TVB Anniversary Awards 2012: Recap of the Winners + My Thoughts

TVB’s annual Anniversary Awards show took place much later than usual this year, which isn’t too surprising given the fact that TVB had to wait until their 2 anniversary series finished airing so that both programs could be included in the awards ceremony.

This year’s awards show was also different from previous years because of the new ‘rules’ that TVB set in efforts to attract more audiences to watch and participate in the show.  Instead of having TVB executives and producers determine the winners for all award categories, TVB chose instead to have the 3 biggest award categories – Best Actor (TV King), Best Actress (TV Queen), and Best Series – be determined 100% by audience vote (what they call the OVPP system).  Since I already stated my opinion multiple times about the OVPP thing and why I don’t feel that it’s a good idea, I’m not going to rehash that ‘argument’ here.  But I will say that TVB pretty much used the whole OVPP thing as a ‘gimmick’ in efforts to ‘change up’ the awards show and also get more audiences to watch as well as participate (which seemed to have worked, since the latest update is that the ratings for the show shot through the roof:  ratings averaged 36 points, peaking at 41 points….even higher ratings than TVB’s series!!).

Unlike last year’s award ceremony, which I had no interest in watching whatsoever (though I still ended up watching and writing up a recap post on it), I was actually interested this year because there were quite a few artists and series nominated that I actually like…plus I was curious to see how the whole OVPP thing would turn out (and whether the Miss HK voting fiasco would repeat itself or not).

Overall, I felt that the results were satisfactory and I wasn’t too surprised with who ended up winning (well, except for in 1-2 categories that is).  The awards were pretty evenly distributed this time around and the people whom I expected to win did (for the most part). 

Of course, the biggest surprise for me was the presentation of the “Outstanding Artist” awards to the 5 ‘veteran’ artists – even though I already knew that TVB was going to have this ‘new’ award this year (it was announced a few weeks ago), I had no clue what the criteria would be or who the nominees were, since TVB didn’t release any details about it.  Prior to the awards show, there was widespread speculation in the Media that this award was created as a ‘consolation prize’ to calm the backlash that erupted over the blatant omission of certain artists from the nominations list (i.e. Ben Wong, Raymond Cho, Linda Chung, etc.) – in fact, I even saw some Media outlet ‘claim’ that they had the ‘official list of winners’ from TVB and those 3 names (Ben, Raymond, Linda, etc.) were on it as the ‘winners’ of this award!  Obviously, that ‘report’ turned out to be BOGUS (again, be careful what you read in the Media and don’t believe everything you read / hear!).  The purpose of the “Outstanding Artist” award turned out to be completely different – it wasn’t a ‘consolation prize’ for those not nominated, but rather a ‘professionalism’ award to recognize those veteran artists who’ve worked hard for years and show professionalism both at work and outside of it.  Sure, people can say that this was pretty much a ‘pork’ award, but hey, the way I see it, at least TVB made the effort to recognize those artists (even if they probably only did so because of the external ‘pressure’ from HKTV and not wanting to lose those artists to competitors).  In any case, I’ll talk more about the winners for this award below and my feelings about it.

The other overall comment I had is that I was a bit disappointed with the lack of ‘meaningful’ presenters this year.  Every year, the ‘highlight’ of the anniversary awards show for me isn’t necessarily the nominees or the award winners (since I’ve lost confidence in TVB’s awards in the past decade, so I could really care less who won) – rather, I tune in to watch the awards mainly because of the presenters, since most years, TVB manages to invite artists / entertainment industry people whom we haven’t seen in a long time to present for them.  Also, the ‘speeches’ that the presenters give are usually the most interesting (and usually the funniest) part of the entire show.  I’ll talk a little bit about some of the presenters who were at the ceremony, but outside of those few, there really wasn’t much ‘excitement’ in this area this year.

Ok, so with all that said, here’s the list of the winners, my thoughts / opinion on their wins, and comments about the actual show itself.

.---. 

Lifetime Achievement Award:  Liza Wang
(Award presented by TVB’s Deputy Chairman Norman Leung)

.-- Even though I absolutely can’t stand Liza Wang, I’m actually ok with TVB giving her this award because she truly has contributed a lot to the industry and so for that, she does deserve to be recognized.  Plus I would much rather they give Liza this award than to keep giving her a spot in the Top 5 for TV Queen just to please her (which they didn’t do this year – thank God!).  I mean, seriously, must she get nominated for TV Queen each time she participates in a series?  How about saving that spot for the younger ones fadans who actually ‘need’ the TV Queen award more than she does?

.-- Anyway, I honestly didn’t pay much attention to Liza’s acceptance speech because, well, frankly I really didn’t care much – just wanted them to get the segment over with and move on.

.-- One comment about this segment of the awards ceremony:  Um, in the future, can TVB please not have Norman Leung speak?  I mean, ok fine, have him present the award if needed, but gosh, please don’t let the man open his mouth!   Not only does he speak incredibly SLOW, he’s also very incoherent (honestly, Sir Run Run Show is 104 years old and he probably speaks more clearly than Norman Leung!).  Also, most people probably didn’t notice, but Mr. Leung got some information wrong in his speech (when he was recounting some of the series that Liza participated in) – my mom and I were literally sitting there scratching our heads and wondering:  Huh?  I don’t hear Norman Leung giving long speeches too often, so I’m not sure if he speaks that way normally or if he was just really nervous that night (though I had the same feeling about his speech last year too – CRINGEWORTHY!). Argh!


Most Improved Female Artist:  Mandy Wong
(Award presented by Lawrence Cheng, Chin Kar Lok, and Janice Man)

.—First, a word about the presenters:  it actually did make sense for TVB to invite Lawrence and Chin Kar Lok to present this particular award (which is pretty much the ‘Best Newcomer’ award) because 1) Lawrence is currently one of the ‘main instructors’ for TVB’s newly revamped Acting Classes (he’s responsible for cultivating TVB’s new batch of ‘talents’, hence the connection to the newcomer award) and 2) Chin Kar Lok was one of the first winners of the ‘Most Improved’ award (as Lawrence reminded us during his ‘speech’) back in the 90s when the Anniversary Awards first started (back when they had the award separated into ‘drama’ and ‘non-drama’ categories) – so as the ‘big brother’, it was most appropriate for him to present the award to his ‘juniors’.  As for Janice Man – well, she’s a ‘newcomer’ to the film industry (and music too, right?) so that made sense too – though honestly, she didn’t really say much, since Lawrence and Kar Lok did most of the talking, so she probably didn’t really need to be there…

.— In terms of the winner….of course, the ‘expected’ winner in this category was Mandy, so no surprise there.  Actually, she is long overdue for this award already, as she actually should have already gotten it last year, but since she didn’t, then it only makes sense for her to get it this year. 

.—I definitely agree with Mandy winning this award because this year truly was ‘her year’ – not only was she in a lot of series this year, she also performed well in all of them…in some cases, even ‘stealing the show’ from the leads.  TVB definitely made a wise choice by giving this award to Mandy instead of the others who were nominated….in fact, I would venture to say that if TVB had pulled an ‘upset’ and given the award to someone else, all hell would have broken loose.


Most Improved Male Artist:  Oscar Leung
(Award presented by Lawrence Cheng, Chin Kar Lok, and Janice Man)

.—This was probably the only other category I actually ‘cared’ about going into the awards show because I really really wanted Oscar Leung to win.  Oscar pulled off excellent performances in pretty much every series he participated in this year and truly did deserve to win -- so yes, I am definitely glad he did win!  I actually don’t remember if Oscar was nominated last year or not but to me, he has always been a pretty solid actor, even back around the time that he started – seeing such promising young actors like Oscar do well makes me very happy because it reinstates some of the hope in the TV industry that I had lost years ago!

