The Journey: A binge-watching experiment

SINGAPORE — If there’s one unbroken rule in entertainment, it’s that blockbuster trilogies work, even if it’s only because of the hype they generate. Translate that into Channel 8 terms and a period blockbuster trilogy like The Journey is ratings gold.

This month, The Journey’s second installment, Tumultuous Times, premieres. Set between the 1940s and the 1960s, the focus is now on the offspring of the early settlers whose lives we followed in A Voyage.

But if you find it difficult to remember who did what or who married whom in A Voyage — after all, it aired a whole year ago — or, indeed, if you missed the serial, then it might take you a while to map out that Shaun Chen, Romeo Tan and Felicia Chin are playing the children of Joanne Peh and Allen Chen. Or that Desmond Tan and Jeanette Aw spawned Andie Chen and, er, Jeanette Aw (who plays her own daughter — yes, for only, like, the fourth time in her career).

Happily, there’s Toggle, where you can catch up on The Journey: A Voyage for free. And here’s where we came up with an idea for The Great Binge Watching Experiment. Since binge-watching back-to-back episodes of TV series is a lifestyle trend that isn’t going anywhere any time soon, we wanted to see what would happen if we got together and watched all 31 episodes of Part One — all at one go. Why? Because, like Mount Everest, it’s there.

We dispatched three members of our team – hereafter referred to as Gen, Hon and May, all of whom have very different TV-watching styles — to W Singapore Sentosa Cove for their very important mission: To chronicle, blow by blow, their observations throughout this most clinical of experiments. Three people being, of course, the perfect number to provide checks and balances. And the maximum number that will fit comfortably in a king-sized bed. Here, we present our detailed findings.

2PM: We check into our room at W Singapore Sentosa Cove. We try to hook our laptop up to the television but fail. Hon calls the technician and asks nicely for help.

2.40PM: Kick-off! We are at Episode 1, and Li Nanxing is shot by bandits. That ended quickly.

3.20PM: Gen opens a bag of nachos and May begins to look at the room service menu. Hon wonders why Li Nanxing’s brother, Allen Chen, has a Taiwanese accent. Everyone throws up when Terence Cao tells Chris Tong, who has just become his concubine, “Let me show you some love now.”

3.40PM: Gen is the first to cave and take a toilet break. “She’s weak! Weak!” May yells unkindly.

3.50pm: We laugh hysterically as Li Nanxing raises his arms and appeals to Heaven to save Jeanette Aw, who has fainted, instead of actually helping to do CPR or something useful. Hon notes how it has only been two episodes and Li Nanxing has already been shot in the chest, almost had his finger cut off, pledged his allegiance to Terence Cao, and asked Heaven to exchange ten years of his life to save Jeanette’s. May breaks out the Panadol.

4.30PM: Fights begin over who should get out of bed to click on the next episode. Gen shrieks in surprise when George Young appears in a cameo role as an uppity British police officer.

5PM: May notes that Carole Lin’s hair looks like a kouign-amann. Hon looks at May in disgust: “You can’t be hungry AGAIN.”

5.15PM: We are at Ep 4 and Li Nanxing is stabbed again. Gen asks: “How many times has he been stabbed now?”

6.00PM: Hon is confused about what actually happened to Jeanette Aw and her captor, Pig Head Zhang, in Ep 1. Gen offers to explain by acting out some of the scenes.

6.10PM: Joanne Peh and Elvin Ng’s characters’ incestuous-or-not relationship is finally explained with a very, very long flashback — they are actually adoptive siblings. We wonder if that is cheating.

6:14PM: Gen says: “It’s 6.14pm already. Time really flies when you’re having fun.”

6.40PM: Now we are all hungry. We wonder why Terence Cao (almost) has sex in every episode. Joanne Peh and Elvin Ng’s backstory continues.

6.50PM: Toggle experiences technical difficulties. So we order dinner, of course.

7.30PM: The pigging out begins! Gen and Hon’s burgers and May’s pizza arrive. May keeps picking at Gen and Hon’s crispy wedges.

8.30PM: The Toggle app is still working, so we gather around the dinner table and stare at Hon’s iPhone. An intense discussion on “peasant skin” begins as we watch Jeanette Aw toil away in the tin mines. Hon believes her skin is way too good for a miner. Then again, Hon says, if she had the skin of a peasant, no one would want to watch the show.

8.45PM: Gen gives up staring at the small screen and begins wandering around the room, asking irritating questions like, “Who is that?” and “What is happening?” She sits in the bathtub, fully clothed. Truly the weakest link.

9.30PM: Toggle is back on! We shriek in joy and are rewarded with a scene where Pierre Png battles yet another tiger. Gen runs a bath and soaks in it with her bikini on — so that the rest of us don’t have to stare at her body — and watches the TV from the bathroom. That’s what hotel rooms are for, we guess.

