I finally got around to watching this series, but only because it happened to come on TV -- for the longest time, I refused to watch this series because I hated how TVB overpromoted it (it totally turns me off when they do stupid stuff like that), plus I had also said that I would not watch this series until after I watched "Rosy Business" and "Born Rich" (and I've finally watched both series, so I guess the timing was perfect).
Anyway, I must say that I totally do not understand the hype over BTROC at all -- it's way overrated and is pretty much all stuff that I've seen before (goes to show that this is yet another example of TVB running out of ideas and overhyping this series solely because all of their favorite sons and daughters are in it).
Since this series has probably been analyzed to death already (by netizens and audiences alike, no doubt), I don't see the point of wasting my team with an in-depth review -- so I am just going to state my opinion on certain parts (mostly the dislikes) and then move on....
Ok, so back when this series aired in 2009, the biggest 'hype' with the series was the supposed 'stellar' ensemble cast and also Tavia's 'breakthrough' performance as a villain. I'll talk about Tavia's performance later....but first, the cast -- the biggest selling point of the series was supposedly the story surrounding the main leads Charmaine, Moses, Kevin, and Tavia (and of course TVB had no qualms about sticking this point in our -- the audience -- faces...or should I say, ramming it down our throats?). Anyway, I personally was not impressed by any of the main leads' performances because to me, it was the same old stuff: Moses in his Emperor role again trying to outsmart the evil generals who are constantly trying to usurp his power; Charmaine in her 'goody-two-shoes' role again who is unrealistically nice to everyone and everything and let's people walk all over her without a word of complaint; Kevin in another typical 'nice guy' role that honestly, put me to sleep; and Tavia in her first evil villain role that really was not convincing at all (to put it less midly, she came across very fake to me).
So first, let's look at Moses and Charmaine's characters in the series. To be honest, I found it really weird watching this series and seeing Charmaine as Moses' love interest (though it's mostly one-sided, since Charmaine is paired with Kevin) because I had just finished re-watching "Perish in the Name of Love" not too long ago and the 2 of them were father and daughter in that series (true, that series was made like 7 years ago, but still....). Luckily, Moses and Charmaine weren't really a couple in this series because that would have just totally grossed me out (sorry, but I'm a bit slow when it comes to switching relationships like that). But actually, there's another reason why I bring up the series PITNOL -- because I really felt that both Moses and Charmaine's characters in BTROC (Charmaine's especially) reminded me of their characters in PITNOL, a series that I absolutely HATED with a passion because almost all the characters (except Steven's) were so utterly stupid (I mean, come on now, how many times does someone have to "hurt" you before you 'wake up' and stop continuing to 'believe in' that person??). I think this is why I absolutely hated Charmaine's character in this series because just like in PITNOL, she kept forgiving her friend/sister for doing bad things and kept believing her when she said she would change, but actually don't (though I have to say that Charmaine's character in PITNOL was 10x worse). I mean, come on, no normal person is like THAT DENSE in real life (even in the imperial days)! Personally, I think that the writers didn't develop Charmaine's character on purpose because remember that TVB's whole point for this series was to push Tavia for TV Queen, so of course the focus should be on her rather than Charmaine (plus Charmaine had another popular series in contention that year anyway, so it didn't really matter -- she would make it in either way). For Charmaine, playing the role of Lau Sam Ho was probably a piece of cake, since she's constantly playing those types of roles anyway....As for Moses, well I don't have much else to say about his character except that it's another 'typical' role, one that he's done before, so it totally lacked creativity....
On to Kevin's character....in my opinion, Kevin was really boring in this series -- I honestly was wondering what the point of his character was except as a love interest for Charmaine. Yes, his job was supposed to be protecting the emperor, but hey, there weren't very many action/fighting scenes in the series anyway (why would there be when the focus is supposed to be on the evil schemes of the women in the inner palace?). His character (and to some extent, his performance) was so boring that it pretty much put me to sleep. And I'm sorry, but I did not sense any chemistry at all between Kevin and Charmaine in this series (in constrast, as much as I hated PITNOL, I was really able to feel the chemistry between Steven and Charmaine there) -- I'm actually starting to think whether it's Kevin's problem because I noticed that in most of the series that I've watched with Kevin in it, I always feel like there is zero chemistry between him and his female co-stars (at least on screen).
And finally, Tavia -- who is supposed to be the central figure in this series. My personal opinon is that Tavia does not do 'evil' or 'villainess' very well at all -- she came across as very fake and forced to me...pretty much, I think she tried too hard (especially with her supposed 'evil' stare and laugh). I've heard arguments from people (Tavia fans no doubt) that we should cut her some slack because it's her first time as a villain so there are bound to be flaws -- well, my response to that argument is that 1) I never said she had to be perfect in her role, but she has to be at least CONVINCING and 2) there are many artists in the past who did convincingly awesome jobs in their first villain roles, to the point where they were able to completely turn their 'good boy/girl' image around (Michelle Yim and Susanna Kwan come to mind on the female side and Gallen Lo as well as Deric Wan for the males -- though there are undoubtedly many more). I think this just goes to show that Tavia doesn't have enough depth as an actress yet to be able to pull off these types of difficult villain characters with success -- she definitely needs more work in this area....
Ok, now that I've vented my frustrations with the main leads, was there anything that I actually liked about this series? Yes, of course -- I really liked the supporting cast in this series and totally feel like they stole the show. Lee Kwok Lun was downright evil as General Ma (I've watched his series since the 80s and he is an absolutely awesome actor -- and terribly underrated), Michelle Yim and Susanna Kwan were great in their roles as heads of their respective departments, and I absolutely loved Ram Tseung in his eunuch role (another one of my favorite supporting actors who is so totally underrated). Oh, and of course, I have to mention Susan Tse and Mary Hon in the Empress Dowager roles, which were very fitting for them and the acting was superb. Even KK Cheung was great, even though he only had a small role in the series. For some odd reason, I actually felt that the storyline surrounding these supporting characters had way more depth and was alot more interesting than the main one involving the 4 leads. The supporting cast and the storyline surrounding them was definitely the primary motivating factor that made me continue to watch -- otherwise, I probably would have given up on the series a long time ago.
LL's Musings 小賢角落
Showing posts with label Charmaine Sheh 佘詩曼. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Charmaine Sheh 佘詩曼. Show all posts
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
TVB Anniversary Awards 2010 (萬千星輝頒獎典禮2010)
Since I watched the Anniversary Awards, figured I would blog about it – but I have to make clear that I watched it because I wanted to have something to write about, not because I particularly care about who was going to win. The last couple years especially, I watch mostly because I want to see who the presenters are and the ‘funny’ or ‘clever’ dialogue that they usually give.