.—I will admit that  I was a little worried in the beginning whether TVB would choose to give the award to Him Law instead of Oscar….now don’t get me wrong – Him is a good actor too and certainly deserving of the Most Improved award as well (though to be honest, both Him and Oscar are sort of past the ‘newbie’ stage already….but hey, getting that award is better than getting nothing, right?) – but this year, Oscar definitely ‘stood out’ more in terms of his acting, as he had a wider range of roles that required more versatile acting versus Him’s roles this year pretty much being the same from one series to another.  Definitely very happy for Oscar!!

.—Lastly – I liked Oscar’s acceptance speech….it was touching to hear him thank all the people who had helped ‘teach’ him and give him advice over the years….and definitely very ‘sweet’ of him to thank his girlfriend Tina, who has stuck with him through thick and thin for the past 10 years.  Good for him!



Best Host of a Variety Program:  Luisa Maria Leitao (“Telling Maria”)
(Award presented by Mak Ling Ling and Lee Sing Chak)

.—This was not a surprise at all, as everyone was pretty much expecting Luisa to take this award.  Out of all the nominees, she was definitely the best one – not to mention her popularity soared big time this year due to her interview program being so well received.  I have no problems with Luisa winning at all – in fact, I’m very happy that she is also finally getting the recognition she should have gotten a long time ago (she’s been in the industry for 30 years).  Lastly – she also gave one of the most moving speeches of the night (especially the last part of her speech when she thanked her ex-boyfriend for all the support he had given her and helping to promote the program).



Outstanding Artist Award:  Chin Kar Lok, Benz Hui, Sunny Chan, Lee Sing Cheong, Dodo Cheng
(Award presented by Eric Tsang)

.—As I said earlier, I was pleasantly surprised with this award because I had no clue whatsoever that TVB would choose to ‘recognize’ its veteran artists (though it makes sense now given the volatile situation with additional stations vying for licenses).

.—First, let’s talk about Eric Tsang presenting this award.  Definitely a very appropriate choice given Eric’s tenure and status in the industry – plus he’s one of the few artists currently at TVB who was actually around when these veteran artists were still active and knows them very well (of course, he has collaborated with most of them in some way or another as well).  Eric’s ‘speech’ introducing each of the artists was very touching (and ‘humorous’ in the case of Chin Kar Lok) – good job in this area!

As for the winners of the award – all of them were definitely well-deserved.  I liked how TVB did the ‘surprise’ element with this award, as none of the 5 artists knew that they were going to get this award until their names were called to go on stage.

.—Chin Kar Lok – to be honest, I may not be too fond of Kar Lok as an actor, but I definitely admire and respect him as a person.  I remember the first time I knew of him was back in the mid-90s when he ‘replaced’ Jordan Chan as one of the co-hosts of Super Trio (he went on to host for many years alongside Eric Tsang and Jerry Lamb).  I’ve seen him in many hosting gigs since then and also I’ve seen him in series too – but his biggest contribution I feel is his role as action choreographer for movies, which is really his strength (plus it’s something that he’s been doing for years and recently won an award for).  So yes, totally deserving of this award because of his contributions to the industry but also his good overall attitude as well.


.—Benz Hui  -- I was absolutely ecstatic that Benz FINALLY got recognition – not just for his contributions to the TV (and movie) industry, but also for his great attitude and personality off-screen as well!   As Eric stated in his introduction, Benz was one of the graduates of TVB’s very first Acting Class (back in 1971-72) and he has pretty much worked for TVB since that time (40 years!!).  I myself grew up watching Benz in series after series (he was especially active back in the 80s) and over the years, he has become one of my favorite ‘green leaf’ actors of all time!  As an actor, he is brilliantly talented (he can do comical, serious, villain, grassroots, etc. – absolutely versatile!).  As a person – well, the introduction that TVB put together about Benz described him perfectly in my opinion – he definitely brings joy and laughter to everyone, no matter where he goes, as he has a truly infectious sense of humor that just endears him to everyone. 

From my recollection, in the 40 years that Benz has worked for TVB, he hasn’t gotten a single award (though as he said, from day one, he has never thought about getting any awards), so for him to get one now is definitely long overdue.  No wonder Benz was so touched (he almost cried, though he was able to hold it in and use his trademark sense of humor to lighten the mood) – I mean, I was almost in tears too (tears of joy that is) seeing one of my favorite artists finally get ‘rewarded’ after so many years!  Absolutely well-deserved!!


.—Sunny Chan – I was equally surprised when Sunny’s name was called because despite his great acting talent (obviously he’s one of my favorite actors as well), he has never been ‘recognized’ by TVB for any type of award (even though he did get nominated a few times, but was never in ‘serious’ contention).  I’ve liked Sunny as an actor since he started in the 90s – which is why for the past decade (ever since Sunny returned to TVB after a brief stint at ATV), I’ve been ticked off at TVB for giving him such lame roles in equally lame series and for ‘warehousing’ majority of his series.  To be honest, he can give any of the TV Kings from the past decade a run for their money in the area of acting, yet he is so under-promoted and under-utilized that it’s ridiculous – especially since he is a lead actor and has been since the 90s!  As a person, I have the utmost respect and admiration for Sunny, especially in the last few years after I found out how great of a father he is and all the sacrifices that he was willing to make for his autistic son – definitely a man of honor who absolutely deserves to be rewarded!

I’m so glad that TVB finally ‘woke up’ and recognized how much talent Sunny has as an actor (maybe, just maybe, I’ll stop being pissed at them now for ‘neglecting’ Sunny all these years)!   And I absolutely enjoyed Sunny’s acceptance speech (haha…Eric Tsang was spot on when he said that Sunny will ‘talk your ear off’ if he got the chance…but hey, that’s part of what makes him so endearing!) – you could totally tell that Sunny was overjoyed at getting the award (he was like a big kid who just got a big present…LOL!).  Great job, Sunny!


.—Lee Sing Cheong – I was pleasantly surprised that Lee Sing Cheong got an award because he has also been with TVB for decades and never got much recognition up until now!  He’s another actor I grew up watching (I started watching him in series when he actually still had hair…hehe!) and needless to say, he’s definitely another one of my favorites.  Lee Sing Cheong has always been a very versatile, talented actor who can take pretty much any type of role and run with it – he can be a ruthless villain one minute, a benevolent father the next minute, or a comedic sidekick the next minute.  He is tremendously underrated as an actor and absolutely deserves more recognition than he has ever gotten – which is why I was so happy to see him get this award.  It was obvious from his acceptance speech that he didn’t know about the award either (since TVB told him to attend the awards ceremony because they were going to have him present an award – though they never told him who he would be presenting to…turns out that was just an ‘excuse’ to get him to attend so they could ‘surprise’ him with the award).  Lee Sing Cheong was very moved by the gesture and even though he didn’t cry, other artists did shed a few tears because they were so happy for him (Myolie gave him a standing ovation and Fala was wiping tears from her eyes) – though it was very emotional for me as well, it was at the same time very heartwarming to see.  Congratulations and absolutely well-deserved!!


.—Dodo Cheng – the 5^th Outstanding Artist award went to Dodo Cheng, which absolutely makes sense in my opinion because in all the years that she has been in the industry, Dodo is pretty much the ‘epitome’ of professionalism (if anyone needs examples of this, let me know!).  I loved her as an actress back in the 70s/80s (when she was with TVB) and even when she went into movies, I still enjoyed her works.  For me personally, I feel it’s a pity that she stopped acting and decided to do hosting full time instead because she’s an absolutely talented actress (though of course, she’s a great host as well – one of the best there is in the industry).  Definitely well-deserved and a natural choice to win this award! (And I loved how Dodo didn’t miss a beat – right after her speech, she continued right into her duties of wrapping up the segment for a commercial!)



