Stuff To Watch This Week (Aug 7-13, 2023): National Day Parade, MasterChef Singapore, Shark Week, And More
Season 4 of MasterChef Singapore launches on National Day!
National Day Parade 2023
Celebrate Singapore’s 58th birthday at the Padang, the first time since 2019. Highlights of this year’s parade — themed ‘Onward as One’— include the four-act multimedia show ‘Building Our Shared as One’ (produced under the aegis of creative director Royston Tan), an enhanced aerial display to mark the Singapore Air Force’s 55th anniversary, and fireworks display. Click here for the complete line-up. On Tuesday, PM Lee Hsien-Loong will deliver his National Day Message in English on CNA (6.45pm) and Channel 5 (9.30pm). DPM Lawrence Wong, Minister for Social and Family Development Masagos Zulkifli and Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law K Shanmugam will make the speech in Mandarin (Channel 8 & Capital 958, 8.45pm), Malay (Suria, 8.30pm) and in Tamil (Vasantham & Oli 968, 9pm), respectively.
Watch it on: meWATCH, Channels 5, 8, Suria & Vasantham, Wed, 5.55pm
Gardens By the Bay and Mediacorp National Day Concert 2023
For those who miss the concert live at The Meadow over the weekend, here’s your chance to watch the show, featuring performances by Kit Chan, Mavis Hee, The Freshman, Suthasini Rajendran, Umar Sirhan, Vocaluptuous and MICappela. With Vernetta Lopez and Fauzie Laily as hosts. Click here for more info.
Watch it on: meWATCH, Channel 5 & Mediacorp Entertainment on YouTube, Sat, 7.30pm
MasterChef Singapore, Season 4
Now in its fourth edition, the competition introduces a team challenge format to jazz things up: the 18 contestants are grouped into three teams, each led by a judge (Audra Morris, Damian D’Silva and Bjorn Shen). In the premiere, the home cooks — including an aerospace engineer, a spice mixer and a pharmacist — will duke it out for a spot in the Top 12.
Watch it on: meWATCH & Channel 5, Wed, 8.30pm (Part 1), 9.30pm (Part 2); subsequent episodes on Sun (from Aug 13), 9.30pm
Battle of the Buskers
The final batch of street performers will be battling for their Top 10 spot at Westgate. If you miss last week’s show at Waterway Point, catch it here:
Watch it on: meWATCH & Mediacorp Entertainment YouTube Channel, Sun, 4.30pm
Heart of Stone
Netflix reportedly coughed up US$130 million (S$174 mil) — but they have reservations about paying residuals to actors? — for this actioner starring Gal Gadot. She plays a spy for a shadowy (is there any other kind?) global peacekeeping agency racing against time to stop a hacker from destabilising the world order. Jamie Dornan, Matthias Schweighofer and Alia Bhatt co-star. The trailer looks exciting. Then again, so did Red Notice, the last Gadot-starring Netflix movie but look how it turned out.
Watch it on: Netflix, Fri
Zombieverse
Not to be outshone by Disney+’s The Zone: Survival Mission, Netflix has come up with its own survival reality show where a group of celebrities — including The Hungry and the Hairy’s Ro Hong-Chul, Sweet Home’s Lee Si-Young, baseball player Yoo Hee-Kwan and Youtuber siblings Jonathan and Patricia Yiombi — try to escape a series of zombie-related doomsday scenarios.
Watch it on: Netflix, Tue
Moving
This adaptation of a hit Korean webtoon is about a group of superpowered individuals who'll stop at nothing to hide their true abilities from the world in order to protect their families from government agencies bent on exploiting them. The 20-part sci-fi drama stars Ryu Seung-Rong, Han Hyo-Joo and Zoo In-Sung, Kee Jung-Ha, Go Youn-Jung, and Kim Do-Hoon.
Watch it on: Disney+, Wed
Only Murders in the Building, Season 3
True-crime podcasters and amateur sleuths Charles, Oliver and Mabel (Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez) look into the murder of a Broadway actor (Paul Rudd), which we all witnessed in the finale of Season 2. Meryl Streep — muffled scream! — joins the Emmy-nominated series as a struggling actress (right…) helping the trio with the case.
Watch it on: Disney+, Tue
Shark Week
This year's Shark Week — the 35th edition — sees Discovery Channel roping in Jason Momoa as host. A smart move since Momoa’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom opens in cinemas on Dec 20 (both the cabler and studio are owned by the same conglomerate). One highlight: Belly of the Beast: Feeding Frenzy, about researchers trying to a closer look at a Great White buffet with cameras inside a whale carcass decoy. By the way, can Jason Statham host next year's Shark Week? Asking for a friend. Here are the other shark-related specials:
Aug 7: Jaws vs The Meg
Aug 8: Tropic Jaws
Aug 9: Air Jaws: Final Frontier
Aug 10: Deadly Sharks of Paradise
Aug 11: Cocaine Sharks
Aug 12: Shark Week: Off the Hook
Aug 13: Belly of the Beast: Feeding Frenzy
(FYI: National Geographic has its own Shark Fest on Disney+…so knock yourself out, sharkies!)
Watch it on: Discovery Channel (Singtel Ch 202), Mon-Fri, 7.10pm