So before I go any further, I have to make the following disclaimer: the TVB Anniversary Awards from the past 5 years or so don’t mean anything to me because personally, I feel that TVB rigs them to benefit their own – we already know that TVB uses the awards to promote / showcase their own biological sons/daughters and the criteria is pretty much NOT based on acting skills or who gave the best performance, so there is NO CREDIBILITY whatsoever to the awards they give out.
With that said, below is the list of winners, my reaction to the results, as well as general comments and highlights from the ceremony (in my opinion):
TVB.COM Popular Artist: Raymond Lam
.> Of course, I’m not surprised that Raymond got this award, since he has such a huge fan base. In my opinion, this award is absolutely worthless because it doesn’t mean anything at all – it merely is an indication of how much on-line support the artist who wins it has…and I’m sure all of us (as well as Raymond himself) already know how many fans Raymond has – he doesn’t need a ‘stupid’ award to tell him that! Plus, if I remember correctly, he’s gotten this award several times in the past already (except for last year, but that’s because he didn’t have any series in the running last year) – pretty much every year that Raymond has a series in contention, he will continue to get this award.
Most ‘Enjoyable’ Program (aka Program Most Worth Watching): HK ARTchitecture
.> Since I didn’t watch any of the nominated programs in this category except for “The Voice”, not really going to comment (especially since I didn’t even know those other programs existed).
Best Variety Show: The Voice 2
I didn’t like any of the nominees in this category, so personally I don’t really care who won. Though I would have to say that as long as Super Trio didn’t win, then I’m fine with it – I used to love Super Trio, but the past couple years, the show has gotten very stupid and the games have been extremely lame. So I’m glad they didn’t win. I wasn’t too keen on the other nominee “Fun with Liza and the Gods” (as I’ve always said, I feel that watching that show makes me feel ‘dumb and dumber’) and the other 2 nominees I never even heard of, so I guess the logical choice would have been “The Voice 2”.
Most Improved Actress: Natalie Tong
.> Unlike most people in the forums, I actually don’t have much of an opinion on who deserved to win in this category because personally, I’m not too keen on any of the actresses who were nominated. I guess if I had to choose, I would probably prefer Selena more as an actress, as I can’t stand the majority of Natalie’s roles / performances. But as someone said in one of the forums, the reason why Selena probably didn’t get the award was because she’s pretty much already an established actress compared to Natalie so there wasn’t a lot to “improve” persay (which makes sense). But again, I don’t really care who wins this one (in fact, I can’t even remember who I voted for anymore in this category – goes to show how much I don’t care about it).
Most Improved Actor: Raymond Wong
.> Ok, I must say that this one was expected and very well-deserving. Raymond definitely did a good job this year and for me personally, I don’t mind watching his series. I don’t like very many of the newer generation TVB artists, but he’s definitely one that I enjoy watching. I feel that Raymond is deserving because I’ve also seen his improvement from his first few series to “When Lanes Merge” and “No Regrets”, so I can understand why he won. And I also give kudos to Raymond for giving one of the best speeches of the night. It was obvious he was well-prepared, as he had written down people he wanted to thank on a piece of paper and was able to get through the entire list. And even though he is sort of ‘new’ to TVB, he’s not new to the industry (13 years in the industry and 3.5 years in TVB) – he mentioned that this is his first award. He was very calm and extremely well-spoken, which really impressed me. Oh, and I loved the last part of his speech where he thanks his wife for sticking with him even during the lowest point in his life, then says that she will be giving him “a little life” very soon (meaning that she’s pregnant). Everyone was applauding and screaming when he made that announcement, which was so cute! Congrats to Raymond on his win and also on soon becoming a father!
Favorite Female Character: Charmaine Sheh
.> I actually am ok with Charmaine getting this award because out of the top 5 finalists (Charmaine’s princess from CBML, Sheren’s Miss 9 from NR, Linda’s character from CBML, Teresa’s character from Some Day, Tavia’s character from MOL), both Charmaine’s and Sheren’s characters were quite memorable and well-liked by audiences. It was pretty obvious though when Charmaine’s name was announced that Sheren would be TV Queen and this would be Charmaine’s consolation prize (because no matter how much TVB loves Charmaine, they would not risk the huge backlash from the audiences by giving her both Character and Actress awards again). Also, I’ve always looked at this award as a consolation prize for TV Queen for one, and two, it’s more about the ‘character’ in the series than the actor or actress, so again it doesn’t really mean anything in terms of the artists themselves (the artist could have so-so acting skills, but if the character is well-written, she could still win this award).
Favorite Male Character: Raymond Lam
.> Ok, this one was so obviously RIGGED!!! Raymond’s character in MOL was SO BORING and not even memorable. I mean, since this award was consolation for TV King, they could have given the award to Kenneth or Steven instead – they deserved it WAY more than Raymond did (if they didn’t want to give it to Wayne again because he was already going to get the Actor award). Though I don’t think that Moses deserves this award either because his character in CBML was annoying, but I don’t think I would have as much problem if he had gotten this award (probably cuz I was already expecting him to win it, since TVB was pushing him so much). I was actually rooting for Kenneth in this category (because his character stood out so much and AFOS was a great series with barely any recognition), but I would have been fine with any of the other 3 winning. But Raymond????? TVB was obviously trying to play favorites here!
Best Television Program Host: Liza Wang, Louis Yuen, Wong Cho Lam, Johnson Lee
.> This one was predictable – in fact, I would probably be surprised if they “didn’t” get this one…though I will say that I didn’t vote for them (I voted for Steven Ma). But oh well, it is what it is…not too much comment about this one (again, another category I didn’t really care about).
Best Professional Performance: Moses Chan
.> This was that stupid ‘pork’ award (the one Tavia got last year) that TVB made up in order to please certain people. Pretty much, it means nothing (most people can’t even explain what the purpose of the award is because frankly, it has no purpose) and does absolutely nothing for the artist who receives it. Last year, TVB gave it to Tavia because they didn’t want to waste all the investment they made with her in BTROC and this year, they are giving it to Moses because they chose Raymond over him for Favorite Character and there is no way that they could give him TV King without major backlash. Basically, this is a lame award that TVB should just get rid of instead of ‘embarrassing’ the artist who ends up receiving it! (But I do have to give credit to Moses for trying to make the most of the win by injecting a little bit of humor in his acceptance speech and trying to lighten up the atmosphere).
