Review of TVB series ''Witness Insecurity''《護花危情》(2012)

Producer: Lau Ka Ho (劉家豪)

Cast: Bosco Wong (黃宗澤), Linda Chung (鍾嘉欣), Paul Chun (秦沛), Ram Tseung (蔣志光), Ronald Law (羅鈞滿), Cilla Kung (樂瞳), Queenie Chu (朱慧敏), Rachel Kan (簡慕華), Eric Li (李天翔), Lee Kwok Lun (李國麟), Geoffrey Wong (黃子雄), Savio Tsang (曾偉權), Yeung Ching Wah (楊證樺), Lee Yee Man (李綺雯), Jonathan Cheung (張穎康), etc.


**SPOILER ALERT: For those who haven't watched this series and don't want to be 'spoiled' with knowing some of the details of the series beforehand, then I recommend not reading this review, as there are details mentioned that I feel are necessary in order for me to write this review properly. Not to mention there will also be some mention of the ending as well, especially since there was quite a bit of 'controversy' surrounding it.

Before I start, I will say that I am probably in the 'minority' in terms of people who really liked this series and felt that pretty much everyone (from the main leads to the supporting cast) did a good job with the acting. I know that certain artists in the series have a lot of anti-fans (which is quite obvious based on all the on-line comments I’ve read the past few weeks) and as a result, there may be quite a few people out there who refused to watch this series at all or if they watched, skipped majority of the scenes with particular artists – that’s definitely those audience’s prerogative and I have no intention of changing it. However the point that I want to make is that as a neutral bystander who neither likes nor dislikes the main leads, I am writing this review from the 'neutral' perspective and everything contained in it is my personal impression of the series, regardless of what my feelings are towards any of the artists – so basically, those who hate any of the artists in the series and can't bear to hear anything good said about them should just skip this review completely.

Ok, so with the 'disclaimers' out of the way, on to the actual review....

Witness Insecurity [referred to in the rest of this review as WI] just finished airing this past Friday and already, I’ve watched the series twice (partly because I liked the series but also because of the convenient timeslot that it airs here in the U.S., which allows for re-airing of each week’s episodes on the weekend). I will be the first to admit that I absolutely did not think that I would like this series, primarily because the premise of the series wasn't fresh or creative (the whole witness protection thing has definitely been done before, more than once in fact) and also I'm not a fan of Bosco or Linda (especially Linda, since her last few series left a bad taste in my mouth and so I didn't think that I would be able to tolerate her in this series). Therefore, I went into this series without any expectations whatsoever and to my surprise, I actually ended up liking the series quite a lot (I was pretty much hooked from episode 1 all the way to the end…)

In my opinion, one of the biggest things that made this series so good was the cast -- from the main leads (Bosco and Linda) to the 'heavy supporting' artists (Paul, Ram, Ronald, Cilla, Queenie, Lee Sing Cheong, Eric Li, Savio Tsang, etc.) to the 'lesser supporting' artists (Lee Yee Man, Jonathan, Lee Kwok Lun, Rachel, the rest of the artists who portrayed either WPU staff or police officers in the criminal investigation department, etc.) -- no matter how big or small the role, practically everyone put in good performances...THAT's really what left a deep impression on me in terms of this series (I’ll go into more detail about each person’s performance later on in this review). I know a lot of people might disagree with me here, but hey, it’s my opinion after all…

Of course, no series is without flaws and this series was definitely no exception -- in fact, I would have to say that there were plenty of flaws and 'inconsistencies' in the script as well as several moments where, while watching the series, I felt like I just wanted to 'kill' the scriptwriters (more about this later). Even though this did detract from the series overall, it wasn’t completely unsalvageable, at least not for me – I still continued watching the series and enjoyed it

.---.

SCRIPT / STORYLINE

My biggest complaint about the series is really with the script. The series actually started off quite good in the beginning, with the engaging storyline involving the WPU and the exciting action sequences as well as the 'setting up' of the romantic storyline between Hui Sir and Hailey -- plus the interaction and chemistry between the entire cast was at its best during these first 11-12 episodes or so: I especially enjoyed the chemistry between the WPU team and was really looking forward to seeing more of them....but unfortunately, during the second half of the series, the storyline sort of 'fell apart' in that the series moved away from the 'witness protection' theme (since the assignment to protect Hailey was over and Hui Sir was promoted and subsequently transferred) and focused primarily on the conflict between the Kiu brothers and Hui Sir. I probably would have been ok with this had they [the writers] developed the romantic relationship between Hui Sir and Hailey more in the second half (since, after all, that was the whole point of the series, right?) -- BUT, that didn't happen either....instead, we have this 'tortured' pseudo-romance storyline between the two main leads and even up until the tragic end, they don't officially even get together. It was definitely disappointing to see the second half of the series stray so far away from the original premise and theme of the series.

Don't get me wrong, there were still quite a few scenes in the second half of the series that I enjoyed, but as a whole, the first half was definitely way better -- the storyline in the second half was too messy and the direction that the writers decided to take was not really logical. Even though I still liked the series overall and continued to stick with it because I like the cast and also because I wanted to see how the relationship between Bosco and Linda's characters develop, I know that alot of people stopped watching the series after the storyline started straying off course, which is very unfortunate.

This series was produced by Lau Ka Ho and one thing I’ve noticed about his series in general is that a lot of times, the storylines veer off course and the scripts are not as tightly written as they could be. When I first started watching WI, I thought this series might be an exception, but now after finishing this series, turns out that it still followed a similar pattern – the only difference is that at only 20 episodes, this series is way shorter than many of LKH’s other ‘epics’ and so there was less room for the ‘dragginess’ that I typically see with his other series (most of which were 30 episodes or more). Given the way the script was written, perhaps this was a good thing? Personally though, I think this series would have benefited from having another 5 episodes at least -- I think that if that had occurred, then the storyline would have likely gone in a more ‘appropriate’ direction and the sub-stories as well as many of the other supporting characters could have been more properly developed.

One last thing about the script….maybe it’s just me, but with the way the script was written, there were quite a few characters in the series who were pretty much ‘useless’ and really were just ‘there’ for the sake of being there – for example: Brian Chu’s character as Jo Jo’s younger brother, Deno Cheung’s character as the leader of one of the police teams, Glenn Lee’s character as Mrs. Kiu’s (Rachel Kan) younger brother (he only appeared for like 2 scenes), etc. Even Rachel Kan’s character was kind of ‘nonessential’ if you ask me – though she gets plenty of screen time compared to some of the others, her character really didn’t do much. To me, these characters were basically just ‘fillers’, as they didn’t advance the storyline much at all and didn’t serve any real purpose in the series. It sort of made me wonder why the scriptwriters even bothered writing their characters into the script and ‘wasting’ precious ‘plot space’ (as well as screen time) that could have been used to develop other sub stories.

Speaking of characters, what an appropriate segue into a discussion of the cast….