Favorite Female TV Character:  Kate Tsui (as ‘Pat Chan’ in Highs and Lows)
(Award presented by Myolie Wu and Kevin Cheng)

.—There was no top 5 this year – pretty much all 10 nominees in the category were ‘finalists’, which I felt was kind of weird.  They should have at least narrowed it down to Top 5 like they did previous years – at least make the award more ‘important’ (especially since the award already has a ‘negative’ stigma of being a ‘consolation prize’).  I don’t know about others, but for me, the way they did this award, I really wasn’t too excited about the award itself – when they announced the winner, it was pretty much like: ‘oh ok – next?’

.—I actually have no comment about Kate winning because this year, I actually have not paid a whole lot of attention to the performances of the females – just like last year and the year before, none of the performances from the ladies stood out much to me, so as long as whoever wins in this category makes sense and doesn’t create backlash, then I’m fine with it.



Favorite Male TV Character:  Kenneth Ma (as ‘Cheung Yat Kin’ in The Hippocratic Crush)
(Award presented by Ng Man Tat and Benz Hui)

.—Compared to the Female Fav character award, the Male one was definitely much more ‘exciting’, probably because the male performances were definitely better this year and majority of the characters / artists nominated I felt deserved to win.

.—Again, no Top 5 for this category, which was a bit weird, but ok fine (though it would have made things more interesting to narrow the list and only pick one person from it). 

.—Of course, since I loved the series The Hippocratic Crush and loved Kenneth’s character in it, I’m absolutely fine with him winning – though as I said earlier, I would have been fine with any of the others winning as well (yes, even Raymond – his ‘Happy Sir’ character truly was a departure from the types of characters he used to play and in my opinion, it’s one of the more decent roles he’s had in the past couple years). 

.—Kenneth definitely gave a great speech – I loved how he was so honest in saying that people seem to not want the Favorite Male Character award because the person who receives it usually won’t get TV King, but he’s totally fine with it and doesn’t mind getting that award every year if no one wants it!  Haha…silly Kenneth!  One thing I like about Kenneth is that he is one of the few artists who actually thanks all the behind-the-scenes people in his speeches (i.e. the scriptwriters, costume, hair and makeup, etc.) – I respect him for that, especially since the behind-the-scenes people usually never get any type of recognition whatsoever.

.—The highlight of this segment for me was definitely the presenters – Tat Gor and Uncle Benz!  TVB made a great choice putting these 2 ‘funny men’ together – their ‘banter’ back and forth was absolutely hilarious!!   I already talked about Benz earlier, so not too much more comment there…but I was absolutely thrilled to see Tat Gor again!  Since he moved his career to Mainland, I had not seen any of Tat Gor’s works in recent years, so I was definitely starting to miss him – especially since he’s one of my favorite comedic actors (though he’s also very versatile and can do a variety of other roles as well).  Based on his presentation speech, he has not lost his comedic timing one bit!   Love it!



Best Supporting Actress:  Nancy Wu (Gloves Come Off)
(Award presented by Mandy Wong)

.—TVB did this award differently this year by first announcing the Top 2 artists in this category (basically the 2 artists who received the most number of votes).  Both artists were invited to the front of the stage and allowed to give a brief ‘acceptance’ speech – then they were given the envelope with the name of the winner and the person who doesn’t get the award is responsible for presenting the award to the winner.

.—Honestly, I didn’t like the way they did this because it was too awkward – especially since they didn’t set aside enough time for it.  The whole segment was so rushed, I sort of got ticked off at how ‘messy ‘ it was.

.—The top 2 finalists in this category were Nancy Wu and Mandy Wong.  Of course, I’m not surprised about Nancy, since she was the ‘hot favorite’ going into the awards and pretty much the one expected to win.  But I WAS surprised about Mandy getting the second highest number of votes – I honestly thought the ‘battle’ for Supporting Actress was between Nancy and Elena Kong (whom I felt was the only one out of the rest of the nominees who had a real chance at beating Nancy)…ah well, I guess it doesn’t make a difference now…

.—Anyway, absolutely fine with Nancy winning this award – in fact, she actually should have gotten this award a long time ago…glad TVB finally ‘recognized’ her, but really wish they would have done so earlier!



Best Supporting Actor:  Koo Ming Wah (Divas in Distress)
(Award presented by Power Chan)

.—Same format as the Supporting Actress award, except that this segment ran more smoothly – less awkward and the timing was a lot better.

.—The 2 finalists were (obviously) Power Chan and Koo Ming Wah.  To be honest, I love both actors, so it’s really hard for me to choose who I would have wanted to win – I’m pretty much ok with either one winning, though as I said before, I really wished this category would have been a tie so that both of them could win! 

.-- One thing I will say is that I was thrilled to see these 2 great actors FINALLY getting the recognition they deserve – it was definitely a very emotional moment for me seeing the 2 of them up there and seeing how much support both of them were getting from everyone (especially Power Chan, since I’ve been following his career since the 80s and pretty much grew up watching him). 

.—I absolutely loved Power’s ‘thank you’ speech, even though it was only 2 sentences!  It was so sweet of him to tell his wife and daughter how much he loved them (and kudos to the other artists for applauding when he made his ‘declaration’).  Awww, Power is such a good man!  Love him and continue to support him!

.—Koo Ming Wah gave a great speech as well – he was very emotional and thanked pretty much everyone – from TVB to the series producers and behind the scenes staff to his family to the fans who supported him.  I’m very happy for him, as he definitely deserved the award for his performance (though as I said earlier, Power was also equally deserving).



Best Variety Program:  Map of Happiness
(Award presented by Chung King Fai and Jerry Lamb)

.—I will be honest and say that I was surprised that Map of Happiness won because I absolutely thought that Telling Maria had this award in the bag.  Not sure what happened here because the result was totally unexpected in my opinion….but I’m not really going to complain because I did watch Map of Happiness and it WAS a pretty good program…one of the better ones that TVB has made over the years.

.—About the presenting:  Hahaha….at first I wasn’t sure why they had Jerry Lamb present with King Sir, but as soon as Jerry opened his mouth, I instantly remembered:   one of Jerry’s ‘hidden talents’ is that he is able to do an absolutely ‘dead-on’ impersonation of King Sir.  Omg, his impersonation was SO good (and it was funny to hear all the artists chuckling in the background…LOL!)



Best Informational Program:  Pilgrimage of Hope
(Award presented by Chung King Fai and Jerry Lamb)

.—Not much comment about this category, since I didn’t watch this program at all (though I do know some stuff about it based on reading up on it).



Best Actress (TV Queen):  Tavia Yeung (Silver Spoons, Sterling Shackles)
(Award presented by Miriam Yeung)            

.—Top 5 in this category:  Tavia Yeung (Silver Spoons, Sterling Shackles), Michelle Yim (The Confidant), Charmaine Sheh (When Heaven Burns), Linda Chung (Witness Insecurity), Kate Tsui (Highs and Lows)    

.—My honest opinion:  Doesn’t matter to me, since, like I said earlier, I wasn’t too impressed overall with the performances from the females this year.  I’m fine with the Top 5, since those were the same artists I expected to get into the ‘final’ list anyway.  Plus none of those who got into Top 5 are my favorites anyway…though if I had really had to pick based on performance, I probably would have picked Charmaine because she had the most impactful and difficult performance out of the 5.

.—My only other comment – not sure if I liked Tavia’s speech…I actually felt she was doing fine until she mentioned the part about Liza Wang – not sure what the point was of that?



