SINGAPORE - Netflix has released the list of its most popular shows in Singapore and only one programme in the top ten has Singaporean or Asian content.
Documentary series Street Food: Asia, which comes in at number 5, looks at low-cost food in the region and includes an episode on Singapore.
Street Food: Asia did have its critics, though, with many Asian online commenters giving it flak for pandering to Western audiences by romanticising poverty in places such as the Philippines, and for its intrusive focus on sob stories about people rather than on food.
Reality series Singapore Social did not make the cut despite much online furore - many here decried the shallowness of the people featured and felt the show was a misrepresentation of Singapore.
The 2019 list also shows that viewers here care little for prestige shows such as the Oscar-tipped mob movie The Irishman or drama Marriage Story, or even middlebrow crowd-pleasers such as the biographical series about British royalty The Crown.
Also interesting is how, except for season 3 of the thriller series Stranger Things, the shows Singaporeans watched most in 2019 were new rather than returning series.
Singaporeans went for what Netflix, in announcing the list, called "feelgood flicks", heavy on comedies, fantasy, romance and action.
Netflix, which rarely reveals viewing or subscription figures, based its ranking on the number of accounts watching at least two minutes of a film, series or special during its first 28 days on Netflix in 2019.
Top of the list is the comedy film Murder Mystery, starring Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler.
When it was released in June, 2019, it broke records in the United States for viewership when more than 30 million households watched the film in the first 72 hours.
Next is The Witcher, a just-released fantasy series adapted from a series of books and starring Henry Cavill.
Top 10 most popular Netflix releases of 2019 in Singapore:
1. Murder Mystery
2. The Witcher
3. 6 Underground
4. Isn't It Romantic
5. Street Food: Asia
6. Always Be My Maybe
7. Triple Frontier
8. The Umbrella Academy
9. Tidying Up With Marie Kondo
10: Stranger Things 3