CAST / CHARACTERS

As I said earlier, when I first read the cast list for this series, I wasn’t much impressed, as there were quite a few artists in the series that I didn’t particularly care for in terms of acting and the ones I do care about I didn’t think would have significant roles – but after watching some of the preview clips that had aired the week prior to the official premiere of the series (no, not the ‘fake’ promo clip that was pretty much just a ‘gimmick’ and had nothing to do with the series), I decided to give the series a chance, since I saw that a few of my favorite actors (namely Paul Chun and Ram Tseung) would have pretty ‘meaty’ roles in the series. Turns out I made the right decision!

In terms of cast, I definitely wouldn’t consider this one ‘all-star’, as there were quite a few ‘newer’ artists whose names I didn’t even know prior to watching this series. But as I’ve been noticing more and more the past few years, there doesn’t necessarily need to be a whole lot of ‘big names’ in a series in order for it to be a ‘good’ series – with the right combination of good acting, well-written characters, and a decently written script, a series can still have a strong impact on audiences and garner good word of mouth as well as high ratings (as this series did).

Again, unlike some of my past reviews, I’m not going to go into too much detail about the characters themselves but rather just focus on my thoughts toward the characters as well as the artists who portrayed them.

So without further adieu, here’s my ‘take’ on the main cast…


Bosco Wong (Hui Wai Sum / Hui Sir) – Bosco’s character is a cop who, for the first half of the series, is the leader of the Witness Protection Unit (WPU) and due to his success in that role, he’s promoted in the second half of the series and transferred to the criminal investigation unit to head up a team there. In my opinion, the character of ‘Hui Sir’ is definitely one of the biggest draws of this series, as his character is written in such a way that it’s really hard for audiences not to like him or be smitten by his charm. Personality-wise, Hui Sir is the epitome of ‘cool’ and ‘suave’ – he’s smart, handsome, and is pretty much a natural-born leader (which came about in part because of his independence at an early age due to him growing up in an orphanage). It can be said that Hui Sir was born to be a cop, as he has strong investigative instincts as well as an unwavering sense of righteousness and justice. One of the biggest traits that sets Hui Sir apart from others is his extremely high EQ – no matter how difficult a situation is, he is always able to handle it with a calm, composed disposition.

Bosco did a great job with his character in this series and definitely left a deep impression on me with his performance. I will admit that I was never really fond of some of the roles Bosco played in the past – in fact, in general, I can’t really even remember too many of his past performances (probably because I never really paid attention). Therefore, I was actually a little bit surprised myself that I came to like his character so much – of course, part of the credit goes to the writers for the way they developed the character, but Bosco should also be given credit for the way he portrayed the character – in other words, for the way he ‘acted’ the part. When I first started watching this series and read the description of the character, I was a bit concerned in the beginning on whether Bosco would be convincing enough in such a mature, serious role – mainly because most of his roles in the past were sort of catered to his boyish, ‘sunshine’ image (even the past roles where he played a ‘professional’ such as a cop or a fireman, he still had that ‘boyish’ trait to him – probably the only other role where I didn’t get that impression was his villain performance as ‘Bai Co’ in last year’s Lives of Omission).  However, it turns out that my concern wasn’t warranted, as Bosco handled the role of Hui Wai Sum extremely well.

What I liked most about Bosco’s performance in this series was how ‘natural’ and ‘comfortable’ the role came across –with the way his character was written, there was quite a lot of ‘inner acting’ involved, since there were many moments where his character doesn’t say much, but yet still manages to convey his thoughts and feelings through his facial expressions as well as the way he carried himself (this was especially apparent during the first half of the series). Though I’m not a fan of Bosco’s by any means, this was one performance that definitely changed my impression of him as an actor and made me realize that with all the similar roles he played, his potential wasn’t really properly tapped into in the past (which is not surprising since that’s TVB’s typical way of managing their artists). I feel that with the proper cultivation in the right direction, Bosco has the potential to take his acting to a higher level – at this point in his career, he really should be taking on more mature, challenging roles rather than the ‘playful’ ones that he’s had in the past. With his role in his series as well as in LOO last year, looks like he’s headed in the right direction (for now at least…).


Linda Chung (Kiu Ji Lam / Hailey) – Linda plays the daughter of a rich tycoon who has a mood (anxiety) disorder resulting from a few tragic events that she had encountered when she was a child. In the beginning of the series, she is very anti-social and doesn’t like to talk or interact with anyone – she relies on playing the cello to release her inner tensions and regularly sees a therapist for treatment. However, after meeting Hui Sir and the rest of the WPU team and interacting with them for a certain period of time (since they were assigned to protect her after she witnesses a shooting), she starts to open up more and becomes a more cheerful person. By the end of the series, her personality has completely changed from what it was in the beginning and she no longer needs to go through therapy treatments in order to live a ‘normal’ life.

Contrary to popular opinion, I feel that Linda actually did a pretty good job with her acting in this series (don’t shoot me!). That’s actually saying a lot given the fact that I’ve never been impressed with Linda’s acting because I’ve always felt that somehow, her acting tends to come across as ‘exaggerated’ and ‘fake’ to me – especially when she tries to take on roles that are outside of her realm (such as a ‘bad girl’ type character or someone who is mean-spirited for example). Of course, part of the reason why I’ve never really been able to tolerate most of Linda’s performances in the past is because I can’t stand weak, pathetic, weepy, wishy-washy type characters and somehow she almost always ends up playing these types of characters.

Interestingly enough, Linda’s portrayal of Hailey actually left a completely different impression on me. Some might say that the role of Hailey was not too different than Linda’s usual ‘good girl’ type roles (which I kind of agree with), but in my opinion, the character was a bit better written than some of her other roles and most importantly, the role really suited her well (I heard the role was especially written for her?). Now I will say that Linda’s acting in the first 3 episodes (when she’s supposed to have that mood disorder illness that caused her to be very anti-social and paranoid about everything) was truly not that good (and in a few scenes, were probably ‘cringe-worthy’), but starting with episode 4 up through the end of the series, she actually does get a lot better – to the point that I actually started liking her character and really was able to feel for her throughout the series. One thing that impressed me about Linda’s acting in this series is that she did the ‘I’ve got a huge crush on Hui Sir’ scenes quite well – those scenes were very convincing and sweet. Also, Linda’s crying scenes were more tolerable in this series versus her previous works – I’m guessing that she toned down her crying a bit after being criticized for so many years about it? Well, the improvement is pretty obvious because outside of the first 3 episodes, Linda’s crying scenes were adequately done throughout the rest of the series (at least I didn’t find her annoying in this series at all).

One area that I feel Linda has definitely improved on is her use of facial expressions – there were quite a few scenes throughout the series where I felt that Linda’s facial expressions were very ‘on the spot’ and conveyed just the right amount of emotion. Of course, she’s still young and her acting still has A LOT of room for improvement (for instance, I don’t feel that her acting is mature enough to handle certain roles yet) – hopefully she will continue to get better with time.