Best Actor (TV King):  Wayne Lai (The Confidant)
(Award presented by Deanie Ip)                     

.—Top 5 in this category:  Damian Lau (Silver Spoons, Sterling Shackles), Moses Chan (The Last Steep Ascent), Raymond Lam (Highs and Lows), Wayne Lai (The Confidant), Kenneth Ma (The Hippocratic Crush)

.—I will say that I was surprised Wayne won because with the whole OVPP thing, I was thinking for sure that Raymond Lam had the award in the bag due to his large fan base.  Don’t get me wrong…I’m happy that Wayne won and from an acting standpoint, his skills are unquestionable – but is he really more ‘popular’ than Raymond to the point that he would receive more votes than him (this is assuming that TVB didn’t mess with the results that is)?  I’ve actually been thinking about this question the past few days and it’s actually starting to make more sense to me now….Wayne’s fan base isn’t really as small as we think – over the past 4-5 years, he has gained a lot of fans, especially after he became leading actor status – not only do the ‘housewives’ (and other audiences) love him, he also has a lot of support from his colleagues and others whom he’s worked with.  I mean, why else has TVB been promoting him so much and treating him so well when he’s not even a ‘biological son’ of theirs (and he’s still not as far as I know)?  It’s because Wayne is a ‘cash cow’ for TVB due to his overwhelming popularity with their main demographic – the ‘housewife’ audiences (and for those who think that the ‘housewife’ audiences don’t know how to use a computer or mobile app to vote – well, there is such a thing as having their kids do it for them, right?).  Of course, no complaints here, since I adore Wayne – it’s just that I wasn’t expecting him to win this time around…but he did and I’m very happy for him!

.—Wayne actually gave a very good speech – he was very calm, composed, coherent, and was able to thank everyone he wanted to thank with making it seem rushed or awkward….of course, I shouldn’t be surprised because Wayne has always been a very well-spoken person.  And with this being his third TV King win, he has ‘experience’ enough now to keep his composure during these types of events and not break down.

.—Lastly, a word about the presenter:  Deanie was very elegant as usual but also funny in her own unique way.  I liked how she was able to make a comment about each of the top 5 nominees – then when she got to Kenneth, she asked “Who is Kenneth Ma?” (obviously she doesn’t watch much TV…haha).  That part was funny!



Best Series:  When Heaven Burns
(Award presented by Ng See Yuen)

.—Top 3:  The Hippocratic Crush, The Confidant, When Heaven Burns

.-- A lot of people were surprised that WHB won Best Series, considering it was the 2^nd lowest rated series of the year and it didn’t appeal to majority of TVB’s audience demographic:  the housewives.  Back when the series aired, there were complaints galore about the ‘cannabalism’ theme (which turned out to be over-exaggerated) and the ‘differentness’ of the series that caused majority of housewives not to understand what the series was about or what they were watching.  It wasn’t until after the series aired that people really started picking up on this series (primary reason was because of the addictive sub-themesong, which spread like wildfire, and also the ending of the series, which was very well-done and a definite departure from TVB’s standard fare).  I actually find it kind of ironic that audiences only started liking the series after it aired – to the point that TVB parted from tradition and specially placed all episodes of the series on MyTV for an entire week so that netizens who missed the series when it aired on TV could watch in its entirety!   With netizens literally ‘adoring’ this series and even dubbing it as a ‘godly’ series, it’s not surprising in the least that majority of the audiences would vote for WHB as the Best Series.

.-- The part that WAS surprising – that TVB actually allowed WHB to win!  Given that majority of the main cast already left TVB (Charmaine, Bowie, etc.) and most of the behind-the-scenes people are gone too (scriptwriter Chow Yuk Ming already left TVB a few months back and producer Jonathan Chik will be leaving at the end of this month), plus the ratings were pathetically low, I didn’t think that TVB would allow it to get anything!

.—Lastly…about Ng See Yuen presenting…again, another surprise because he’s the President of the HK Film Workers Association and recently took the lead in holding a press conference urging the government to issue additional free-to-air licenses to other TV stations (and thereby ‘opposing’ TVB’s firm stance on the issue).  The press conference just occurred last week (so still ‘fresh’ in a sense), so it felt a bit weird (to me at least) that TVB would turn around and invite him to present one of the night’s biggest awards.

Review of “Forensic Heroes 3 法證先鋒III” (2011)

Cast (partial list of the main & supporting cast): Wayne Lai (黎耀祥), Maggie Cheung (張可頤), Ron Ng (吳卓羲), Kate Tsui (徐子珊), Nancy Wu (胡定欣), Yuen Wah (元華), Edwin Siu (蕭正楠), Aimee Chan (陳茵媺), Ram Tseung (蔣志光), Ruco Chan (陳展鵬)

I finished watching FH3 a few weeks ago (simultaneous broadcast with HK), however I actually put off writing a review about this series until now -- mostly because the series sort of wore me out after watching the finale and I really didn't feel like talking about it any more (I guess you could say that I was just glad it was finally over).

Now, don't get me wrong -- I'm not saying that this series was entirely bad because to be honest, I've seen way way worse (and as I will mention later, there were definitely some 'enjoyable' moments in the series) -- but by the same token, compared to many of the other TVB series that I've seen, this one definitely doesn't live up to my standards (now that I think about it though, how many TVB series from the last decade have lived up to my standards? not very many!). I actually wanted to use the word "disappointing" to describe my feeling towards this series, but after thinking about it further, it's really not accurate to say that I was "disappointed" in this series because in actuality, I didn't have any expectations of this series going into it (I've learned to stop 'expecting' anything from TVB series anymore...LOL). In fact, I wasn't even planning on watching the series in the first place, since when I first heard a few years ago that they were going to do FH3 but was going to change the cast, I was quite bitter about it (come on now -- Forensic Heroes is not the same without Bobby and Frankie, just like Burning Flame is not the same without Wong Hei) -- and quite honestly, based on the 'original' storyline concept for FH3 (the one that TVB pitched during their sales presentation a few years ago), I was actually planning on "boycotting" the series altogether (those who watched that sales presentation or read the original concept summary will probably know why I felt that way at the time). Anyway, it's a moot point now, but needless to say, at that time, I was quite ticked off, so pretty much the series didn't start off on the right foot with me, even as far back as the 'conceptual' beginning (prior to it becoming the series it eventually became). The only reason why I decided to give the series a chance was pretty much because of Wayne (and the fact that there was nothing else interesting to watch on TV, since the other series airing around the same time were extremely boring). More about Wayne's role later....

Before I go any further....for those of you who are regular readers of my reviews of TVB series (thank you!), I'm actually going to do this review a bit differently than the other ones I've done in the past. Instead of doing an in-depth analysis of each character / artist like I normally do, I'm going to take a different approach and basically just talk about my 'likes' and 'dislikes' about the series in general (figured that this was the easiest way to do this particular review).

.--.

STORYLINE / SCRIPT

One of my biggest "issues" with this series was the seriously flawed script -- there were so many things that didn't make sense, it totally detracted from the series as a whole and made it difficult to enjoy watching it (for me at least). Over the many years that I've been following TVB and HK entertainment, I've watched plenty of TVB series and I can honestly say that I can't recall encountering a series (that I've watched from beginning to end that is) with as many 'head-scratching', 'what-the-heck' moments as this one (and I'm not exaggerating either -- I was pretty much able to find at least 1 thing from each episode that fit into the "WTH" category!). I don't know if the writers were under pressure to produce the script in a short amount of time so they rushed things without realizing it or if there was a particular intention behind the way the script was written (I'm leaning toward the latter, since the 2 writers Choi Ting Ting and Leung Mun Wah are experienced scriptwriters), but whatever the reason, the fact is that the script was very poorly written.

Amongst the most "glaring" of flaws in the script (series) was the very obviously 'rushed' storyline -- the writers didn't spend enough time developing the areas that should have been developed (for example, the relationships of the various characters, some of the details of certain cases, etc.) and instead wasted alot of time with cases that were boring and lame (i.e. that case about the tenants and the owner of a building where the tenant dies after slipping in the bathroom and also that cosplay case near the end of the series, just to name a few). I understand that with these types of series, the premise is about crime-solving, so that should definitely be the focus, but the relationships of the characters are important as well, since, as humans, we spend most of our lives interacting with each other – so in series like these, it’s necessary to have a good balance of both. Unfortunately though, the writers didn’t do a very good job in this area….not only that, but the lack of development in the relationships with this particular series had a significant impact for me because throughout the whole time that I watched, I didn’t feel anything for any of the main pairings – it was almost as though I could care less who was paired up with whom (of course, part of this could have also been due to the lack of chemistry between the artists themselves).