Best Supporting Actress: Fala Chen
.> Sorry, but there is no way I can support Fala getting this award with all of the veteran actresses nominated who were WAY better than her. I mean, they’ve got Elena Kong, Kara Hui, and Susanna Kwan nominated in this category (along with Nancy Wu) and they give the award to Fala for her character in NR that wasn’t even her best performance? I voted for Elena Kong because her performance was absolutely awesome in “Beauty Knows No Pain”. And absolutely how could a 7-time Best Actress in Film (Kara Hui) lose to Fala? Kara’s performance in AFOS was also way better. The winner of this category definitely was not determined based on acting skill!
Best Supporting Actor: Evergreen Mak
.> For me, this was the hardest category to pick the winner, as I liked almost all of the performances in this category. From the beginning, the race was really between Pierre Ngo, Evergreen Mak, and Dominic Lam (though Raymond Wong and Ron Ng were nominated as well, but they already knew they didn’t have a chance). I remember it took me so long to decide who to vote for in this category, as all three are good actors…in the end, it really came down to a choice between Dominic and Evergreen for me (though I would have been fine with Pierre getting the award as well). Evergreen ended up winning, which is still well-deserved in my opinion, as his Fei Fan Gor was very well-done and memorable. Also, his win was the most emotional one of the night, as I could tell that he was really surprised that he won. His win was pretty much reminiscent of the time back in 2008 when Wayne Lai won for the same award – all of his colleagues stood up and hugged him and applauded him. Same thing happened for Evergreen (though I actually think there were more hugs for Evergreen because he has always been a very amicable actor with tons of friends), plus all of his female colleagues stood up and hugged / kissed him as well (it took him forever to get up on the stage…LOL….also, people kept rubbing his bald head, which was kind of cute!). I also thought it was sweet of him to go over and especially give Elena (his wife in NR) a bear hug, partially sweeping her off her feet (awww)!
And his speech, which he gave through tears (his voice kept breaking at certain parts) was very heartfelt and very humbling – I almost cried at the part where he said that there are so many artists who are better than him at TVB and for the audience to applaud for them. This was probably the only win that I was extremely happy for all night.
Best Actress (TV Queen): Sheren Tang
.> Of course I’m not surprised that Sheren won and no complaints here, since her win was well-deserved. In the forums, there are many people who say her character was not at as ‘popular’ as Fourth Mistress in “Rosy Business”, but to me, that doesn’t really matter, since it’s really about her acting rather than the popularity of the character (plus Cheng Gau Mui was a really intense character anyway, one that was not easy to portray and definitely takes someone with Sheren’s skills to do). And it was already obvious when Charmaine won Favorite Character earlier that Sheren would win TV Queen. One thing that I have to say though – just because TVB gave TV Queen to Sheren, it DOES NOT mean that they are being “fair” – they are giving the award to her again because they have no choice, since she has tremendous audience backing and they wouldn’t be able to justify giving it to Charmaine after all the backlash they got from the horrendous ‘bad decisions’ they made before.
Best Actor (TV King): Wayne Lai
.> Again, no surprise here…this was totally expected (especially after they gave Moses and Raymond awards already). I’m happy for Wayne and am totally fine with him getting the award, though my opinion of why TVB gave him the award is the same as why I think they gave it to Sheren (to appease the audiences and lessen the backlash – plus they know that the audiences nowadays aren’t as ‘naïve’ as they were back in 2006, so pulling a Kevin Cheng-type win again would definitely have gotten them in serious trouble!). I will admit thought that I would much rather the award have gone to Steven – not because Wayne isn’t good because he is definitely absolutely awesome and no one can compare with him in terms of acting skill (he’s definitely the master), but Steven is also a very high quality actor and doesn’t get enough recognition, plus his PSL as well as AWT roles were very well-done and well-deserving of an award (I actually voted for Steven, despite Wayne being one of my favorite actors).
Oh, and Sandra Ng's speech (she was the presenter for the TV King award) was funny too and in a sense, it indirectly 'referred' to TVB's politics as well -- when she announced Wayne as the winner without even opening the envelope (supposedly), then saying "we all know how TVB works already", she definitely hit it on the spot as well...my first reaction was "Absolutely right -- we sure do!!!!" She knows just as well as everyone else (both artist and audience alike) that Wayne would be the TV King because Moses and Raymond got their 'consolation prizes' already...that’s TVB politics and is obvious to everyone!
Best Drama Series: Can’t Buy Me Love
.> This was definitely the category where I was like WTH???? No way was CBML better than NR in terms of script / plot or acting – in fact, CBML was pretty much just a bunch of nonsense! It was so obvious that this category was rigged – TVB was just trying to ‘satisfy’ the CBML group (and upper management, since the series has most of their favorite biological sons and daughters in it).
Also, the finalists for this category were a big huge joke…I mean, how did “A Chip Off the Old Block”, “Every Move You Make”, and “Mysteries of Love” make it into this category when there were so many better made series that deserved to be in those spots (i.e.: “Ghostwriter”, “A Fistful of Stances”, and how about ‘anniversary series’ “Gun Metal Grey”?????).
The presenter of this award was famous director / producer Johnnie To. I love the comments that he made right before opening the envelope: 「咁明顯, 應該係佢喇, 應該無做馬啦, 係咪呀? ~~~ 咦, 又唔係喎, 咁至衰喎」. (Since the above is in Cantonese, here’s the translation: “It’s so obvious, it should be them [“No Regrets”], the applause is different….shouldn’t be rigged, right? “ (he looks back at the artists when he says this). He then opens the envelope and states: “Oh, errr, it’s not them…that’s the bad thing.”
Ok, I know it’s not just me who thinks that the above comments by Johnnie were an indirect ‘diss’ on TVB -- there are very few artists who would be brave enough to do that and Johnnie is definitely one of them (notice how he also mentioned how great his life has been since he left TVB?). And since Johnnie used to work for TVB and was responsible for bringing us a lot of the most respected series in TVB history (along with his teacher Wong Tin Lam), his words have a lot of clout (people can't claim that he is an 'outsider' who doesn't know how it works). That was one of the other highlights of the entire show for me.