With all that said though, my opinion of Linda overall does not change in that I'm still not tremendously fond of her as an actress because I feel that she’s still too much of a ‘hit and miss’ when it comes to her acting and therefore really can't carry a series on her own yet. For me, whether I'm able to tolerate Linda in a series or not really depends upon her role in the particular series as well as who she is paired up with. With my overall low tolerance level, I definitely wouldn't purposefully seek out a series and watch it just because Linda is in it, but if a series of hers happened to come on TV, I wouldn't mind watching it -- in other words, I'm not the type of person to stop watching / not watch a series just because I dislike a particular artist....to me, the storyline matters alot too and without attempting to watch the series, it's hard to truly know whether the series will be any good. Most of the time, I usually give the series a try and let the acting / storyline 'persuade' me to keep watching (or not)....


Bosco / Linda pairing– I never thought I would say this, but I’m absolutely smitten with this pairing after watching this series (yes, once again, I was surprised myself at how much I grew to ‘love’ this pairing). The chemistry that Bosco and Linda had in this series was quite amazing! I can’t think of any other series where 1) the main ‘couple’ never even officially become a couple in the series (from the beginning until the very end, Hui Sir and Hailey never officially get together – their relationship was pretty much ‘doomed’ before it even started), and 2) the ‘love’ feelings are pretty much one-sided throughout the entire series (Hailey has a crush on Hui Sir and even though he later develops feelings for her, those feelings never really turn into ‘love’), yet so many audiences (myself included) loved their pairing. [And I’m not just saying this – the proof is in the numbers: when Linda posted a photo of herself and Bosco (as Hailey and Hui Sir) on her Weibo during WI’s finale week, it received over 40K ‘retweets’ and over 15K comments in less than a day!]

This was actually the third time that Bosco and Linda were paired together as a couple (the previous 2 times were in Gem of Life and Moonlight Resonance – I will be absolutely honest and say that I don’t remember anything about their previous 2 pairings whatsoever, even though I had watched both series. I’m sure they had plenty of ‘sweet scenes’ in those 2 series too, but I don’t remember a single one – either I didn’t really pay attention and completely missed their scenes (which is possible but highly unlikely) or they didn’t have as much chemistry onscreen back then as they did in this series. After watching WI, I ‘adore’ this couple a lot for some unexplainable reason – I enjoyed every single one of their scenes together (even the ‘painful’ ones where they part ways with each other) and every time there was a ‘sweet moment’ between these two (mostly through eye contact or some other subtle expression), I couldn’t help myself from going: “Aww, how sweet!” [Some examples of Hui Sir / Hailey ‘sweet’ moments: the garden scene in episode 4, the cactus scene in episode 6, the Disneyland scenes in episode 8, and of course, the scene in episode 7 when Hailey gets shot and Hui Sir catches her from falling to the floor just in time, then picks her up and protectively carries her in his arms and runs through door after door to get her to the car and to the hospital (and accidentally hurting himself in the process)....true, a bad situation had happened, but the way it was filmed made it more sweet than it was tragic! I even found the scenes where Hailey would ‘steal glances’ at Hui Sir (unbeknownst to him) to be very cute and sweet!].

I definitely miss this pairing now that the series is over (especially with the tragic way that the series ended) – hope that I’ll get to see this pairing again in the near future!


Paul Chun (Kiu Kong San / Big Mr. Kiu) -- Paul Gor’s character is a rich tycoon with a shady past who lost both his wife and his son earlier on, so he focuses all his effort on loving his daughter and giving her everything possible. To be honest, despite Kong San’s past, I really don’t feel that he’s truly a ‘villain’ in this series, as the ‘motivation’ for a lot of the ‘pushing the envelope’ stuff he does in the second half of the series was primarily out of love for his daughter – he just goes about it the wrong way. I actually like his character better in the first half of the series, as his love for his daughter as well as his younger brother (Ram Tseung’s character) was more apparent and the stuff that he did actually made sense – some of his actions in the second half were sort of questionable to me and overall just didn’t jive that well with the overall storyline. I mean, yes, the sub-story about Kong San’s past was intriguing, but I feel that the writers could have written that whole story arc a little tighter and not drag it out for so long.

In terms of the acting – well, what can I say? It’s Paul Gor after all -- he’s one of the best ‘elder’ / veteran actors out there! I grew up watching Paul Gor in movies and television series, so I’m already very used to his style of acting – I love his versatility as an actor and how he can play a wide range of roles: from the most cold-blooded of villains to one of the most benevolent, lovable fathers we’ll ever find. I can truly say that I enjoyed Paul’s performance throughout the entire series, even in the second half when the storyline started to unravel a little bit and strayed from the original theme. I’m actually really glad that Paul Gor had such a significant role in this series (his screen time was actually not that much less than Bosco’s) because even if I didn’t really like the direction of the series in the second half, I could at least still enjoy his acting!


Ram Tseung (Kiu Kong Hor / Little Mr. Kiu) – Ram’s character Kong Hor is the younger brother of Paul’s Kong San. The best way to describe Kong Hor is ‘laid-back’– he has a very friendly personality and playful sense of humor that helps him get along well with practically anyone. With the way that he’s always cracking jokes and taking pretty much everything that happens in stride (even something as ‘serious’ as getting shot in the head), he sort of reminds me of a hyper little kid in a man’s body. I really liked his character in the first half of the series especially, where he was the constant ‘comic relief’ and always managed to bring a smile to everyone’s face. His biggest flaw though was that he liked to ‘shoot off his mouth’, especially after he’s had a few drinks (this gets him into trouble early on and almost costs him his life). Unfortunately, his character changes a bit in the second half of the series – no, he doesn’t turn evil (thank goodness!), but his character does become a little more ‘serious’ and loses the humorous ‘charm’ that he consistently had through most of the first half. It’s too bad because I really did like his character and was looking forward to seeing more of his charm…

I actually was a bit surprised at how significant Ram’s role was in the series, especially in the first half – because the past few years, he had been relegated to playing lesser roles (or a villain role) for the most part. Not that I’m complaining though, since Ram has always been one of my favorite supporting actors – I always enjoy watching him in series because he always manages to bring his role to life with his performance, no matter how big or small his part is. In fact, whenever he’s in a series, I usually find myself watching most of the scenes that he’s in, even if I end up skipping the rest of the series because I can’t stand the storyline or the rest of the cast – and whether he’s playing a good guy or a villain, he’s always very convincing with his performance (yes, he’s THAT good!). He’s definitely very underrated as an actor and I really wish that TVB would give him more significant roles to play. Ah well – I’ll still continue to support him regardless of the types of roles he gets!


Ronald Law (Yeung Yiu Dong / Ba Da) – Ronald’s character is a young cop with a lot of potential who looks up to Hui Sir (Bosco) as a mentor and ‘big brother’ of sorts. He first met Hui Sir while at the academy and later when he was assigned to work with him in the WPU, they became best friends – Hui Sir treats him just like his own little brother (hence Ronald’s nickname in the series ‘Ba Da’). Ba Da is actually a very endearing character because he always has a certain earnestness and boyish charm about him – he’s a very sweet, super nice person who pretty much anyone would find likable (of course, those dimples of his help a lot too…LOL!) One of Ba Da’s most admirable traits is that he is extremely loyal and once he makes a decision to follow someone, he’s unwavering in his dedication and loyalty – he’s like that with Hui Sir as well as with Jo Jo (Hui Sir’s cousin), whom he has a huge crush on throughout the series. I actually really liked Ronald’s character in this series and enjoyed his interactions with Bosco’s character – I loved the ‘heart to heart’ conversations that they would have in the series where they would encourage one another and give each other advice (though more often than not it was more like Hui Sir giving Ba Da advice and trying to steer him in the right direction in terms of his life and career). The brotherly chemistry between the two was done very nicely!

