Serangoon Road is a detective noir series set against the tumultuous backdrop of 1960s Singapore.
It's 1964. The world is changing, the global balance of power is shifting, and Singapore is at a crossroads. British colonial rule has finally come to an end and independence is on the horizon. It's an exciting time in which the island state can finally forge its own identity. The nation's heartbeat stems from one main artery that runs through the island. Whether it is culture or crime, politics or patriotism, espionage or enterprise, all paths lead to Serangoon Road (2013). This is the world of Sam Callaghan (Don Hany), Kang (Alaric), Patricia Cheng (Joan Chen), and the clients of the Cheng Detective Agency. Sam Callaghan agrees to help Patricia Cheng after her husband is killed while working on a case. Patricia might not be a detective, but she knows that her company needs a good investigator with contacts in the various local communities as well as among the ex-pats. Sam is all of that. But after a childhood in a POW camp and a checkered career in Military Intelligence during the Malay Emergency, he also carries so much baggage. The Cheng Detective Agency's cases range from the usual (straying spouses and petty fraudsters) to conspiracies and events with international implications. Sam's contacts from his military days are useful, but they drag him back into a dark world that he would prefer to leave behind.—HBO Asia
The political landscape of S.E. Asia was drastically changed in 1964 as MI-6, CIA, and a host of rival gangs and factions tore apart Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, etc. plunging them further into the war which officially started in 1955 but did not "heat up" until the mid-to-late-1960s. Rebel Sam Callaghan (Don Hany) is Australian by birth, but with his mother he was interned at Changi by the Japanese during WWII. Sam is deeply ingrained in all facets of Singapore society. His dead boss, detective Winston Cheng, leaves a widow, Patricia (Joan Chen), who is intent on finding her husband's killer. With the help of Su Ling, Patricia's niece, Kang (Alaric), Sam's Asian business partner, a journalist named Bruce "Macca" MacDonald, and a ragtag string of sometimes associates, they run the Cheng Detective Agency and mix into and resolve cases of both international and global importance.—LA-Lawyer
Serangoon Road (2013) is a fast-paced detective drama series set against the exotic, tumultuous backdrop of 1960s Singapore. It tells the story of Australian-born Sam Callaghan (Don Hany), whose childhood was spent in WWII's Japanese internment camps and who returned to fight in the Malayan Emergency. When his neighbor Patricia (Joan Chen) asks him to help keep her recently-murdered husband's private detective agency afloat, Sam reluctantly agrees.
HBO Asia's first Original series, a 10-episode detective noir series set against the tumultuous backdrop of 1960s Singapore, when the global balance of power is shifting and Singapore is at its crossroad; a time when the British colonial rule is coming to an end, independence is on the horizon, and the island state can finally forge its own identity.
1964-65. Singapore is a city at a crossroads. Political and racial tensions are at fever pitch as the British pull out, and a new nation is about to be born. The lights of Bugis Street have never burned so bright: bootleg copies of Motown songs boom out from street stalls; The Rolling Stones are in town along with tourists and American sailors fresh from Vietnam. They join British and Australian soldiers checking out the prostitutes and gambling dens en route to their own war in Borneo.
The famous Straits are filled with ships from around the world; and militant union demonstrations and race riots sweep the streets. The Cold War is hot in the tropics; Chinese gangs prosper; and people die as the city is hit by terrorist bombs.
The Malayan Emergency is over but has added new scars to the memories of colonial rule and the Japanese occupation during WWII. The sun may have set on the Empire, but British and Australian troops are still in the middle of an intense four-year jungle war in neighboring Borneo, while in one year, terrorists will set off more than 29 bombs in Singapore itself. And then there are the Americans, and that war in Vietnam.
This is the city of Sam Callaghan (Don Hany), Patricia Cheng (Joan Chen), the CIA's Conrad Harrison (Michael Dorman) and the clients of the Cheng Detective Agency.
Sam Callaghan runs a sporadic import/export business with his Malayan partner Kang (Alaric), but agrees to help neighbor Patricia Cheng at her detective agency after her husband is killed while working on a case. Patricia may not be a detective, but she knows she needs a good investigator with contacts in the Chinese and Malay communities, as well as among U.S./British ex-pats. Sam is all of that. But, after a childhood in a POW camp and a checkered career in military intelligence during the Malay Emergency, he is also carrying a lot of baggage.
However, he does enjoy a mutually satisfactory and discreet relationship with Claire Simpson (Maeve Dermody), the lonely and bored wife of an ex-pat oil company executive.
This then starts for Sam, as a case-by-case part-time job, and eventually he is effectively working almost full-time at the Cheng Detective Agency. The agency's cases range from the usual (straying spouses and petty fraudsters) to events with international implications and complications. Sam's contacts from his military days are useful --- but they start to drag him back into a dark world that he would prefer to leave behind.