Here are a few examples of the “rushed” parts that I had a problem with (not an all-inclusive list):

.-- Nancy / Wayne divorce – the way the writers wrote the divorce storyline between Nancy and Wayne’s characters was way too ‘purposeful’ to be realistic. Considering how long they had been together as a loving couple, plus they had a daughter that they needed to think about, I was surprised at how quickly they reached the decision to divorce (and pretty much over 1 incident too). The feeling I got was that they went from being the ‘model couple’ one minute to a ‘I don’t love you anymore and can’t stand the way you operate’ relationship the next minute. And of course, this whole thing pretty much happened over the course of like 1 episode (actually, not even, since there was other stuff interspersed throughout the episode) – plus with the way the whole thing played out, I definitely got the impression that neither character (Wayne and Nancy) was too emotional / distraught over the breakup (so maybe they didn’t really love each other that much after all). In any case, the way that whole piece was written was definitely lacking.

.-- Maggie / Ruco breakup – ok, I have to say that as much as I disliked the way the writers handled Nancy and Wayne’s divorce, the way that they handled Maggie and Ruco’s breakup was way worse….in fact, it was so lame and stupid, it’s not even funny! Sure, it’s not like they spent a lot of time developing Maggie and Ruco as a couple in the first place, but at least the writers did bring them together over the course of a few episodes (well, I guess you could say half the series) and up until the point they broke up, there was no indication whatsoever that they were incompatible or planning to separate in any way. Then, at the end of one of the episodes, they ‘suddenly’ mutually realize that they don’t love each other as they thought they did and literally within like 1 scene, they decide to part ways. WTH??? It was so totally random and came out of nowhere that it left me wondering what the whole point was of having Ruco and Maggie together in the first place! Oh, and at least with Nancy and Wayne, they had 1 episode to ‘divorce’ – with Ruco and Maggie, it was like 1-2 scenes max (and at the end of an episode too – by the first scene of the next episode, Ruco’s character was already ‘gone’)….how lame! If they were going to write the breakup this way, then they shouldn’t have put Ruco and Maggie together from the beginning (they definitely could have had Ruco participate in the series without making him a ‘love interest’ for Maggie)!

.-- Wayne / Maggie relationship – with the ‘rushed’ way that the breakups of the 2 main characters were done, it definitely seemed to me that the main purpose of the entire series (from a relationship perspective at least) was to have Wayne and Maggie become a couple. It’s almost as though the writers were trying to say ‘let’s get their previous relationships over with so we can get the 2 of them together’. (The two of them got together pretty much right after Maggie and Ruco broke up, plus the lame way that they did that breakup made it too obvious that the Wayne/Maggie get-together was their main objective). To be honest, I wasn’t too keen on Wayne and Maggie as a couple because I felt that their characters lacked chemistry -- to me, there was actually no difference in their relationship prior to them becoming a couple (when they worked together as partners in the forensics team) and afterwards….


The other major flaw with the script (as far as I noticed at least) was the ‘randomness’ of some of the elements / scenes / characters related to each of the cases. There were some characters and scenes ‘interspersed’ in the series that were completely irrelevant to the development of the storyline and seemed to serve no purpose whatsoever (pretty much you could take those characters out and it would have very little, if any, impact to the script / series). This actually got annoying after awhile because it didn’t just happen once or twice – it was a recurring ‘issue’ throughout the entire series.

A few of the most obvious examples of this:

.-- The ‘nephew scene’ during the tenants vs landlord case (which was already a lame case to begin with) – the guy who played the nephew (whom I found out later was one of the newer Mr HKs) only appeared for like 10 seconds in one scene (he basically had one line of dialogue), then disappeared and was never heard from again. He was mentioned briefly later on during the investigation of the case (yea, for like a minute), but turns out he had nothing to do with the case whatsoever. So what was the point in putting his character in there, especially if he was going to appear for only a few seconds and had nothing to do with the case? Totally didn’t get that part…

.-- Sire Ma’s brief appearance during the case about the murder of the college student was totally random as well. She was only in 2 scenes and had probably about 5 lines of dialogue – her total screentime was probably close to 10 minutes or so (maybe even less). I mean, I could understand putting her in the series if her character had anything at all to do with the case, but she didn’t – she was pretty much just the murdered guy’s ex-girlfriend and was never even considered as a suspect in the case. Totally random character…

.-- Felix Lok’s character was another random one that the writers put in there for no significant reason. He was literally only in 1 scene at the end of an episode, though they did talk about his character a little bit in one of the scenes prior to that. Basically, in those 2 scenes, they made him out to be some sort of powerful mob boss / businessman whom Nancy decides to work for (that’s part of her reasoning for divorcing Wayne and leaving for the U.S.) – based on the way that set things up, made it seem like he would play a significant role in one of the future cases perhaps. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case at all -- after that, his character is not mentioned again until Nancy returns – but even then, the ‘mention’ is lame because he isn’t involved with any type of case. Even with the case involving Nancy at the end of the series, he was completely irrelevant – they pretty much ‘mentioned’ that he was still in the U.S. and was sick on his deathbed (or something like that) and that’s it – never mentioned again. Huh? What was the point of his character then?

The above is just scratching the surface – there were a lot more instances / characters that were ‘interspersed’ the same way. After watching this series, it totally made me question the experience of the scriptwriters (the horribly written script made it seem like newbies who didn’t know what they were doing actually wrote it) and what they were thinking when putting together this script. It was definitely annoying to say the least.

Despite all of the ‘shortcomings’ of the script, there WERE a few enjoyable moments in the series, but unfortunately, not enough for me to ‘overlook’ the flaws. Still, here’s a brief mention of some of the ‘highlights’ of the series for me:

.-- Nancy’s court scenes and her ‘showdown’ with Wayne and Yuen Wah (who played Wayne’s father) during that one murder case involving the rich guy were definitely exceptional and well done. I literally was at the edge of my seat watching those scenes – too bad that it was short-lived though.

.-- The case involving Ram Tseung’s son in the series (the murder of the college student case) was very interesting as well and for me, it was probably one of the best cases in the series (partly because it wasn’t as easy to guess the killer). Another reason why I enjoyed that case was because Ram was heavily involved in those few episodes – since he’s one of my favorite ‘green leaf’ actors, it was definitely a ‘treat’ for me!

.-- Yuen Wah’s character was hilarious (without intending to be) – I enjoyed almost all of his scenes, especially the one in particular with Angela Tong’s character. It’s sort of sad that even though Yuen Wah didn’t have very much screentime, I absolutely enjoyed his performance over everyone else’s – even the main leads.

.-- Ruco’s character is another one that I enjoyed – in fact, I was one of those people who liked his pairing with Maggie (just about the only ‘pairing’ that I liked and felt a connection to in the entire series) – but the stupid writers had to go ruin it with that lame breakup thing that I mentioned earlier! Plus his screentime was way less than Yuen Wah’s and the way they ‘wrote him out of the series’ was quite dumb (and didn’t make sense). For me, the entire series pretty much went downhill after that -- well, it was already starting to go downhill before that quite honestly, but at least there were still scenes worth watching – but after Ruco’s case, the remaining episodes were so boring, I pretty much lost interest and stopped paying attention to the series until the finale episode.

.***.

CAST / CHARACTERS

Like I mentioned earlier, I’m not going to do a detailed character analysis in this review, as I feel it would be a waste of time to do so, especially since many people have already seen this series.