In terms of acting, I would say that Ronald did a pretty good job considering he’s a newbie – of course he still needs polish, but he did come across quite natural in his role of you ask me (though part of that could have been because the role fit him well). Prior to this series, I really wasn’t too familiar with Ronald, as the only other series that I had seen him in was When Heaven Burns and his role in that series was definitely less significant compared to this one. I liked him in this series and from his strong performance, it looks like he has does have potential as an actor – give him a couple years and if developed correctly, I think he will do well.


Cilla Kung (Lee Hau Yan / Jo Jo) – Cilla’s character is a typical materialistic youth who is overly ambitious when it comes to climbing the social ladder and is constantly chasing the latest societal as well as fashion trends. Her goal in life is to marry a rich person in the future so that she can be set for life and also be ‘known’ in upper society -- which is why she is ecstatic when she finds out that her cousin Hui Wai Sum (Bosco) is assigned to protect Hailey (Linda), daughter of a rich tycoon. Not surprisingly, she becomes good friends with Hailey and even tries to serve as the ‘matchmaker’ for her and Hui Sir. Jo Jo actually isn’t a bad person by any means, she’s just a little bit annoying at times with her overzealousness in trying to become rich and famous. I was ok with her character, though I really didn’t like the way that she would treat Ba Da (basically leading him to think that he had a shot at being her boyfriend so that he would continue to give her gifts and such). Luckily she redeemed herself in the latter part of the series when she recognizes how wrongly she had treated Ba Da and resolves to be a more responsible person (though of course, it was too late to salvage her relationship with Ba Da, since he was killed off in episode 17). I don’t really have much opinion about Cilla as an actress because I haven’t watched enough of her performances to fairly judge. I will say though that she wasn’t too bad in this particular series – in fact she came across quite natural, since the character she played was probably close enough to her real age and seemed to suit her style.


Eric Li (Tong Jun Gai / Shawn) – Eric’s character Shawn actually does not have a whole lot of screen time, but his character is quite significant in terms of story development. He consistently appears in the first few episodes, then pretty much disappears for awhile and doesn’t appear again until the final 2 episodes. In the beginning, I was a little confused in terms of Shawn’s character and what his relationship was with the Kiu family (they never really properly introduced him) – at first, I thought that he was some sort of relative of the family, but it turns out he’s not related to them at all. Basically, he’s the son of a deceased tycoon whom Kong San takes under his wing and provides for him (we only find out the real reason why Kong San provides for Shawn later on in the series). To be honest, I don’t really like the way Shawn’s character was written because he was kind of all over the place and it was not really clear until the end of the series what the significance was of his character – I think his character could have definitely been developed more and perhaps have the story arc focus more on him in the second half of the series (rather than just in the last 2 episodes). To me, it seemed kind of ‘random’ the way he would pop in and out throughout the series and sort of made it difficult to really get into his character.

I was actually hoping that Eric wouldn’t have to play the villain again in this series, especially after his awesome performance as a good guy in Bottled Passion earlier in the year. Unfortunately, he does go down the ‘villain’ path in this series as well – though I guess if we want to get technical, he wasn’t exactly the ‘bad guy’ in the traditional sense of the word. He basically becomes a totally different person in the last 2 episodes of the series because of the stuff he encounters (losing all his money, taking drugs, etc.) and that’s really what affects his actions – I guess we could say that he was more a confused drug addict than he was a murderous villain. I’ve really got to hand it to Eric for his performance in this series – despite his limited screentime and the not very well-written character, he was quite excellent in his role. He really shined in the last 2 episodes of the series when his character returned as a delirious drug addict – he had changed so much physically that I actually was not able to recognize him from the pictures and spoiler scenes that I had seen prior to those episodes airing! He really played the drug addict role well (couldn’t help but laugh at his “my doctor told me to take lots of medication (drugs)” dialogue). I know, I should probably hate Shawn after what he does to our beloved Hui Sir, but I’m sorry – I like Eric too much as an actor recently that it’s really hard for me to be mad at him for long….


Add’l Cast / Characters

With the way the storyline developed primarily around the Kiu family and Hui Sir, there were actually quite a few artists who participated in the series on a lesser scale with relatively minor roles. Here are a few ‘honorable mentions’ (note that one ‘common theme’ with the below characters is that all of them could really have benefitted from being furthered developed – instead, many of them were ‘short-changed’ due to the way the script was written).

Rachel Kan (Tina) – Kong San’s second wife, Hailey’s stepmother. As mentioned earlier, I sort of felt Rachel’s character was ‘nonessential’ in that she really doesn’t do anything to further the plot except for maybe have a few ‘minor’ conflicts with Hailey in the first few episodes. After that, I don’t see much significance in her character – during the second half of the series, she’s basically just ‘there’. Even after finishing the series, I was still scratching my head and wondering what the writers’ / producer’s purpose was for including Rachel in this series. Don’t get me wrong – she did do a decent job with the acting given what she had (though honestly, I don’t think Rachel is that much older than Linda so for her to play her stepmother was a little bit far-fetched), but it was sort of a waste, I feel

Queenie Chu (Kelly) – Hailey’s therapist and also good friend. Compared to some of the other series she’s been in, Queenie has a relatively minor role in here as Kelly, the therapist / psychiatrist who is responsible for treating Hailey (Linda). Maybe her character wasn’t written well or something because I honestly didn’t really like her character much – I mean, she was a good friend for Hailey and goes beyond what a normal therapist would do by accompanying her on trips and other events, but as a psychiatrist / therapist, I didn’t feel that Kelly was ‘professional’ enough. The ‘advice’ that she gives Hailey throughout the series is sort of ‘suspect’ in that it wavers back and forth – to the point that at times, I felt that Kelly was being insincere (it was like she just tells Hailey what she wants to hear to appease her). I don’t know too much about psychiatry / therapy, so I’m probably not the best person to comment about it, but overall, her character just came across a little strange to me, that’s all.

Lee Sing Cheong (Ho Siu Leung) – Kiu Kong San’s ultra-loyal assistant. Ah Leung is the person whom Kong San (Paul) trusts the most outside of his own brother. He has worked for Kong San for decades and is super loyal to him, even willing to sacrifice his own life for him. In the first half of the series, his role is relatively minor, but near the middle / end of the series (for probably about 2-3 episodes), he becomes more of a critical character. Even though his role was small in this series, Lee Sing Cheong definitely delivered the goods (as usual) – his few ‘essential’ scenes in episodes 15 to 17 were done really well, especially the crying scenes. Lee Sing Cheong is another veteran actor whom I grew up watching – his villain roles are generally quite good and very convincing….too bad his role was relatively minor, as I would have liked to see more significant screen time from him.