In terms of the Best Series award itself, well, again another example of TVB politics at work. I'm pretty sure that TVB was already intending for CBML to win big at the awards ceremony (by win big, I mean either TV King/Queen and/or Series) from the beginning when they took it out of the anniversary series timeslot (which they might as well have kept it there with the way they've been treating its replacement GMG!) and with so many audiences behind Wayne and Sheren, there only option was to give CBML the Best Series consolation prize. Pretty much as long as CBML and NR were in the top 5 for that category, it doesn't matter what other series were in there because doesn't mean anything anyways.
Concluding Comments:
Overall, the awards ceremony was lackluster and disappointing as usual – true, there were some very deserving wins, but there were also quite a few that left me scratching my head and asking “What the hell were they thinking?” With that said though, I don’t get ‘upset’ anymore over the results of the awards ceremony because frankly, I don’t give a damn about those awards – they don’t mean a thing to me and won’t cause me to like an artist that I already dislike or hate an artist that I’ve always liked. In fact, I’m already used to TVB’s STUPIDITIES after so many years following HK entertainment!
Even so, I do want to mention what I felt were the biggest SNUBS (disappointments) of the night:
.>> Kenneth and Steven losing to Raymond in the Favorite Male Character award – as I said above, both were SO MUCH MORE deserving of the award than Raymond. I don’t really care too much that TVB sacrificed Moses in this category (I didn’t vote for him anyway), but with Ma Ming and Steven’s awesome performances, it was just plain sad that they fell victim to TVB’s stupid politics!
.>> “Gun Metal Grey” not being in the top 5 for Best Series. Sure, TVB can (and probably will) argue that because GMG has not finished airing, that’s why it was at a disadvantage for the awards (which I can totally refute because both Felix and Nancy were in top 5 in their respective categories!)…BUT whose fault is it that GMG is airing so late and didn’t finish in time for the awards? TVB’s fault of course, since they were the ones who decided to remove CBML from the anniversary series timeslot (to give it better advantage at the awards ceremony) and make GMG into a replacement!
.>> I’m also sad that Steven didn’t win ANYTHING, not even a consolation prize, despite being better in terms of acting than some of those who actually won an award (and many of those who were nominated). Goes to show how much TVB DOESN’T care about him (yup, might as well put him into the same boat as Wong Hei, Sunny Chan, and all those other talented artists whom TVB loves to throw by the wayside). Well, in the long run, it doesn’t matter because we all know TVB’s awards are rigged anyway – Steven’s fans will continue to support him, no matter what happens (and I was happy to see what a great sport he was at the ceremony).
Overall, I still feel that the awards were rigged…TVB knows what they are doing -- they are very CLEVER when it comes to this kind of stuff and knows how far to push it before they will get 'caught' so to speak. Why do you think Raymond, Moses, and Charmaine as well as CBML were still awarded even though there were a lot of much more deserving candidates? TVB made sure that they still went with the audiences to some extent (hence Wayne and Sheren won) but still wanted to make sure they get their own biological children in there to satisfy their upper management.
No matter who they end up "awarding" and how much those won deserved or didn't deserve the awards, I will never associate the word "fair" with TVB's Anniversary Awards -- because no matter what, it will always be a reflection of TVB's politics (every year, it's pretty much just a matter of which category TVB decides to "rig")
Also, with regard to the ‘audience voting’ nonsense (some ignorant fans’ assertion that the awards were based on audience voting and so people who weren’t satisfied with the results should have voted) – well, sorry to burst your bubble, but the audience's vote really doesn't mean much at the end of the day because TVB will give the awards to whomever they want, since it's all about the politics really...they mostly just look at the audience vote to give them an 'idea' of how much backlash they will or won't get and how best to 'divide the pork' so that everyone is somewhat happy. So basically, whether we vote or not really doesn’t matter, since TVB will still rig it to benefit them (without making it seem too obvious of course).
LASTLY…..after this awards ceremony, it's even more obvious that FAVORITISM is rampant in TVB....so next time, if I hear again anyone from TVB claim that 'no favoritism exists in their company' (the message they continue to push out to the media), I'm just going to laugh at anyone who is naive enough to believe that!
So before I go any further, I have to make the following disclaimer: the TVB Anniversary Awards from the past 5 years or so don’t mean anything to me because personally, I feel that TVB rigs them to benefit their own – we already know that TVB uses the awards to promote / showcase their own biological sons/daughters and the criteria is pretty much NOT based on acting skills or who gave the best performance, so there is NO CREDIBILITY whatsoever to the awards they give out.
With that said, below is the list of winners, my reaction to the results, as well as general comments and highlights from the ceremony (in my opinion):
TVB.COM Popular Artist: Raymond Lam
.> Of course, I’m not surprised that Raymond got this award, since he has such a huge fan base. In my opinion, this award is absolutely worthless because it doesn’t mean anything at all – it merely is an indication of how much on-line support the artist who wins it has…and I’m sure all of us (as well as Raymond himself) already know how many fans Raymond has – he doesn’t need a ‘stupid’ award to tell him that! Plus, if I remember correctly, he’s gotten this award several times in the past already (except for last year, but that’s because he didn’t have any series in the running last year) – pretty much every year that Raymond has a series in contention, he will continue to get this award.
Most ‘Enjoyable’ Program (aka Program Most Worth Watching): HK ARTchitecture
.> Since I didn’t watch any of the nominated programs in this category except for “The Voice”, not really going to comment (especially since I didn’t even know those other programs existed).
Best Variety Show: The Voice 2
I didn’t like any of the nominees in this category, so personally I don’t really care who won. Though I would have to say that as long as Super Trio didn’t win, then I’m fine with it – I used to love Super Trio, but the past couple years, the show has gotten very stupid and the games have been extremely lame. So I’m glad they didn’t win. I wasn’t too keen on the other nominee “Fun with Liza and the Gods” (as I’ve always said, I feel that watching that show makes me feel ‘dumb and dumber’) and the other 2 nominees I never even heard of, so I guess the logical choice would have been “The Voice 2”.
Most Improved Actress: Natalie Tong
.> Unlike most people in the forums, I actually don’t have much of an opinion on who deserved to win in this category because personally, I’m not too keen on any of the actresses who were nominated. I guess if I had to choose, I would probably prefer Selena more as an actress, as I can’t stand the majority of Natalie’s roles / performances. But as someone said in one of the forums, the reason why Selena probably didn’t get the award was because she’s pretty much already an established actress compared to Natalie so there wasn’t a lot to “improve” persay (which makes sense). But again, I don’t really care who wins this one (in fact, I can’t even remember who I voted for anymore in this category – goes to show how much I don’t care about it).