Therefore, just some brief thoughts:

.-- Wayne Lai (Pro Sir) – as much as I love Wayne, I really feel that the character of Pro Sir doesn’t suit him all that much. With Wayne’s caliber of acting, this particular character is way too easy for him and in my opinion, is a complete waste of his talent (literally, he can do that character in his sleep!). He needs more dynamic, challenging roles (ones with more depth) that will truly be able to showcase his talent. Hopefully, Wayne chooses his roles more carefully in the future – with his status and position, he can definitely afford to be picky with his roles and not just take whatever (crappy) roles TVB gives him!

.-- Maggie Cheung (Dr. Chung) – Out of all of the 90s fa dans, Maggie has always been near the bottom of my list – nothing against her personally or her acting, it’s just that she has never been my ‘cup of tea’ when it comes to actresses that I enjoy watching -- so to me, her participation in this series doesn’t make much of a difference to me. Overall, I would say that Maggie did a pretty good job in her role as forensic pathologist Dr. Mandy Chung – she was convincing enough in the role and handled the complicated dialogue quite well. Other than that, I don’t really have much opinion on her performance.

.-- Ron Ng (Wind Sir) & Kate Tsui (Madam Ling) – I’m not fond of either artist, so didn’t really pay a whole lot of attention to their scenes…but even then, it was definitely obvious that their characters were ‘second fiddle’ to Wayne and Maggie’s. Honestly, I really didn’t see the value of Ron and Kate’s cop characters because it’s not like they were the ones doing most of the crime-solving anyway – in most of the episodes, it actually seemed as though Wayne and Maggie were the cops instead of Ron and Kate, since they were almost always present when the ‘big reveal’ occurred in many of the episodes (which is one of the other things that didn’t make sense about the script, but oh well). Their roles definitely weren’t memorable and in my opinion, any one of the current TVB 2nd line artists could have done the same role and it wouldn’t have mattered (actually, the other artists may even be able to do it better!).

.-- Nancy Wu (Pro Sir’s wife Eva Chow) – Nancy’s character definitely stood out in this series, as her character was quite strong and she had some of the best scenes -- her portrayal of a lawyer was very convincing and her court-scenes were well-acted. But too bad that her character changed in the latter half of the series after returning from the U.S. (she quit her attorney job and became a freelance writer for a legal journal) – basically, her role became more of a ‘vase’ character later on in the series, which was really dumb of the writers to do when her character had so much potential in the first half of the series. Not sure what the reasoning was behind why her character was written this way, but I know that if I were writing the script, I would definitely have written her character differently, perhaps even making her role more significant than Kate’s (since the cops in this series were pretty useless anyway). The writers pretty much wasted the character’s potential.

.-- Yuen Wah (Uncle Hing) – Yuen Wah’s role as Wayne’s dad in the series was actually quite enjoyable. His somewhat comical character (not purposefully comical, but he just came across that way) provided an interesting juxtaposition to Wayne’s ‘serious’ Pro Sir role. I will admit that I had my doubts at first with how Yuen Wah would fit into the role given his background (I always think of him as a kungfu guy) and with Wayne’s character being so serious and professional, but it actually worked out just fine in my opinion. In fact, I liked the chemistry he and Wayne had as father and son and definitely would have liked to see more scenes of them together. Oh, and I must mention that the scene with Angela Tong (where Yuen Wah thinks she is interested in his son and so tries to play matchmaker for them, only to find out that she is actually interested in him) was absolutely hilarious – I got quite a few good laughs out of that part! And there were other great scenes involving Yuen Wah as well (i.e. the court scene with Nancy, his reaction afterwards, etc.) – both serious and comical – that were thoroughly enjoyable. He was definitely my favorite character in the series.

.-- Ruco Chan (Jim Fong) – I liked Ruco’s performance, but unfortunately, he had WAY too little screentime – which also means that his character wasn’t developed enough for me to ‘enjoy’ his character as much as Yuen Wah’s. I really feel that they should have given Ruco a more significant role in the series (and develop his character more) because the little screentime that he had just wasn’t enough. In my opinion, they (the writers / producer) should have just cut Ron and Kate roles (or reduce their screentime if they wanted to keep them) and expanded Ruco and Nancy’s roles because both of them definitely outshined the ‘main’ characters in this series.

.***.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

Overall, I would say that this series fell into the ‘tolerable’ category for me: the first half of the series had some good potential, but the second half of the series was sort of bad – the series definitely has that typical ‘strong start, weak ending’ element that is notorious in many of TVB’s series nowadays.

Of course, it’s hard to write a review about FH3 without mentioning FH1 and FH2, since the series IS supposed to be a “sequel” after all (though this installment has absolutely nothing to do with the first 2 in terms of storyline and cast). Without going into a huge comparison / analysis thing (because honestly, FH2 and FH3 can’t compare with the original), I will say that, as part of the same franchise, FH3 definitely did not live up to its hype. I absolutely adored the first installment of FH and the awesome chemistry that the original cast (Bobby, Frankie, Yoyo, and yes, even Linda) had – plus the cases were well-written and the storyline was fast-paced enough without rushing through things ( it’s one of the few series from the post 2000 era that I actually like and can re-watch over and over again without getting bored). FH2 ruined that chemistry with the addition of Charmaine and Kevin, thereby resulting in a reduction in screen time for the original cast (so that the focus could be on 2006’s TV King and Queen, no doubt) – in my opinion though, the script was already poorly written starting with that installment (as I remember there were a lot of scenes that didn’t make sense in that installment as well, though not to the extent of FH3)…the only ‘redeeming factor’ for FH2 that made it watchable was the fact that it still had Bobby and Frankie, so it was less of a struggle to sit through (since I could just forward through other people’s scenes). Now with FH3, not only was the cast completely changed and the characters poorly developed, the script was also poorly written – for me, those 2 factors alone made the installment worse than the previous two.

Lastly, I’d like to briefly talk about the ratings for FH3 – those who know me know that I’ve never been one to care much about ratings, since to me, ratings mean nothing when it comes to determining a ‘quality’ series (high ratings DOES NOT EQUAL quality!). In the HK entertainment industry especially, TV ratings mean absolutely nothing given that the entire industry is monopolized by only 1 TV station (which means that HK audiences pretty much don’t have a choice in terms of which TV station to watch, so naturally the ratings would be high, since basically the entire region watches the same station). I personally feel that the HK media’s obsession with TV ratings is stupid given the dynamics I just described, but for the sake of argument, I will ‘entertain’ the ratings thing for a second – when FH3 aired in HK, its ratings were so high that it became the ‘highest rated series’ of 2011, taking the #1 spot from the Laughing Gor series “Lives of Omission” (for me, the only ‘good’ thing about FH3’s ratings is that it knocked LOO out of the #1 spot – nothing satisfies me more than seeing another series finally beat the crap out of that arrogant Laughing Gor, even if it’s something as stupid as meaningless TV ratings!). Ironically, out of all the FH installments, FH3 was the highest rated, even though it was the worst one of the 3…go figure! Well, whatever – my viewing habits and opinions toward TVB series are rarely in line with the brainwashed HK audiences’ anyway.

One last thought….obviously, I’m not too fond of this series, but if you were to ask me whether I recommend it or not – well, it depends on what context we’re looking at. If you’re looking at 2011 TVB series only, then sure, this series was probably one of the better ones in the bunch (after “Sentinel”, FH3 was the only other series from this year that I was able to sit through from beginning to end), but it definitely was NOT the best series of 2011. If you’re looking at the entire FH franchise (or if you’re like me and have a certain affinity for the original FH series), then no, I wouldn’t recommend it because most likely you will get ticked off (as I did) at how TVB ruined yet another ‘franchise’!

My Thoughts on "Gun Metal Grey 刑警"

This series was definitely my most anticipated series of 2010 – BUT I learned my lesson with “Born Rich” in 2009 so even though I was really looking forward to watching this series, I had some reservations with what to expect. I didn’t want to get my hopes up like I did with BR, only to be bitterly disappointed…so I definitely made an effort to watch the series with a clear mind.