Savio Tsang (Poon Sir) – As the head of the criminal investigation unit, Savio’s character only appears once in the first half of the series – it’s not until Bosco’s character Hui Sir is transferred to Poon Sir’s department that he takes on a more significant role (since Hui Sir reports to Poon Sir directly). With that said however, Savio actually doesn’t have a whole lot of screen time either, which was a little disappointing for me because I like him as an actor and his character had good room for development. I liked how Poon Sir was a very cool, understanding boss who goes very much by the rules, but still is able to maintain a good relationship with his subordinates. I also liked the way he interacted with his staff, especially with Hui Sir, whom he treated more as a friend than as his staff. Though I can understand why his role was less significant in the scheme of things, I really would have liked to see more of him as well.

Joseph Lee Kwok Lun (Sapura) – Rich tycoon from Indonesia with ties to the Kiu brothers’ past. He only appears in a few episodes during the second half of the series and even after he dies, most of the storyline in that segment of the series revolves around his case. This was yet another ‘run of the mill’ villain role for Joseph – a role so easy that he could have probably done it with his eyes closed (especially with his acting experience and skill). Again, I’m not really complaining because Joseph is another one of my long-time favorite veteran actors and I’m happy to still see him in series nowadays – but his appearance just seemed way too short…

Law Lok Lam (Yung Sui Bong) – Another actor I like a lot, but unfortunately his character was kind of insignificant as well. He’s one of the rich tycoons in the series on the same level as Paul Chun’s character, but we really don’t get to see much of him and when we do, it’s usually at some sort of gathering with Kong San and his other rich tycoon friends. Law Lok Lam is definitely underutilized in this series, which is really a shame because he’s too good of an actor to be given such a minor role. TVB should have just had someone else play this role instead and not waste LLL’s time!

WPU team: Jonathan Cheung (Wong Chi Tong / ‘Flat Tire’), Lee Yee Man (Cheung Lai Kuen / ‘See Jie’), Yeung Ching Wah (Chan Ka Si / ‘Sa See’), etc. – Considering the WPU team consisted mostly of newbies and artists whose names I didn’t even know, I was surprised by how much I liked watching this team interact with each other. As a team, they really did a great job of bringing to light a lot of the ‘essential elements’ of the WPU – including team spirit and cooperation, reacting quickly to unexpected situations that arise, being constantly on alert and ready to take action, etc. – they were very ‘serious’ about their work when they needed to be, but outside of that, they were a playful bunch. The chemistry between the entire team and their leader (Bosco) as well as with the other ‘main players’ (i.e. Linda’s and Ram’s characters, etc.) was excellent and very well portrayed – in fact, I was quite saddened to learn that we wouldn’t be seeing anymore of this team after episode 10 (well, except for a brief appearance in episode 17 at Ba Da’s funeral) because I really really liked them as team. Together, they were key in making the first half of the series so good and even though a few of them get pulled over to the criminal investigation department along with Hui Sir, it just wasn’t the same ‘feeling’ anymore. Definitely makes me wish that the writers would have kept to the witness protection theme in the second half of the series as well and somehow still incorporate the team into the rest of the series…

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THE ENDING / CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

Ok, I decided not to completely give away the ending after all (though it probably doesn’t make a difference at this point since the ending was already plastered all over Weibo and entertainment news sites even before the finale aired last Friday). All I’m going to say with regard to the ending is that it wasn’t really as bad as people made it out to be – true, I didn’t want the series to end the way it did given how much I loved the character of Hui Sir as well as the Bosco / Linda pairing, but I actually felt that the ending was appropriate given the circumstances. I mean, it was pretty much already a given that a ‘happy’ ending was impossible given everything that had occurred leading up to that point – and to be honest, forcing a ‘happily ever after’ ending would have been worse because it would have been too fake. Though the ending was tragic and yes, some parts of it was a bit overdramatic, I would have to say that overall, it was a fitting ending and appropriate ‘closure’ to the Hui Sir / Hailey relationship – the ending made sense and most important of all, it was both bittersweet and memorable (though not exactly favorable). [I’ll probably talk more about the ending later on in the comments section, since I don’t want to ruin it for those who haven’t watched the series].

As for the the massive ‘movement’ of netizens to push for a sequel or change the ending to the series – I’m actually on the opposite side of the fence in that I absolutely do NOT want a sequel (because TVB would just screw it up like they do with all their other sequels – plus the chemistry won’t be the same anyway) and do NOT want the ending changed (I’ve never been a fan of alternate endings because most of the ones that I’ve seen have been lame and stupid). What’s done is done, so just leave the series the way it is please!

So do I recommend this series? Obviously, yes!! As I mentioned earlier, the script is a bit flawed and as a result, the flow is a little inconsistent, but taken as a whole, this was definitely one of the better series of the year so far. The series has a good enough combination of action sequences, suspense, romance, family drama, investigative scenes, etc. that there should hopefully be something in there for all interests. The first half of the series was especially awesome and almost guaranteed to go by quickly (most of the big action sections are in the first half) – it’s only when we reach the second half of the series that things slow down a little bit too much (for me it wasn’t really a problem, but some people found the change in pace annoying). If the inconsistencies in the script is a big issue for you, then I recommend watch this series for the cast – as I said earlier, the performances from pretty much everyone were quite good….even those whom I’m usually not too fond of I ended up liking in this series.

Despite its flaws, I felt that this was a great series overall – one that I would rewatch in a heartbeat and still enjoy it as much as I did the first time!

2011 TVB Anniversary Awards: Who has the best chances of getting TV King? (My personal analysis / assessment)

I had said earlier that I'm not going to do a full-fledged "predictions" post for the 2011 TVB Anniversary Awards and I'm still standing by my decision. The main reason for this is because I didn't like majority of the series that aired this year and was not impressed by most of the performances -- plus I only watched 1 series completely from beginning to end so far this year (goes to show how BAD this year's series were if I wasn't able to bring myself to sit through most of them). [As a means of clarification, when I say that I only watched 1 series completely from beginning to end, that means that I watched every single episode without distraction….the rest of the series I either didn’t finish watching, watched only a few episodes here and there, or was doing something else while watching so didn’t really pay close attention]. Therefore, it would be a waste of time for me to do a full predictions post in all categories when none of the performances really stood out.

With that said, the 'hype' this year among the general public seems to revolve around the TV King category and since that's the only category that I actually have a strong opinion on this time around, I figured it would be more appropriate for me to just write about that particular category and forfeit all the rest of them.

So far this year, here are some of the 'names' that I've seen come up the most often (in the Media as well as on discussion forums) in terms of potential candidates for TV King:

Note 1: I am just listing out names I’ve heard, regardless of whether they are truly in contention or not (some of the roles may actually be considered supporting roles – I realize that, but please keep in mind that this post is meant to be hypothetical only).

Note 2: This list is not all-inclusive by any means – there may be male artists you feel should belong on this list in addition to the ones I listed…that’s fine – if I missed anyone or you disagree with any of what I wrote, feel free to comment and state your argument.