Most Improved Actor: Raymond Wong
.> Ok, I must say that this one was expected and very well-deserving. Raymond definitely did a good job this year and for me personally, I don’t mind watching his series. I don’t like very many of the newer generation TVB artists, but he’s definitely one that I enjoy watching. I feel that Raymond is deserving because I’ve also seen his improvement from his first few series to “When Lanes Merge” and “No Regrets”, so I can understand why he won. And I also give kudos to Raymond for giving one of the best speeches of the night. It was obvious he was well-prepared, as he had written down people he wanted to thank on a piece of paper and was able to get through the entire list. And even though he is sort of ‘new’ to TVB, he’s not new to the industry (13 years in the industry and 3.5 years in TVB) – he mentioned that this is his first award. He was very calm and extremely well-spoken, which really impressed me. Oh, and I loved the last part of his speech where he thanks his wife for sticking with him even during the lowest point in his life, then says that she will be giving him “a little life” very soon (meaning that she’s pregnant). Everyone was applauding and screaming when he made that announcement, which was so cute! Congrats to Raymond on his win and also on soon becoming a father!
Favorite Female Character: Charmaine Sheh
.> I actually am ok with Charmaine getting this award because out of the top 5 finalists (Charmaine’s princess from CBML, Sheren’s Miss 9 from NR, Linda’s character from CBML, Teresa’s character from Some Day, Tavia’s character from MOL), both Charmaine’s and Sheren’s characters were quite memorable and well-liked by audiences. It was pretty obvious though when Charmaine’s name was announced that Sheren would be TV Queen and this would be Charmaine’s consolation prize (because no matter how much TVB loves Charmaine, they would not risk the huge backlash from the audiences by giving her both Character and Actress awards again). Also, I’ve always looked at this award as a consolation prize for TV Queen for one, and two, it’s more about the ‘character’ in the series than the actor or actress, so again it doesn’t really mean anything in terms of the artists themselves (the artist could have so-so acting skills, but if the character is well-written, she could still win this award).
Favorite Male Character: Raymond Lam
.> Ok, this one was so obviously RIGGED!!! Raymond’s character in MOL was SO BORING and not even memorable. I mean, since this award was consolation for TV King, they could have given the award to Kenneth or Steven instead – they deserved it WAY more than Raymond did (if they didn’t want to give it to Wayne again because he was already going to get the Actor award). Though I don’t think that Moses deserves this award either because his character in CBML was annoying, but I don’t think I would have as much problem if he had gotten this award (probably cuz I was already expecting him to win it, since TVB was pushing him so much). I was actually rooting for Kenneth in this category (because his character stood out so much and AFOS was a great series with barely any recognition), but I would have been fine with any of the other 3 winning. But Raymond????? TVB was obviously trying to play favorites here!
Best Television Program Host: Liza Wang, Louis Yuen, Wong Cho Lam, Johnson Lee
.> This one was predictable – in fact, I would probably be surprised if they “didn’t” get this one…though I will say that I didn’t vote for them (I voted for Steven Ma). But oh well, it is what it is…not too much comment about this one (again, another category I didn’t really care about).
Best Professional Performance: Moses Chan
.> This was that stupid ‘pork’ award (the one Tavia got last year) that TVB made up in order to please certain people. Pretty much, it means nothing (most people can’t even explain what the purpose of the award is because frankly, it has no purpose) and does absolutely nothing for the artist who receives it. Last year, TVB gave it to Tavia because they didn’t want to waste all the investment they made with her in BTROC and this year, they are giving it to Moses because they chose Raymond over him for Favorite Character and there is no way that they could give him TV King without major backlash. Basically, this is a lame award that TVB should just get rid of instead of ‘embarrassing’ the artist who ends up receiving it! (But I do have to give credit to Moses for trying to make the most of the win by injecting a little bit of humor in his acceptance speech and trying to lighten up the atmosphere).
Best Supporting Actress: Fala Chen
.> Sorry, but there is no way I can support Fala getting this award with all of the veteran actresses nominated who were WAY better than her. I mean, they’ve got Elena Kong, Kara Hui, and Susanna Kwan nominated in this category (along with Nancy Wu) and they give the award to Fala for her character in NR that wasn’t even her best performance? I voted for Elena Kong because her performance was absolutely awesome in “Beauty Knows No Pain”. And absolutely how could a 7-time Best Actress in Film (Kara Hui) lose to Fala? Kara’s performance in AFOS was also way better. The winner of this category definitely was not determined based on acting skill!
Best Supporting Actor: Evergreen Mak
.> For me, this was the hardest category to pick the winner, as I liked almost all of the performances in this category. From the beginning, the race was really between Pierre Ngo, Evergreen Mak, and Dominic Lam (though Raymond Wong and Ron Ng were nominated as well, but they already knew they didn’t have a chance). I remember it took me so long to decide who to vote for in this category, as all three are good actors…in the end, it really came down to a choice between Dominic and Evergreen for me (though I would have been fine with Pierre getting the award as well). Evergreen ended up winning, which is still well-deserved in my opinion, as his Fei Fan Gor was very well-done and memorable. Also, his win was the most emotional one of the night, as I could tell that he was really surprised that he won. His win was pretty much reminiscent of the time back in 2008 when Wayne Lai won for the same award – all of his colleagues stood up and hugged him and applauded him. Same thing happened for Evergreen (though I actually think there were more hugs for Evergreen because he has always been a very amicable actor with tons of friends), plus all of his female colleagues stood up and hugged / kissed him as well (it took him forever to get up on the stage…LOL….also, people kept rubbing his bald head, which was kind of cute!). I also thought it was sweet of him to go over and especially give Elena (his wife in NR) a bear hug, partially sweeping her off her feet (awww)!
And his speech, which he gave through tears (his voice kept breaking at certain parts) was very heartfelt and very humbling – I almost cried at the part where he said that there are so many artists who are better than him at TVB and for the audience to applaud for them. This was probably the only win that I was extremely happy for all night.
Best Actress (TV Queen): Sheren Tang
.> Of course I’m not surprised that Sheren won and no complaints here, since her win was well-deserved. In the forums, there are many people who say her character was not at as ‘popular’ as Fourth Mistress in “Rosy Business”, but to me, that doesn’t really matter, since it’s really about her acting rather than the popularity of the character (plus Cheng Gau Mui was a really intense character anyway, one that was not easy to portray and definitely takes someone with Sheren’s skills to do). And it was already obvious when Charmaine won Favorite Character earlier that Sheren would win TV Queen. One thing that I have to say though – just because TVB gave TV Queen to Sheren, it DOES NOT mean that they are being “fair” – they are giving the award to her again because they have no choice, since she has tremendous audience backing and they wouldn’t be able to justify giving it to Charmaine after all the backlash they got from the horrendous ‘bad decisions’ they made before.
