if what anonymous said is really true den quite sad for cheryl miles's character...i mean, she's a pretty good actress...well, anywayz...this post on the 1st episode of lifeline's pretty cool...i'd like to read more posts abt lifeline...so pls keep posting! =)

3:40 PM  
Blogger Black Jack said...

"there's one real-life fire station OC who has been known to turn out with his men"

got meh?? the jurong one ah??

9:06 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

tv is tv lah.. just to make things more drama mama for the audiences.. imagine if all the firecalls turn out to be false alarms, dustbins on fire and prank calls.. wouldnt lifeline be boring? would u even watch it? well.. if u wanna follow as close to reality.. there u got it.. anyway.. just give these people a chance to admire us firemen while we sit there n enjoy ourselves.. its as best as comedy can get!

ps: pmt has their top tucked out and nsf medic orderly has their top tucked in and btw my OC turned out in a PL before so theres nothing wrong in it..

12:34 AM  
Blogger luvktv said...

well, local tv shows have to cater to certain taste buds of consumers. majority likes lovey dovey scenes, families screaming and scheming against 1 another.

if these elements are not added, the viewership may fall drastically. well, wat do u expect from DRAMA...

btw, found ur blog from ST's Digital Life :)

6:14 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

good blog. keep it up. thanks.

6:37 PM  

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