Note 3: The numbers next to each name do not mean anything – numbering is my way of bullet-pointing in this post

List of 'potentials':

Steven Ma
Roger Kwok
Bowie Lam
Bobby Au Yeung
Sunny Chan
Wayne Lai
Bosco Wong
Raymond Lam
Michael Tse
Moses Chan
Kevin Cheng

Based on the above list as well as my knowledge of TVB, below is my assessment of what I think each candidate’s chances are:

1) Steven Ma
I already outlined in detail how I feel about Steven’s performance in my earlier review of “The Life and Times of a Sentinel”, so I’m not going to rehash all of that here (those interested can read the review at this link). As I stated in my review, Steven is definitely my number one choice for TV King this year, as his performance was truly phenomenal in my opinion (though some can argue that he’s just doing what he does best – either way, doesn’t matter to me – he still turned in the best performance so far in my opinion). So far, Steven has been the only one to move me emotionally with his performance this year. Of course, we all know that Steven’s chances of getting the award this year is pretty much ZERO given that whole fiasco with Virginia Lok a few months back and the early contract termination issue (plus add to that the fact that TVB traditionally frowns upon artists who are ‘disobedient’ and ‘vocal’ – two “sore spots” that, in TVB’s eyes, Steven has been ‘guilty’ of pressing recently). Even though he is the most deserving of the bunch and my vote goes to him for sure, I have pretty much resigned myself to the reality that he will once again be denied the award (unless by some miracle, Mona Fong intervenes and orders for justice to be done – not likely though). Nonetheless, I will continue to support him all the way!


2) Roger Kwok
Roger is actually my second choice for TV King this year, as his performance in “Wax & Wane” was truly awesome (despite the series itself being hugely mediocre). In fact, he was pretty much the only ‘saving grace’ to that series (in my opinion anyways) – if it weren’t for his steady performance, I doubt too many people would have bothered watching. Unfortunately though, his chances of getting the award this year is pretty much zero as well – for obvious reasons. First, with TVB’s focus on promoting their favorites the past few years, a lot of the veterans have pretty much been thrown by the wayside – Roger is already an established actor plus he already received the award twice, so from TVB’s perspective, how important is it to give him the award again? Plus in recent years, Roger has shifted his career to the Mainland and pretty much only films one series per year for TVB nowadays – so with a lot less exposure in the HK market (which translates to less audience exposure) and the fact that Roger will still work for TVB (when he’s in HK that is) irregardless of what happens, there’s really no incentive for TVB to give him the award. I actually don’t even think that Roger will get into Top 5 for that matter (remember that when it comes to awards, TVB is all about the politics, not about who is deserving or who is not). Regardless, I still feel that he turned in one of the best performances so far this year!


3) Bowie Lam
Bowie only has 1 series in contention this year – “River of Wine” – which just finished airing a week or so ago. Though he turned in a solid performance, the series overall was not well-received, as many people considered the cast ‘weak’ and also the storyline was way too draggy. Irregardless of what people thought of the series though, TVB is still not going to give him the award anyway because 1) he already left the company in May, and 2) he could care less about that particular award, since he already won the ‘Asia TV King’ award and that is WAY more prestigious than a stupid old TVB award. Also, it has already been made known (loud and clear in fact) that Bowie definitely has options – in Mainland China as well as other parts of Asia…so in comparisons, TVB is ‘small potatoes’ to him. There’s no point for TVB to give him the award because they are not going to get any return for their investment (except maybe his participation in the “War and Beauty” sequel next year – but if the schedule works out, he will probably still participate anyway regardless of the award).

** As a side note: I find it laughable that certain gossip mags placed Bowie in Top 5 contention for the TV King award based on his performance in “Heaven and Earth” (yes, I literally laughed out loud) – um, unless they got some sort of sneak preview that the rest of us audiences weren’t privvy to (which I doubt), there is no basis whatsoever for that ‘prediction’. I mean, come on now – that series isn’t even scheduled to air until mid to late November – which means that it’s not even going to finish in time for the awards ceremony! Besides, it makes no sense whatsoever to nominate someone for top 5 contention in an award category based on how they WILL perform in a series that no one has seen yet rather than how they ALREADY performed in a series that everyone has seen. All the more reason why people shouldn’t take what the gossip mags write seriously!


4) Bobby Au Yeung
Ah, dear ole Bobby – gotta love the guy (I certainly do..LOL)! He only has 1 series in contention this year (“Men with No Shadows”), but unfortunately, that series did not do too well in the ratings category. I actually see Bobby’s situation as similar to Roger’s in that there is no need to give him any awards because he’s pretty much already past that point in his career. Besides, he has a certain loyalty to TVB and has already said that he will make time in his schedule to film 1 series per year for them regardless of what happens – so then from TVB’s perspective, there is no need to reward him. For me, I’m at the point where I don’t care if TVB gives him an award or not because he already received the award a long time ago and it’s not like it’s going to change his status in our (audience’s) hearts anyway. Sort of off-topic, but I just wish that TVB would stop “using” him to promote their own biological sons and daughters….is that too much to ask?


5) Sunny Chan
I’ve ranted about Sunny so much over the past 7 to 8 years, I’m starting to sound like a broken record! I’ve always liked Sunny (ever since the 90s) and he is definitely a great actor, but unfortunately, TVB hasn’t treated him too well all these years. It’s interesting that he actually has the most series on the air this year amongst the veteran first line male leads (“Wax and Wane”, “River of Wine”, “Curse of the Royal Harem”, cameo role in “The Life and Times of a Sentinel”), but yet he has the least chance of even making it to Top 5 (forget about winning)! Maybe he’s just unlucky or TVB just hates his guts – whatever the reason, he’s gotten very few ‘decent’ roles this past decade, as most of the roles were mostly forgettable ones in forgettable series (for example: the series "The Wintermelon Tale" -- I mean, really? TVB put him in THAT ridiculous series?). Also, a lot of his series that he did in the past 7-8 years had been warehoused (for example: “Strike At Heart”, “The Slicing of the Demon”, “Phoenix Rising”, “The Greatness of a Hero”, etc. “The Wintermelon Tale” was warehoused for 1 year before it aired). He's had the most series warehoused out of all the artists -- to the point that he's dubbed "Warehouse King" by some insiders). Since his return, I have not seen a single breakthrough role for him (and he had plenty of them in the 90s)....plus I don't see him getting promoted either (despite being a skilled actor). Oh, and he is currently a TVB managed artist, but obviously to TVB, he's less important than the others that they are promoting right now...In any case, I feel sorry for him because I know that he is pretty much going to stay at TVB forever now (he wants to remain in HK to take care of his wife and son and has no interest in re-locating), which means that he is going to continue to get crappy roles and waste all that talent of his. Such a shame!