Best Actor (TV King): Wayne Lai
.> Again, no surprise here…this was totally expected (especially after they gave Moses and Raymond awards already). I’m happy for Wayne and am totally fine with him getting the award, though my opinion of why TVB gave him the award is the same as why I think they gave it to Sheren (to appease the audiences and lessen the backlash – plus they know that the audiences nowadays aren’t as ‘naïve’ as they were back in 2006, so pulling a Kevin Cheng-type win again would definitely have gotten them in serious trouble!). I will admit thought that I would much rather the award have gone to Steven – not because Wayne isn’t good because he is definitely absolutely awesome and no one can compare with him in terms of acting skill (he’s definitely the master), but Steven is also a very high quality actor and doesn’t get enough recognition, plus his PSL as well as AWT roles were very well-done and well-deserving of an award (I actually voted for Steven, despite Wayne being one of my favorite actors).
Oh, and Sandra Ng's speech (she was the presenter for the TV King award) was funny too and in a sense, it indirectly 'referred' to TVB's politics as well -- when she announced Wayne as the winner without even opening the envelope (supposedly), then saying "we all know how TVB works already", she definitely hit it on the spot as well...my first reaction was "Absolutely right -- we sure do!!!!" She knows just as well as everyone else (both artist and audience alike) that Wayne would be the TV King because Moses and Raymond got their 'consolation prizes' already...that’s TVB politics and is obvious to everyone!
Best Drama Series: Can’t Buy Me Love
.> This was definitely the category where I was like WTH???? No way was CBML better than NR in terms of script / plot or acting – in fact, CBML was pretty much just a bunch of nonsense! It was so obvious that this category was rigged – TVB was just trying to ‘satisfy’ the CBML group (and upper management, since the series has most of their favorite biological sons and daughters in it).
Also, the finalists for this category were a big huge joke…I mean, how did “A Chip Off the Old Block”, “Every Move You Make”, and “Mysteries of Love” make it into this category when there were so many better made series that deserved to be in those spots (i.e.: “Ghostwriter”, “A Fistful of Stances”, and how about ‘anniversary series’ “Gun Metal Grey”?????).
The presenter of this award was famous director / producer Johnnie To. I love the comments that he made right before opening the envelope: 「咁明顯, 應該係佢喇, 應該無做馬啦, 係咪呀? ~~~ 咦, 又唔係喎, 咁至衰喎」. (Since the above is in Cantonese, here’s the translation: “It’s so obvious, it should be them [“No Regrets”], the applause is different….shouldn’t be rigged, right? “ (he looks back at the artists when he says this). He then opens the envelope and states: “Oh, errr, it’s not them…that’s the bad thing.”
Ok, I know it’s not just me who thinks that the above comments by Johnnie were an indirect ‘diss’ on TVB -- there are very few artists who would be brave enough to do that and Johnnie is definitely one of them (notice how he also mentioned how great his life has been since he left TVB?). And since Johnnie used to work for TVB and was responsible for bringing us a lot of the most respected series in TVB history (along with his teacher Wong Tin Lam), his words have a lot of clout (people can't claim that he is an 'outsider' who doesn't know how it works). That was one of the other highlights of the entire show for me.
In terms of the Best Series award itself, well, again another example of TVB politics at work. I'm pretty sure that TVB was already intending for CBML to win big at the awards ceremony (by win big, I mean either TV King/Queen and/or Series) from the beginning when they took it out of the anniversary series timeslot (which they might as well have kept it there with the way they've been treating its replacement GMG!) and with so many audiences behind Wayne and Sheren, there only option was to give CBML the Best Series consolation prize. Pretty much as long as CBML and NR were in the top 5 for that category, it doesn't matter what other series were in there because doesn't mean anything anyways.
Concluding Comments:
Overall, the awards ceremony was lackluster and disappointing as usual – true, there were some very deserving wins, but there were also quite a few that left me scratching my head and asking “What the hell were they thinking?” With that said though, I don’t get ‘upset’ anymore over the results of the awards ceremony because frankly, I don’t give a damn about those awards – they don’t mean a thing to me and won’t cause me to like an artist that I already dislike or hate an artist that I’ve always liked. In fact, I’m already used to TVB’s STUPIDITIES after so many years following HK entertainment!
Even so, I do want to mention what I felt were the biggest SNUBS (disappointments) of the night:
.>> Kenneth and Steven losing to Raymond in the Favorite Male Character award – as I said above, both were SO MUCH MORE deserving of the award than Raymond. I don’t really care too much that TVB sacrificed Moses in this category (I didn’t vote for him anyway), but with Ma Ming and Steven’s awesome performances, it was just plain sad that they fell victim to TVB’s stupid politics!
.>> “Gun Metal Grey” not being in the top 5 for Best Series. Sure, TVB can (and probably will) argue that because GMG has not finished airing, that’s why it was at a disadvantage for the awards (which I can totally refute because both Felix and Nancy were in top 5 in their respective categories!)…BUT whose fault is it that GMG is airing so late and didn’t finish in time for the awards? TVB’s fault of course, since they were the ones who decided to remove CBML from the anniversary series timeslot (to give it better advantage at the awards ceremony) and make GMG into a replacement!
.>> I’m also sad that Steven didn’t win ANYTHING, not even a consolation prize, despite being better in terms of acting than some of those who actually won an award (and many of those who were nominated). Goes to show how much TVB DOESN’T care about him (yup, might as well put him into the same boat as Wong Hei, Sunny Chan, and all those other talented artists whom TVB loves to throw by the wayside). Well, in the long run, it doesn’t matter because we all know TVB’s awards are rigged anyway – Steven’s fans will continue to support him, no matter what happens (and I was happy to see what a great sport he was at the ceremony).
Overall, I still feel that the awards were rigged…TVB knows what they are doing -- they are very CLEVER when it comes to this kind of stuff and knows how far to push it before they will get 'caught' so to speak. Why do you think Raymond, Moses, and Charmaine as well as CBML were still awarded even though there were a lot of much more deserving candidates? TVB made sure that they still went with the audiences to some extent (hence Wayne and Sheren won) but still wanted to make sure they get their own biological children in there to satisfy their upper management.