Luckily, GMG turned out to be way different from BR – it was definitely worth waiting for and absolutely did not disappoint! I really enjoyed the series and it was actually one of the few series from 2010 that I was able to sit through completely (without giving up halfway through) – that definitely says a lot about what I thought of the series.

Also, I have to say that GMG was definitely one of the better series that TVB has made over the past several years. The cases were suspenseful and interesting – but to be honest, some of the cases were downright scary and actually gave me the creeps…I had to avert my eyes at certain scenes because I didn’t want to get too grossed out. But I’m actually not too surprised that some of the cases were so gruesome, since the blueprint of the cases were based on the top criminal cases in HK’s history.

As usually happens with cop-themed series, especially ones that revolve around a bunch of cases, there is of course a lot that can be covered in a review. But for the purposes of this particular review, I wanted to explore the different characters in the series as well as the relationships and storyline outside of the cases (plus some of the cases were way too freaky, so I would prefer not to dwell on them too much).


So here are the highlights:

1). Characters and Artists’ performances:

Michael Miu (Mad Sir): Of course, as the leader of the team, it is necessary for Michael to have a presence and be the ‘boss’ so to speak. His character has a very suave and cool personality, but yet gets along well with his colleagues. I actually think that Michael’s character is kind of cute and provides some much needed comic relief to the series. I don’t know how many people noticed, but I found it interesting that his character is supposed to be in such a high position (and leader of the team), but yet there are some parts where he is portrayed like a little kid – for instance, the scenes when he is sucking on a lollipop or eating ice cream on the rooftop). I’m not sure if this was done on purpose or inadvertently, but I actually got quite a kick out of it (I couldn’t help laughing at the sight of Michael eating ice cream out of a cup with an itty bitty spoon while Felix is standing next to him sipping coffee…lol!).

I also found it interesting how Michael’s character always acts so nonchalant and gives off the impression that he doesn’t care or takes his sweet time with stuff, but in reality, he is extremely smart and actually takes his responsibilities as a cop very seriously (not to mention that he is very efficient). There will be more analysis of Michael’s character later on in the review when I talk about his relationship with Jessica as well as his friendship with Felix.

Felix Wong (Stone Sir): Felix’s performance was excellent. Yes, he has done villain roles before, but somehow, those pale in comparison to his character in GMG. Maybe because Felix’s character in the series is pretty well-developed, so there is plenty of opportunity for Felix to utilize his great acting skills to bring out the depth of the character.

And the big question with Felix's character is whether his actions throughout the series can really be considered "wrong"? In my opinion, this is a difficult question to answer because it really depends on which perspective you're looking at it from....I'm actually not even going to try to answer the question in this review, because this topic would trigger a long debate in and of itself.

Again, there will be a deeper analysis of Felix’s character later on in the relationships section, so I will refrain from repeating myself in this section.

Jessica Hsuan (Kim Hui): If I had to choose a least favorite character among the main leads, I would have to choose Jessica’s character. It’s not that I don’t like her character, but I just feel that her character in this series was very similar to the characters that she normally plays – the typical strong woman character who at times can become a bit annoying with her overpowering nature. One redeeming factor to her character though (in my opinion at least) is that she does act ‘silly’ at certain times throughout the series – it’s almost as though the writers are trying to balance her “strong” nature by putting in some ‘schoolgirl type’ traits (which coincidentally matches perfectly with Michael’s “playful” personality). Even though I was not too fond of Jessica’s character, I actually loved her chemistry with Michael in the series (which I will touch on more later on).

Nancy Wu (Hui Man Sze): Ok, I really have to compliment Nancy’s performance in this series – she definitely put herself out there and gave an excellent performance. I’ve seen quite a few of her series in the past and up until this point, none of her other performances really had much of an impression on me. Don’t get me wrong – I think that her acting has always been pretty consistent and she is definitely one of the newer generation actresses with the most potential – but I just never really got “into” her performances in the past. It could be perhaps that her character in GMG was quite well written, so that helped her performance stand out. I personally was quite impressed with her performance – even though Nancy’s character was tough and strong, there was a good balance to the character and so I ended up liking Nancy’s character way more than Jessica’s. To summarize, Nancy’s performance came across very natural to me and I was really able to see the maturity in her acting.

Vincent Wong (Carson Yeung): I must say that I was quite impressed with Vincent’s performance in this series. Yes, he is a newbie and has not been in many series, plus his acting skills still need some work, but I was drawn to his character for some reason. Personally, I find his acting and mannerisms are very similar to Joe Ma (which means that his acting is a bit stiff and not very ‘natural’ looking), so I was surprised that I actually like Vincent’s performance in this series – again, just like with Nancy’s performance, I think part of the reason why I was drawn to Vincent’s performance was because his character was well-written in the series and was very appealing. To be honest, in the beginning, his character was a little annoying because the impression he gave off was that of a rich young kid who is only concerned about getting attention and doesn’t take anything seriously, but later on, when we find out that his character is actually very righteous and serious about his job, plus how he is toward Nancy’s character, he actually becomes quite endearing.


2). Relationships and Chemistry in the series:

I do have to compliment the writers (and producer) on how they handled the relationships in this story, as I feel that the various relationships – whether it’s romance, friendship, or family – were very well done. In this section, I am going to focus primarily on the romantic relationship between Michael / Jessica and Vincent / Nancy as well as the brotherly friendship between Michael / Felix.


Michael / Jessica relationship:

Though the Michael / Jessica relationship was somewhat 'typical' of what TVB usually does in their series, I actually didn't mind this time around because I found the relationship to be quite witty and clever the way it develops. IMO, Michael and Jessica matched quite well -- though they had alot of opposite qualities (i.e. Michael's personality is very suave and nonchalant, giving off the feeling that he is always playing around and doesn't take things seriously whereas Jessica is very rigid, hardworking, and takes her responsibilities too seriously to the point of going overboard)....maybe that's why they end up together (as the saying goes, 'opposites attract'). I read in a few forums that some people who watched the series felt that Michael and Jessica had zero chemistry – I actually disagree….their chemistry may not have been “the best”, but it was definitely there.

The bickering scenes between Michael and Jessica throughout the series were absolutely hilarious!! I got many good laughs out of seeing the two of them going at it, probably because most of the time, they were arguing over silly, childish things (the two of them actually provide a lot of ‘comic relief’ in the series without even intentionally doing so).

I especially love the scenes where Michael 'plays' Jessica and gets her ticked off on purpose, knowing that she has a certain impression of him and rather than trying to 'correct' that impression, he purposefully 'misleads' her, just for fun. That one scene where Jessica is discussing one of the cases with both Michael and Felix at a cafe had me cracking up so hard -- how Jessica would speak to Felix in a soft, 'womanly' way but then she would turn around and speak to Michael in a curt, short-tempered manner. Then, when Michael playfully asks her why she gives him an attitude but speaks to Felix in such a soft way, she snaps at him that he should reflect on why she treats him that way -- Michael's facial expressions during that scene were very funny (almost like the 'innocent little child' look....which is in line with some of the previous 'child' imagery of him sucking on a lollipop and eating ice cream).


Vincent / Nancy relationship:

Surprisingly, I really like this couple and was rooting for them throughout the series (those who know me will understand why I use the word ‘surprisingly’). The way that the relationship developed between Vincent and Nancy was really well-done -- I liked how the relationship wasn’t “rushed” and was allowed to take its natural course.