6) Wayne Lai
I love Wayne and with his awesome acting skills, I’m confident he will deliver a great performance as he always does (after all, he’s known for being consistent and meticulous with his acting and so far, based on all the series that I’ve watched of his, I’ve never been disappointed). BUT, since “Forensic Heroes 3” just started airing yesterday, it’s still too early to tell whether his performance in the series will be ‘award-worthy’ (though I have no doubt that he will do a good job). Without commenting specifically on his performance in FH3 as of yet, l actually think that Wayne’s chances of pulling a ‘three-peat’ victory are extremely slim….now don’t get me wrong – the reason I think this way has nothing to do with his acting or even the series that he will be competing with…I’m basing it purely on the fact that he has already won 2 years in a row (the first year because he had tremendous audience support so they HAD to give it to him and the second year because he was the ‘safest’ choice given the ‘playing field’ at that time)….this year, the dynamics are a bit different -- because of all the negative publicity that TVB has been getting, there’s more incentive for them to use the awards as a political tool to further their agenda (plus the past 3 years or so, they’ve pretty much treated Wayne as a ‘cash cow’ anyway – as long as he continues to remain popular with audiences and business sponsors, then they will continue to benefit, so it’s not like it’s absolutely necessary to give him the award). Of course, if by chance Wayne does end up getting the award, I am totally fine with it (because the way I see it, TVB is making up for neglecting him for 20 years) – but I highly doubt it will happen.


7) Bosco Wong
One advantage that Bosco has is that all of his performances this year (as Bai Co in “Lives of Omission” and also his earlier performances in “Grace Under Fire” and “7 Days in Life”) were pretty well-received by audiences – in fact, some people even feel that his performance in LOO overshadowed primary lead Michael Tse. With that said though, Bosco is also the most ‘junior’ among the field of candidates and technically, he isn’t even considered a ‘first line’ siu sang yet – I honestly don’t think that it will sit well with people if he is given the award when there are others at a higher level than him in contention (TVB may be stupid, but not THAT stupid!). By the looks of things (i.e. a lot of the first line siu sangs leaving and TVB’s supposed focus on promoting the 2nd line to first line in the coming year, plus the fact that he is a biological son who is on the ‘favored’ list), Bosco will have a lot of opportunities in the coming year, so he still has time to refine his acting and gain more experience….there’s definitely no rush to give him the award right now.


8) Raymond Lam
Every year, TVB tries to push Raymond up onto the TV King throne and every year, it doesn’t work (that strategy is starting to get old now and TVB should seriously consider giving up on it! ). And honestly, this year, it’s not going to work either, considering both of his series (“Sister of Eternal Flower” and “Men with No Shadows”) pretty much tanked (in terms of ratings and word of mouth). Also, despite what people may say, the negative publicity he’s gotten this year with all those relationship issues (and the whole bed photos mess) truly did impact his image and reputation, which indirectly affected his chances. Of course, TVB could still give him the award if they wanted to, but I don’t think it would go over well because 1) the favoritism would be too obvious, especially if TVB is supposedly using the ratings of the series as a benchmark for the award – it’s too hard for them to justify why they would give him the award when his series flopped, and 2) it would create too much controversy due to the ‘Virginia Lok’ factor (I’m sure you all know what I mean) – VL has been ‘in the news’ a lot lately and not for ‘good’ reasons either…given all the bad press that she’s been getting (plus Raymond’s), it’s probably not a wise idea for TVB to pile even more controversy on top of that!


9) Michael Tse
I will be upfront right now -- Michael Tse isn’t even on my list of potential ‘contenders’ for TV King because, frankly speaking, he ISN’T WORTHY!! His acting is ‘mediocre’ at best and the only reason why he’s so ‘popular’ right now is because of the Laughing Gor persona – it’s unfortunate that he let the whole Laughing Gor thing get to his head and as a result, has been acting all arrogant and cocky. He’s definitely NOT lead actor material (um, yea, let’s see him carry an entire series by himself, without any help from anyone!) and his acting isn’t even that great, yet he has the audacity to go around thinking that he is the ‘next best thing since sliced bread’!! (yea, right – in your dreams, dude!). Anyway, I highly doubt that TVB is going to give him the award (even if they considered it previously), especially after how poorly he handled the Steven Ma situation – a lot of audiences have a bad impression of him now (the number one comment I’ve been hearing on forums is: “I don’t care who gets the award, as long as it’s not Michael Tse!”). TVB is in a precarious position right now (given everything that has happened to them the past year or so) and I doubt that they can afford to take on the type of ‘backlash’ (similar to what they got back in 2006) that will inevitably come if they give the award to an undeserving jerk like MT.


10) Moses Chan
What are Moses’ chances of being crowned TV King for the 2nd time? Well, to be honest, it’s really hard to say…I personally couldn’t stand him in “Yes Sir, Sorry Sir” (in fact, I couldn’t stand that series PERIOD), but he IS a somewhat ‘safe’ choice because 1) he’s a biological son, 2) he’s gotten the award before, so that does put him up a notch over others who never got that recognition, and 3) though his acting in recent years hasn’t been good, it hasn’t been horrible either (generally speaking). I used to have a certain appreciation for Moses’ acting when he first started, but after so many years of watching one OTT (over the top) performance after another, it has started to become annoying to the point of boring. I don’t know how I’ll feel if he gets crowned TV King again – I guess it’s one of those ‘better him than MT’ situations for me. Realistically speaking though – unless TVB really has no other choice, I doubt that they will give him the award again (at least not this year).


11) Kevin Cheng
Very honestly speaking, I think that Kevin actually has a very good chance at the award this year (I know what you’re thinking.…I can’t believe I’m saying this either, but to be fair, I do have to give credit where it’s due). His acting definitely improved a lot in “Ghetto Justice” (and he wasn’t too bad in “Only You” either) and the ‘Law Ba’ role was a breakthrough for him – plus the feedback from the general public for his performance in that series has been overwhelmingly positive. Also, don’t forget that his popularity has soared in recent months due to his latest Mainland series "Bu Bu Jing Xin" (with Nicky Wu, Damian Lau, etc.) being a HUGE hit over there – he actually received much acclaim for his portrayal of the 8th Prince (I have yet to watch the series, so not going to pass judgement on the validity of those praises) – to the point that he now officially has a fan club with thousands of fans in the Mainland. True, it can be argued that the Mainland series shouldn’t have anything to do with the TV King award, but the point I’m trying to make is that the stars could potentially be aligned for it to be Kevin’s year this year. For the record, I am known for being ANTI-Kevin Cheng and to some extent, I still am (and yes I'm still adamant that TVB made a really BAD BS decision by giving him the award back in 2006 when he wasn't anywhere near deserving of it), but even I have to admit that his acting has improved in the past year or so. (And just to be very clear for people who may misunderstand….no, I'm not ‘suddenly changing course’ -- I'm merely giving an honest assessment of who I feel has the best chance based on how things look so far this year).

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Concluding Thoughts

With the above, I tried as best I could to give an honest assessment and analysis of some of the actors who were mentioned at some point this year as a ‘possible candidate’ for TV King. Of course, with more than a month left until the awards show, pretty much anything can happen at this point.

One point that I do want to emphasize is that I pretty much stopped caring about the awards years ago – therefore, no matter who wins TV King this year, I probably won’t have any reaction to it from an emotional standpoint (that is, unless Steven wins….)

My Thoughts on “Burning Flame 烈火雄心 3”

Just finished watching this series and figured I would post some comments about it. To be honest, I really didn't pay a whole lot of attention to some parts of the series, since I pretty much got bored, so technically, I can't really say that I "watched" the entire series (meaning I probably won't even remember much of it after this and most likely won't bother watching it again any time soon). Therefore, I am only going to comment on a few points that sort of 'stuck out' for me.

