"E.U.": My Thoughts So Far....

I'm currently watching the TVB series "E.U." on DirecTV. I also purchased the DVD for the series (yes, it came out already -- see my previous post about the release of new series DVDs), which I will probably end up switching to when I start to grow impatient with waiting day after day to watch.

To be honest, I'm actually a tad bit disappointed that this series has not "engaged" me as much as anticipated (so far). What I mean by this is that I have not really been able to "get into" watching this series like I have with other "really good" series. Usually, I can tell when a series really "engages" me (my definition of a "really good series") when I get so engrossed with watching the series that I am not able to do anything else.  This is significant for me because I am a chronic multi-tasker (i.e.: doing stuff on my computer, talking, reading, eating, watching TV -- all at the same time, etc.) -- if the series is not as "good" (not saying it's a bad series, just doesn't engage me), I will usually do something else while I'm watching it because I don't want to waste time...the logic behind this is that the series isn't extremely engaging, so even if I miss some stuff here and there, it's no big deal (I won't feel "lost"). Of course, there have been a few series that I've watched recently that fell into the "good" category (more to come in later posts), but so far, "E.U." is not turning out to be one of them.

Maybe it's because I already had a little bit of bias going into it, since this is the 3rd installment in "The Academy" series and I wasn't a fan of the 1st or 2nd one (well, to be more specific, I'm not a fan of Ron Ng or Sammul Chan, so the "draw" to watch any series with them in it is the rest of the supporting cast). With regard to "E.U.", there were 2 primary reasons why I was looking forward to watching it: 1) it's a cop series, which usually are interesting because of the "mystery" aspect, and 2) the Veterans who returned to make the series -- Kathy Chow, Michael Miu, Lam Lei, etc.

To address the first point -- there actually was no "mystery" aspect to this series. One thing I failed to remember going into this is that "The Academy" trilogy is really different from other TVB "cop series" in that it does not consist of individual cases like the others do (for example DIF or UE, which is what made these 2 series so extremely popular). Instead, it's 1 big storyline that focuses more on talking about the various relationships among the characters than trying to solve individual cases. Of course, "E.U." (being part of the trilogy) follows the same model -- except its storyline focuses on the battle between 'good' (the cops) and 'evil' (the triads and gangs). No mysteries, no cases, just constant fighting for power.

So with the "mystery" / "investigation" aspect virtually non-existent (which makes reason #1 above a moot point), the only other "pull" to the series (for me) would be reason #2: the Veterans

In promoting this series, one of TVB's "selling points" was the comeback of veteran actress Kathy Chow (she is no longer active in the HK entertainment industry and has instead focused her career in mainland China). Since Kathy was one of my favorite actresses in the late 80s/early 90s and I hadn't seen a series of hers in a long time, this was definitely a sticking point for me in deciding to watch the series. From what I've seen so far (up to episode 8 or so), her acting is still excellent (no doubt aboutthat), but maybe because of the storyline or the way her character is written, I just don't really feel the "pull" or "excitement" from seeing her character...with the death of Lam Lei's character and the subsequent storyline of her getting together with Michael Miu's character, I am hoping that things will change....

There will definitely be more to come on this, since I am barely a 3rd of the way through the series....let's see if the "reason #2" that drew me to this series will continue to hold up....

Feeling Nostalgic....

Last weekend, I went for my monthly trip down to Chinatown to purchase the newest TVB series that have come out on DVD. As I was organizing my shelves when I got home, I realized that the majority of the series that have come out on DVD the last year or so have been "recent" -- meaning series from year 2004 and on...the older series from the 80's and 90's only come out a few times a year (if I had to put a number to it, I would say 2 out of 10 released each time are from the 80's/90's)...this means that many of my favorite series from that time period have not come out on DVD yet and probably won't for a long time....needless to say, I started feeling nostalgic and wishing the series from that generation would be released quicker.

To be honest, I don't really understand the way TVB determines which series it is going to release internationally on DVD each year. I noticed that most of the series released this year were very new (some from 2009 even came out already)...I read somewhere that TVB releases the newer series on DVD as quickly as possible primarily because of the huge DVD bootleg business that is very much active nowadays. Because their series are so popular and technology is so advanced nowadays, they are afraid that people who finish watching their series on TV in HK may somehow illegally record the series and pass them along to friends and relatives overseas for them to watch -- which could potentially affect the sale of their DVDs overseas. TVB probably figures that with the older series from the 80's and 90's, there is less potential for this to happen because these were made so long ago and may not be as "popular" as many of the newer series (or probably because the market is greater for the newer series, since many people -- especially the technology savvy younger generation -- only started watching their series in the last 5-6 years or so, which means they probably would only be interested in the newer series).

Not sure how true this is, but it sure does become a disadvantage for old-schoolers like me who grew up in the 80's/90's watching the great series from that generation (TVB's Golden Age). I end up waiting forever for my favorite series to come out, which is a bummer. Ah well -- I guess there is nothing I can do at this point except wait....