No matter who they end up "awarding" and how much those won deserved or didn't deserve the awards, I will never associate the word "fair" with TVB's Anniversary Awards -- because no matter what, it will always be a reflection of TVB's politics (every year, it's pretty much just a matter of which category TVB decides to "rig")
Also, with regard to the ‘audience voting’ nonsense (some ignorant fans’ assertion that the awards were based on audience voting and so people who weren’t satisfied with the results should have voted) – well, sorry to burst your bubble, but the audience's vote really doesn't mean much at the end of the day because TVB will give the awards to whomever they want, since it's all about the politics really...they mostly just look at the audience vote to give them an 'idea' of how much backlash they will or won't get and how best to 'divide the pork' so that everyone is somewhat happy. So basically, whether we vote or not really doesn’t matter, since TVB will still rig it to benefit them (without making it seem too obvious of course).
LASTLY…..after this awards ceremony, it's even more obvious that FAVORITISM is rampant in TVB....so next time, if I hear again anyone from TVB claim that 'no favoritism exists in their company' (the message they continue to push out to the media), I'm just going to laugh at anyone who is naive enough to believe that!
Thursday, September 9, 2010
“Seven Sisters 七姊妹” – My Thoughts
Just finished watching another good series during my 3 days of vacation – “Seven Sisters” starring Gallen Lo, Charmaine Sheh, Kwong Wah, Anne Heung, Florence Kwok, Annie Man, etc. I must say that I was initially attracted to this series because of the cast, since I’ve always liked both Gallen and Kwong Wah as actors, plus the rest of the cast is tolerable. But as I watched, I ended up liking the storyline as well -- the series really did a good job of combining romance, comedy, and drama all into one, which is very rare for a series, especially one from TVB. I must give the script-writers credit this time around for creating a story that brought tears to my eyes almost the entire time I watched – whether it was happy tears from all the funny (and at times silly) scenes or sad tears from the touching dramatic scenes (which there were also plenty of). It’s been awhile since I’ve watched a series that took me on such an emotional roller coaster (I think the last one I saw that had a similar effect was “Reaching Out”), but that’s ok, since someone like me who is constantly looking to watch “quality” shows and doesn’t want to waste time with ‘garbage’ shows welcomes these types of good series.
Of course, as with many of the series made after year 2000, the “quality” may not be able to live up to those of the 80s and 90s and this particular series certainly has its flaws, but overall, I still enjoyed this series greatly and truly felt that it was one of the better ones made during this era.
Gallen is paired up with Charmaine in this series, which is pretty refreshing to me because I don’t recall them being paired up before in a series (if my memory serves me right). I’ve always felt that Gallen’s acting is best brought forth when he is paired up with an actress who is closer to his age (such as Jessica Hsuan, Melissa Ng, Kenix Kwok, Flora Chan, etc.) and that’s why – despite how much I like his acting and his series – it pains me to watch the ones where he is paired up with ‘younger’ generation actresses who don’t match him at all (Myolie Wu, for example). Therefore, I was actually a bit surprised that I found Gallen and Charmaine’s pairing so refreshing – I think part of the credit can be given to the scriptwriters for not going too overboard with their relationship and making it both comedic (in the first half of the series) and tragic (in the second half)…in fact, I got a bit teary-eyed at the end with what happens to Gallen and Charmaine, even though I already knew it was going to happen, since the storyline was a bit predictable (especially for someone like me who has watched so many TVB series). Of course, Gallen’s superb acting (as usual) played a huge part in me liking the series – he never disappoints, no matter what type of role he is given and how good or bad the storyline is….this is why when I see that Gallen is part of the cast, I will try to watch the series in its entirety, even if it is painful to do (i.e.: the forgettable “When a Dog Loves A Cat”, which I hated) because to me, just watching him demonstrate his great acting skills is already a treat in itself (which is why he is among my short list of ‘favorite’ TV actors – right up there with Sunny Chan, Roger Kwok, Wayne Lai, and Damian Lau – just to name a few).
Charmaine’s character in the series actually reminded me of the role that made her famous – Gwan Ho from “Return of the Cuckoo” – young, loud-mouthed, talkative, willful, headstrong, spoiled brat…I actually felt that her character bordered on ‘annoying’ at certain parts, but I still feel that this was one of Charmaine’s better performances – and I must admit that her acting was quite convincing in this series. Also, at least with the way her character was written, it made sense that she would be ‘annoying’, since she’s a young rich girl who has been spoiled her entire life by her grandfather. And even though her relationship with Gallen in the series was predictable and follows the typical TVB pattern (bickering foes turned loving couple), I still found myself laughing during their bickering scenes and getting teary-eyed during their emotional life and death scenes.
In terms of the other ‘relationship’ in this series – the one between Anne Heung, Kwong Wah, and Florence Kwok – I felt that it was quite interesting. True, some parts of the storyline revolving around these 3 was very implausible and didn’t make sense at times, but it was moving enough that I was able to ‘forgive’ the improbable parts. With that said though, the one thing I didn’t like was how the storyline revolving around these 3 ended so abruptly – I mean, in the last 5 episodes or so, they were barely talked about at all…as I was watching the last few episodes, I kept thinking that there may be more to their story, but it turns out there wasn’t. I guess I was a little confused (and just a tad disappointed) because the way the rest of the series was set up, it seemed as though the storyline involving Kwong Wah, Anne, and Florence was the primary one and the one involving Gallen and Charmaine was secondary….but it turns out that it was the other way around. Not that I didn’t enjoy the Gallen and Charmaine storyline, but I just felt that the Anne/Kwong Wah/Florence one was more interesting – plus I really like Kwong Wah’s acting as well and with him being in so few series, it’s rare that I get to see him in action. I also really liked his character in this series so I was hoping to see more of him, but the way the series ended, the focus was pretty much on Gallen and Charmaine. Despite the fact that I really liked Kwong Wah’s character, I must say that I really hated Florence Kwok’s character in the series and even though I pretty much knew that Kwong Wah’s character would end up staying with her (another ‘typical’ pattern), I was sort of holding out hope that somehow, he wouldn’t – I definitely took to the Kwong Wah / Anne Heung pairing more (plus they've done several series together already, so their pairing gave me more of a 'familiar' feeling).
I don’t want to spoil the ending, so all I am going to say is that if I were the script writer, I would definitely handle the Kwong Wah / Anne / Florence storyline differently.