From the beginning, Vincent obviously had a crush on Nancy and he was very open about it when he realized he had feelings for her. I like how he had no qualms about letting her know early on that he likes her and wants to pursue her – the directness of it was refreshing because normally, these relationships are handled in a way that makes the guy out to be very wishy washy or not sure of what he wants. Even though Nancy didn't like him in the beginning and sort of 'hated' him about a quarter of the way through because his dad was indirectly responsible for the deaths of her biological parents, he never gave up on his love for her. And I like how their relationship didn't follow the 'typical' formula -- for instance, after that huge car accident scene halfway through the series (when Nancy is captured by the photographer and Vincent goes to save her), my expectation was that Nancy was going to 'accept' Vincent's love because she was so touched by how he saved her life and so they would become a couple after that. But it turns out not to be the case -- instead, Nancy symbolically 'forgives' Vincent for what his father did and they become good friends and colleagues again -- in other words, she sees how sincere he is and so can't find it in her heart to hate him, but yet knows that she doesn't 'love' him (at least not yet), so doesn't even try to 'repay' him by being in a relationship with him when she knows she's not ready. Of course, the two of them end up getting together later on (obviously), but only when the timing was right and Nancy realized she truly did have feelings for Vincent.

I also liked how there were alot of "sweet" moments between Vincent and Nancy, even before they ‘officially’ got together as a couple – but the 'sweetness' was done in a way that wasn't cheesy or totally obvious….pretty much, these “sweet” moments were “nuances” throughout the series that were perhaps a hint of the relationship to come, but not ‘in your face’ type stuff.

One of my favorite “sweet moments” was in episode 18 (or was it 17?) when Nancy had gotten into an argument with Jessica earlier and so went to do some kickboxing to relieve her anger. Vincent shows up (he ‘says’ that he happened to go there to work out, but in reality, he knew Nancy goes there often so wanted to keep her company) and tells her that if she is upset, to ‘fight’ with him. She takes on the challenge and ends up giving him a bloody nose (not on purpose though). When he’s driving her home afterwards, she asks him to stop by the 7-11 to buy some stuff – when she gets back in the car, she gives him a band-aid for his nose. When he puts the band-aid on, he realizes it’s one of those ‘kiddie’ kind with like cartoon characters on it, yet he keeps the band-aid on – not only that, but he has this really happy, smiling expression on his face (probably overjoyed that Nancy cared about him enough to give him a band-aid for his sore nose, even though part of the motive on Nancy’s side was guilt over giving him a bloodied nose in the first place). This scene was quite funny and cute (I couldn’t help saying to myself – aww, how sweet!).

From the beginning of the series until they officially got together, Vincent was definitely Nancy’s “guardian angel” – constantly concerned for her and watching out for her. Seeing how much I liked their relationship, needless to say that I was saddened when Vincent’s character dies near the end.


Michael / Felix friendship and chemistry:

Ok, I admit it – I’m a huge 5 Tigers fan (it’s hard not to be growing up in the 80s), so of course, I was looking forward to the chemistry between real life Tiger brothers Michael and Felix. As I said earlier, I was unsure of what to expect of the series itself and didn’t want to put my hopes too high, but one thing I was definitely sure of from the beginning – the chemistry between Michael and Felix would be awesome, no matter how the rest of the series turns out.

I absolutely loved seeing the interaction between Michael and Felix – each of the scenes where there was just the two of them either talking (discussing a case, for instance) or arguing (Michael reprimanding Felix for ‘crossing the line’ and Felix defending his actions as justified) were so satisfying…it was definitely a real treat for a Tiger fan like me!

All those rooftop scenes (where Michael and Felix go to talk about the cases or if they don't want the others to hear what they are saying) were quite defining -- it's as though that's Michael and Felix's personal "space"....what I found really interesting though was how the setup reminded me of the whole 'rooftop' thing in the movie "Infernal Affairs" (coincidentally starring their fellow Tiger Buddies Andy and Tony). I'm wondering if that 'imagery' was done purposefully or not?

Of course, how could I do a review on GMG and not talk about the ‘conflicts’ that Michael and Felix encounter (the core of the series)? Obviously, Michael's character and Felix's character are complete opposites in the series: Michael is a righteous cop who may not necessarily follow the rulebook 100%, but knows very clearly where the line is and does not cross it; Felix, on the other hand, can also be seen as 'righteous' in a sense, but his definition of 'righteousness' is different from everyone else's, due to his own experience spending 15 years in jail for a crime he did not commit -- he ends up crossing that 'line' and doing things that are "wrong" and even criminal, but to him, are completely justified (basically carrying out justice on his own rather than trusting the legal system).

Surprisingly, I actually liked Michael's character -- even though he was an 'enabler' in a sense because he didn't 'rat' Felix out when he suspected him of crossing the line and also covered up for him a few times (partly because he felt guilty that his testimony contributed to Felix going to jail), he didn't do "stupid" things such as blindly defending Felix or being in denial that Felix had issues. He was smart enough to suspect that Felix may be 'crossing the line' and knew that he didn't have any proof (so he kept his suspicions a secret until he gathered evidence) and also asked Vincent to help keep an eye on Felix behind the scenes. For me, this was very refreshing because TVB is notoriously bad when it comes to handling these types of characters (they usually make the lead character overly righteous to the point of being naive and stupid and allowing the bad people to walk all over him/her) and I usually end up hating the character(s) rather than liking them. Once again, I really have to compliment the writers this time around for doing a good job in terms of character development (for Michael, Felix, Nancy, and Vincent, at least).


3). The flaws and ‘low-lights’

Of course, every series has its flaws and this one is no exception. No matter how much I like or enjoy a series, I will undoubtedly always find fault with it because the fact of the matter is that no series is perfect. Despite the flaws, my enjoyment of the series will not change and I still feel that the series was well-made – especially in comparisons to the crappy stuff that TVB has been putting out as of late.

In GMG, I did notice quite a few ‘implausible’ and ‘cheesy’ situations that occur in the series which definitely could be improved. Here are the main ones that come to mind right away:

>> The fact that Felix was able to get his old policeman job back without much difficulty (even after he was in jail for 15 years) and then to be promoted not too long after that (keep in mind that his name isn’t actually “cleared” until later on) -- not very realistic if you ask me. Logic tells me that even if they allow him to be a cop again (which is already rare), they would wait until his name is completely cleared and he is truly proven innocent before doing so…right?

>> I totally did not get that part about Michael having 'extraordinary' hearing abilities (he can hear people's heart beating and such) due to the tumor in his brain…was that supposed to be a way of incorporating some ‘supernatural’ element to the series? Whatever the case, I don't think that was really necessary.

>> It would have been better if they did not have that one scene where Felix is in the storage room holding a gun and you see the "evil Felix" on the wall, then all that fire sprays out like in a comic book or something...that was totally unnecessary and pointless. My hunch is that the producer put that part in to show Felix's 'official' transition to 'villain' so to speak in terms of him doing something a righteous cop should not have done. But to be honest, it wasn't necessary because this was already obvious from the previous scenes (when he 'shot' the evil Sau Dai Fu with another cop's gun and lied about it) -- to me, they were "trying too hard" with the 'fire imagery' scene.

>> Vincent’s role as one of the Senior Inspectors on the police squad who is actually on the same level as Michael does not seem very plausible. First of all, he seems too young to have that high of a position. Second, if I remember correctly, he had become a cop because of his father and actually liked his previous job (as a stock broker??) better at first – with his age, how could he have been promoted to such a high level position so quickly? Third, Vincent’s character is not mature enough to be the team leader of a police unit in the same capacity as Michael – it’s just not convincing given his age and the development of the character.


Concluding comments:

This series is definitely on my “favorites” list for the ‘after 2000’ era – not only because I liked the series itself, but also because I really liked the chemistry of the cast as well. I truly enjoyed following the cast on Weibo as the series aired in HK and seeing the various commentary as well as behind-the-scenes ‘tidbits’ about the filming, the artists, the series, etc. From everything that I’ve read about the dinner gatherings of the cast, various interviews, etc., I could definitely tell that the GMG cast really enjoyed working together on this series and were able to develop a genuine friendship outside of work as well.

Overall, awesome series, awesome cast, awesome chemistry! Definitely a keeper!