First, I must say that the original installment of "Burning Flame" (the one from 1999 with Wong Hei, Esther Kwan, Louis Koo, etc.) was way better and even the second installment was not bad (primarily due to the cast, which was quite impressive at that time). I actually wasn't even planning on watching the 3rd installment of this series because 1) I didn't even finish watching the 2nd installment and 2) I don't like the cast at all (the only one I'm able to tolerate from the cast is Wong Hei, but I hated his character in this series -- more on this later). So why did I watch it? For the simple reason that it was airing on TV and since I hadn't seen it yet, figured I would give it a try (I was multi-tasking at the same time, of course, which meant that I wasn't "seriously" watching the series).


The plot / storyline

Ok, so let's look at the plot / storyline of this series -- wait, was there actually a storyline? Well, if there was, it wasn't very appealing, since I barely remember any of it. The only things I remember from this series were the "grand" fire scenes and rescue attempts -- other than that, there really wasn't anything worth remembering....the rest of the series was pretty boring. Also, whoever wrote the script for this series must not be entirely in touch with reality because some of the scenes were REALLY far-fetched -- to the point where at certain parts, I was saying to myself: "And they expect us (the audience) to believe this???? Do they (TVB) think we are stupid?"

Two examples of this that really stuck out:

1) The scene where Bosco and Aimee are doing a rescue mission and are dangling from a rope atop a tall building....they end up falling (I don't know exactly how many stories but it seemed like alot) from the building and landing UNSCATHED on the huge bouncy tarp that the firemen put out 'just in time' right beneath them. Sound a bit far-fetched already? Well, wait til you hear the next part....at this point in the series, Aimee's character is 2 months pregnant -- and after 'the fall', everything was 'perfectly fine': no scratches, no bruises, and absolutely no harm was done to the fetus. In fact, she was pretty much able to get up from the tarp and 'walk away'.

Maybe it's just me, but this scene was really unbelievable -- I mean, any doctor (and probably any woman who has any knowledge of how pregnancies work) can tell you that the first 3 months when a woman is pregnant is the most delicate and dangerous because the fetus is not stable yet and the risk of miscarriage is extremely high. This is why most women (celebrities, for example) don't like to announce their pregnancies until after the 3rd month -- this is especially true with Chinese women, since our culture is traditionally very superstitious about this kind of stuff.

So then how is it that Aimee's character is able to fall from a 15 story (at least) burning building during the most delicate time of her pregnancy (when the risk of losing the baby is sky high and even a task as 'normal' as walking too long, stretching, or just being under too much stress could cause a miscarriage) and come away without as much of a scratch and still be VERY MUCH PREGNANT?!?!?!? I mean, that's unbelievable to the point of being outrageous!! I don't know about anyone else, but when I was watching that scene, I felt like they (TVB, the scriptwriters, the producer, etc.) were insulting my intelligence!

2) The other scene was the one where Kevin and Myolie get into a major traffic accident -- the car is flipped on its side and is in danger of blowing up. Myolie isn't able to get out of the car because her foot is stuck and Kevin is trying hard to pull her out. The fire trucks arrive, but before they are even able to get their equipment off their trucks, Kevin pulls Myolie out of the wreckage and both are shown running for cover just as the car blows up in a ball of flames (sound familiar? yep, typical TVB -- they use this 'action sequence' in almost every series, it seems). The next scene is a short 'hospital' scene where it shows that both Myolie and Kevin only suffered a minor injury from the accident (Myolie had a sprained foot and Kevin had a bruise on his head) -- then the next scene jumps to them all perfectly recovered, holding hands and walking in a shopping mall.

Ok, I'm not saying that there should be a major injury after every accident and I agree that miracles do happen sometimes -- but it's EXTREMELY rare....especially with an accident of that magnitude. And the 'choppiness' of the subsequent scenes made it seem even more unrealistic because it's as though the accident scene happened just to showcase the 'special effects' and then it was pretty much glossed over after that. Though I didn't feel as strongly about this scene insulting my intelligence as the other one did, I still felt it was pretty unrealistic.


The cast

As I stated earlier, I would not have chosen to watch this series on my own accord because I don't like the cast. Those who are familiar with my TVB viewing habits know that I can't stand the younger / later generation of TVB artists because their acting skills are severely lacking yet TVB over-promotes them and pushes them constantly in front of our faces. I won't get into all the 'political' stuff here (saving it for another TVB rant later on down the road) -- the one thing to note is that Kevin and Myolie are on my 'least favorite' TVB aritists list and I've never liked Bosco or Aimee. Out of the main cast, the only artist I am able to tolerate is Wong Hei because his acting has always been quite good and consistent. So obviously, this series was pretty much already doomed for me from the beginning, since the only thing that made the series possibly 'worth watching' would have been Wong Hei...

BUT....even that last glimmer of 'possibly worth watching' was ruined for me because Wong Hei's character in this series totally SUCKED!!! His character had a bad temper, was very irrational, was always acting brashly without thinking, was unreasonably stubborn, etc etc. I especially got annoyed over how 'obsessed' his character was with Myolie's character, becoming a 'tortured soul' when she broke up with him and even to the point of committing suicide for her....I mean, come on -- GET OVER IT!!!!

With how poorly his character was written, I was wondering why TVB bothered putting him in this series at all -- he didn't have a whole lot of screen time compared to Kevin and Bosco for one, and his character was in a coma for a huge chunk of the series anyway. As is typical of the way their politics work, I'm guessing that TVB probably put Wong Hei in this series purely because of his tenure and association with the "Burning Flames" franchise -- he pretty much started the whole 'fireman craze' back in the 90s and became hugely popular after the first installment -- to the point where over the years, when the audiences think of "Burning Flame", they automatically think of Wong Hei. So for the series to not include him, it probably would have been weird -- but still....if they are going to include him, give him a decent character to play at least!

In terms of Kevin -- well, his acting was the same as usual -- bland and wooden....plus I didn't care for his character at all -- it's like he's pretty much there just to take up screen time. Even Bosco's performance and character were better than Kevin's!! At least Bosco's character was interesting and provided some 'comic relief' in an otherwise depressing series (I actually laughed at his funny reactions to things in some of the scenes) – but overall, I’m still not too keen on watching Bosco’s series though.

And I’m not even going to comment on Myolie – all I’m going to say is that I absolutely HATED her character in this series!! I’ve never been fond of her acting in the first place (yes, there IS a reason why I don’t like to watch her series!!!).

In conclusion…..

It’s sad, but the only ‘character’ I actually enjoyed watching in this entire series was one that’s not even listed in the cast list during the closing credits – Bosco’s shar-pei dog Kapun (also his dog in real life). Perhaps because I have an affinity for Shar-pei dogs (I think they’re adorably cute!), so I was really drawn to this one (come on, how could you not love that cute little pouting face??). I was sort of disappointed that Kapun was only in the first half of the series though (ok, which darn writer was it who wrote him out of the series??) – since the ‘character’ I enjoyed the most was gone, the series pretty much went downhill for me after that.