One of the things that I didn’t like was how some of the characters that were put into the series really didn’t need to be there – it was sort of pointless, since the characters served no real purpose and didn’t really further the storyline. Specifically, I am referring to Shirley Cheung’s Character Yuen Yuen (Gallen’s ex-girlfriend) and Eddie Cheung’s character Jan Cheung (the ‘villain’ who ends up taking Shirley away from Gallen). Both artists were in very few scenes and their storyline was actually sort of stupid (in my opinion), so I felt that it was just a waste of time for them as well as for the audience. I think that the series could have been cut down to 30 episodes (from 32) if they took out all of the ‘junk’ and other ‘fluff’ that really didn’t need to be there. It would have made the series better in terms of quality.
Despite its flaws and some nonsensical scenes, I still very much enjoyed this series and would definitely recommend it to others. A word of warning though – the series definitely takes the audience on an emotional roller coaster (happiness, sadness, anger, etc.), so I would recommend watching it with a box of tissues handy for one, and two, remember that it is only a TV series – don’t take it so seriously or else you may get yourself ‘riled up’ (like I did) at some of the ‘anger-provoking’ parts.
Of course, as with many of the series made after year 2000, the “quality” may not be able to live up to those of the 80s and 90s and this particular series certainly has its flaws, but overall, I still enjoyed this series greatly and truly felt that it was one of the better ones made during this era.
Gallen is paired up with Charmaine in this series, which is pretty refreshing to me because I don’t recall them being paired up before in a series (if my memory serves me right). I’ve always felt that Gallen’s acting is best brought forth when he is paired up with an actress who is closer to his age (such as Jessica Hsuan, Melissa Ng, Kenix Kwok, Flora Chan, etc.) and that’s why – despite how much I like his acting and his series – it pains me to watch the ones where he is paired up with ‘younger’ generation actresses who don’t match him at all (Myolie Wu, for example). Therefore, I was actually a bit surprised that I found Gallen and Charmaine’s pairing so refreshing – I think part of the credit can be given to the scriptwriters for not going too overboard with their relationship and making it both comedic (in the first half of the series) and tragic (in the second half)…in fact, I got a bit teary-eyed at the end with what happens to Gallen and Charmaine, even though I already knew it was going to happen, since the storyline was a bit predictable (especially for someone like me who has watched so many TVB series). Of course, Gallen’s superb acting (as usual) played a huge part in me liking the series – he never disappoints, no matter what type of role he is given and how good or bad the storyline is….this is why when I see that Gallen is part of the cast, I will try to watch the series in its entirety, even if it is painful to do (i.e.: the forgettable “When a Dog Loves A Cat”, which I hated) because to me, just watching him demonstrate his great acting skills is already a treat in itself (which is why he is among my short list of ‘favorite’ TV actors – right up there with Sunny Chan, Roger Kwok, Wayne Lai, and Damian Lau – just to name a few).
Charmaine’s character in the series actually reminded me of the role that made her famous – Gwan Ho from “Return of the Cuckoo” – young, loud-mouthed, talkative, willful, headstrong, spoiled brat…I actually felt that her character bordered on ‘annoying’ at certain parts, but I still feel that this was one of Charmaine’s better performances – and I must admit that her acting was quite convincing in this series. Also, at least with the way her character was written, it made sense that she would be ‘annoying’, since she’s a young rich girl who has been spoiled her entire life by her grandfather. And even though her relationship with Gallen in the series was predictable and follows the typical TVB pattern (bickering foes turned loving couple), I still found myself laughing during their bickering scenes and getting teary-eyed during their emotional life and death scenes.
In terms of the other ‘relationship’ in this series – the one between Anne Heung, Kwong Wah, and Florence Kwok – I felt that it was quite interesting. True, some parts of the storyline revolving around these 3 was very implausible and didn’t make sense at times, but it was moving enough that I was able to ‘forgive’ the improbable parts. With that said though, the one thing I didn’t like was how the storyline revolving around these 3 ended so abruptly – I mean, in the last 5 episodes or so, they were barely talked about at all…as I was watching the last few episodes, I kept thinking that there may be more to their story, but it turns out there wasn’t. I guess I was a little confused (and just a tad disappointed) because the way the rest of the series was set up, it seemed as though the storyline involving Kwong Wah, Anne, and Florence was the primary one and the one involving Gallen and Charmaine was secondary….but it turns out that it was the other way around. Not that I didn’t enjoy the Gallen and Charmaine storyline, but I just felt that the Anne/Kwong Wah/Florence one was more interesting – plus I really like Kwong Wah’s acting as well and with him being in so few series, it’s rare that I get to see him in action. I also really liked his character in this series so I was hoping to see more of him, but the way the series ended, the focus was pretty much on Gallen and Charmaine. Despite the fact that I really liked Kwong Wah’s character, I must say that I really hated Florence Kwok’s character in the series and even though I pretty much knew that Kwong Wah’s character would end up staying with her (another ‘typical’ pattern), I was sort of holding out hope that somehow, he wouldn’t – I definitely took to the Kwong Wah / Anne Heung pairing more (plus they've done several series together already, so their pairing gave me more of a 'familiar' feeling).
I don’t want to spoil the ending, so all I am going to say is that if I were the script writer, I would definitely handle the Kwong Wah / Anne / Florence storyline differently.
One of the things that I didn’t like was how some of the characters that were put into the series really didn’t need to be there – it was sort of pointless, since the characters served no real purpose and didn’t really further the storyline. Specifically, I am referring to Shirley Cheung’s Character Yuen Yuen (Gallen’s ex-girlfriend) and Eddie Cheung’s character Jan Cheung (the ‘villain’ who ends up taking Shirley away from Gallen). Both artists were in very few scenes and their storyline was actually sort of stupid (in my opinion), so I felt that it was just a waste of time for them as well as for the audience. I think that the series could have been cut down to 30 episodes (from 32) if they took out all of the ‘junk’ and other ‘fluff’ that really didn’t need to be there. It would have made the series better in terms of quality.
Despite its flaws and some nonsensical scenes, I still very much enjoyed this series and would definitely recommend it to others. A word of warning though – the series definitely takes the audience on an emotional roller coaster (happiness, sadness, anger, etc.), so I would recommend watching it with a box of tissues handy for one, and two, remember that it is only a TV series – don’t take it so seriously or else you may get yourself ‘riled up’ (like I did) at some of the ‘anger-provoking’ parts.
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