10pm: Chris Tong is making a yong tau foo dinner to impress her in-laws. “I’m so hungry,” May whines, even though (a) she has just had dinner and (b) the tofu turns out to be stale.

10.15PM: Tofugate continues.

10.30PM: It’s still hours from our usual bedtime, but we begin placing bets on who will be the first to fall asleep. May and Hon pick Gen, who is showing grouchy frustration at the speed at which Joanne and Elvin’s car is moving. “Why do people walk faster than the car?” she shrieks.

11PM: We have arrived at Ep 11 and Desmond Shen is the first to get killed off, Game Of Thrones style! No one saw that coming — though Gen claims she did. We argue about who we think should die. Hon wonders why people in this show are always raising their arms to Heaven. Discussion begins on Priscelia Chan and her Rocket Award, and whether it’s better to be in a role that wins you fans or awards. We forget what we were talking about before we come to a conclusion.

11.45PM: Li Nanxing agrees to marry the “coquettish widow” (played by Wayne Chua) in Ep 12, whom Gen says is a good actress. No one pays attention to her — Hon and May are perusing the menu for desserts. May says: “I hate scenes where a big group of people go into a room and talk.” Hon gently reminds her that almost all scenes are like that. The fights begin over who is the least professional reporter on the team.

12.30AM: Pierre Png ends up in quicksand! Gen is lost because Ep 13’s subtitles have suddenly disappeared. “It’s not that I don’t understand Mandarin — it’s just that the subtitles embolden me,” Gen huffs. “Also, where’s Desmond Tan? I feel like I haven’t seen him in a long time.”

1.15AM: The subtitles return! Hon no longer has to translate for Gen.

2AM: Supper begins! May orders pasta and Hon orders dessert. We are happy people — except Pierre Png, of course, who has just been bitten by a poisonous snake.

2.45AM: We pass the halfway mark with Ep 16 but we are too tired to celebrate. Terence Cao and Pierre Png become sworn brothers. May wonders why it is so easy to become brothers in this show. Gen announces that she will take a cat nap.

3.15AM: Another 11.25 hours to go! Why did we sign up for this again?

4AM: Chris Tong is pregnant! This is too much excitement for 4am.

4.10AM: An intense discussion begins on Joanne Peh and how amazing she looks in a tight kebaya. Hon thinks she would look like an overstuffed dumpling if she were made to wear one. But Gen, who is part Peranakan, assures her that they don’t always have to be so tight-fitting.

4.30AM: Gen is still awake, after threatening for two hours to go to bed. Hon gives up and falls asleep. Gen wins the bet!

5AM: Gen and Hon are fast asleep. May snuggles into her hoodie and tries to keep track of what Terence is plotting. She wants to climb back into bed but Hon has lost all sense of boundaries and is hogging both May’s spot and her own. The atmosphere has taken on a surreal quality.

6AM: Hon wakes to find Joanne Peh dressed as a very filthy male tin miner in Ep 21. She buries her head in her pillow and falls back asleep.

7AM: The sun is up. Unfortunately, Joanne Peh is still a man in Ep 22. Gen wakes and starts asking, “What did I miss? What did I miss?”

9AM: Pierre Png is now one-legged because he was bitten by crocodiles. Gen says Pierre Png is a real man because he didn’t scream even when he had to cut his own leg off. But May says he is a real man because he has a moustache. Hon suggests starting from Ep 1 so she can watch the parts she missed when she fell asleep. May suggests beating Hon up.

10AM: Joanne Peh and Elvin Ng — siblings but not really — hold hands. Hon tells Gen that this scene is not realistic, because she’d sooner punch her brother in the face than hold his hand.

1240PM: Ep 28 begins and May has to leave for a press conference. We begin live-tweeting the last few episodes to her.

1PM: Our favourite character Carole Lin dies!

115PM: Terence Cao stuffs slow-acting poison in Elvin Ng’s mouth. He also sends a whole group of men to try to kill Pierre Png, but he manages to escape — even though he only has one leg, mind you. Pierre looks for Terence and kills him, just after our villain has tried to bed yet another random woman. We give May all of these exciting updates over WhatsApp. The wonders of technology!

2PM: Lunch arrives for Hon just as we roll into the last episode. Gen is now bent over in pain. A scan later shows that she had a cracked rib. Apparently, that’s what too much TV will do to you, kids.

2.45PM: We can’t believe it, but we’ve reached the end. Joanne Peh marries Allen Chen. Li Nanxing marries Chris Tong. Everyone else ends up pretty much dead — much like our brains. Next up, Part Two!

Catch The Journey: Tumultuous Times starting Nov 24, weekdays at 9pm on MediaCorp TV Channel 8. Special thanks to W Singapore Sentosa Cove for supporting us in our binge-watching journey.